Following the race on Sunday, I kept repeating the video of Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton on track altercation.
Gordon was clearly angry at Burton, at the incident and even a little bit at just how they were running. Burton was apologetic and his frustration was similar to Gordon, instead of running for the lead they are battling for 20th.
Not often do we see Gordon and Burton get so angry on the race track that it gets physical. Two widely respected veterans in 2010 have relit that fire in the belly.
Gordon and Burton are the best at using their words to get there point across. Gordon called out Jimmie Johnson after two weeks of rough racing at Texas and Talladega in the spring.
Burton went over to Kyle Busch following the Coca Cola 600 after what he felt was Busch being too aggressive.
Later in the season after a rough race at Sonoma, where Gordon more than ticked off a few drivers, he was unapologetic to Kurt Busch. Gordon felt like Busch had raced him just as hard all day long.
Just two weeks ago at Martinsville, Busch took out Gordon and Gordon once again got his point across in his media sessions.
On Sunday, Gordon after he got back to his garage and calmed down for a few minutes he addressed the media.
"If somebody does something stupid, I'm going to be mad about it and I'm going to show him my frustration. If I could have gotten to Kurt Busch after Martinsville it would have been the same thing. I didn't see him. And I had time to calm down. And I walked down there hoping I would see Jeff, and I did.”
Burton admitted he was at fault but said it was unintentional but he understood why Gordon did what he did.
"I knew he was going to be mad, and I don't blame him for being mad," Burton said. "He didn't do anything that he shouldn't have done. He was upset. He should have been upset. I wrecked him under caution, and he wanted to tell me he was upset. That's OK. I don't have a bit of problem with what he did. He was mad, and he deserved to be mad."
Burton and Gordon are both winless this year but both should have won multiple races early in the year. Instead they head to final two still searching for a win.
There is a lot of frustration for both these drivers not only from early in the season but also in the Chase. Both have not been able to compete for the title and both have at times in the Chase been non factors for wins.
In the long run Gordon and Burton will be fine. This season both drivers haven’t lived up to the early expectations and now time is running out to find victory lane.
Maybe this is the spark both drivers and teams need. Maybe heading into the off season both these teams can take what has arguably been a frustrating Chase for both teams and use it as fuel.
Use it to find the missing pieces for both teams. Use the anger of consistently not running for wins but for top 15’s to get better.
One thing for sure both drivers are proving in 2010 that neither has lost that fire to win.
Until both drivers find what is missing neither can really contend for a title. For both drivers and the their fans that is the most frustrating thing.
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