FORT WORTH, Texas -- We can stop any and all charades that the battle for the Sprint Cup involves anyone else outside of Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth.
Jeff Gordon made sure of that during Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway after he crashed on lap 75. The left front tire on Gordon's car blew as he was in turn one, and he couldn't do anything to prevent it from hitting the wall.
"It didn't give me enough of a warning, that is for sure," Gordon said while his team made repairs to his car. "I was going down the front straightaway and I felt the car move around a little bit. That was odd. But the wind was buffeting and blowing so strong, the cars are moving around anyway.
"Just before I got to turn one, I felt it go down. I did everything I could to slow it down. I even had time to come on the radio and say 'Uh oh'. Well, I might have not said that, I said something else. I knew I was going to hit the wall."
After winning last Sunday's race at Martinsville, Gordon was 27 points back of Johnson and Kenseth. Now he's 69 points back of the two in sixth place in the points standings.
The duo's nearest pursuer with two races to go is Kevin Harvick, who is 40 points back, a deficit that's eight points fewer than what Johnson earned for winning and leading the most laps in Sunday's race.
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