NASCAR Cup Series

Jeff Gordon recovers from loose wheel to score first top five of 2015

Published Apr. 20, 2015 1:15 p.m. ET

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Jeff Gordon's return to form continued Sunday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion rebounded from being two laps down to posting a season's-best third-place finish.

After opening the season with an average finish of 30.67 in the first three races, Gordon has now posted five consecutive top-10 finishes and moved from 30th in points all the way up to ninth.

It wasn't easy, though.

Unhappy with his qualifying effort and his car during much of the practice period, Gordon gutted out a loose wheel and the long rain delay on Sunday. At the end, he was pleased to finish the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes behind only race-winner Matt Kenseth and teammate, Jimmie Johnson.

"We were cruising along there making our way to the front, and I was pretty happy with the car, and then we had the loose wheel, which was a bummer, and lost two laps," said Gordon, who qualified 23rd. "But the car was really fast after that, and we were able to get back on the lead lap, which was great, and then we lined up in the outside lane which was a huge plus tonight, a couple times on some restarts and ended up driving our way into the top five."

As usual at Bristol, there was plenty of mayhem -- hours and hours of rain delays, big crashes and at the end, concern about running out of gas. Given all that went on, Gordon said third place wasn't bad, especially with his car's handling going away at the end of the race.

And so when the race went to a green-white-checkered finish, Gordon knew his odds weren't good, especially restarting from the less-desirable bottom lane of the 0.533-mile high-banked oval.

"When I was starting fourth I was excited to get the restart going, but when I was on the inside I was not too happy, especially knowing some guys had a little bit fresher tires," said Gordon. "Of course I wanted to race Matt for the win, but I was going to pretty much either have to take him out or he was going to have to make a huge mistake just because that inside lane is such a disadvantage."

And so Gordon took what he could and made the best of the long night.

"That last restart was just trying to get momentum and not spin the tires too much," said Gordon. "I knew Jimmie on the outside was going to be really, really hard to hold off, and I thought a third would be a great finish. So I'm very happy with the third."