NASCAR Cup Series

Hendrick Motorsports teams take huge hits in long day at Kansas

Published Oct. 5, 2014 5:45 p.m. ET

foxsports

If Hendrick Motorsports wants to advance all four of its cars into the Eliminator 8 round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the company will have to overcome what became a bitterly disappointing day at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Entering the Hollywood Casino 400 with high hopes after putting all four team cars -- those of drivers Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson -- in the top 10 during the May race at the 1.5-mile track, the organization left Kansas Sunday afternoon without a single car in the top 10.

Dover winner Jeff Gordon led the Hendrick charge with a 14th-place finish, but none of the four cars made it through the 267 laps without issue. Kahne finished the day 22nd, Earnhardt Jr. was 39th, and Johnson brought his damaged No. 48 Chevrolet home 40th.

Gordon led only once, but had a solid run go south when he and Jamie McMurray made contact off Turn 4 on Lap 83. The contact sent Gordon into the wall and dropping through the field as the field screamed past.

To make things worse for the four-time champion, Gordon had to go to the tail end of the longest line on Lap 127 when his Alan Gustafson-led pit crew had a tire roll away on a Lap 124 stop.

"It was a handful for sure," said Gordon. "Pretty solid day for our Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet until the 1 (McMurray) car got loose and got into our left rear. Just way over his head. They had a good car, they've been running good, but he just got loose, got into me, got me into the wall. We had a little bit of damage, but we lost all that track position. It's so hard to get it back at this place.

"We somewhat got it back," he said of the track position. "On that last restart, I was just real loose. I had been a little loose, but not that loose. We just fell back. It just wasn't good, we just kind of struggled to hold on there. A lot of people had trouble today, so today was a real survival day, and we did that. I just felt like we could have finished a lot better than that."

As the field jockeyed for position behind Gordon and McMurray earlier in the race, Greg Biffle made contact with the left rear of Johnson's car, sending it into Justin Allgaier's No. 51, then hard into the inside wall.

Johnson would go on to finish 40th, 87 laps down to race winner Joey Logano.

"It just means we've got to be on our game at Charlotte and Talladega," Johnson said of his day. "There is still a lot of racing left. Stuff can happen. We'll see how the other Chasers fare. If I can get taken out today, somebody else can later in this event or at Charlotte. We'll do our best to get on track and then certainly need W's, I would assume, going forward."

Just a handful of laps later, Earnhardt Jr. was out front leading when a blown tire sent him hard in the outside wall on Lap 121. After lengthy repairs in the garage, Earnhardt Jr. would return to the race and finish the day 39th, 63 laps down.

Kahne had a solid day going in the No. 5 Chevrolet, but hit pit road under green with 39 laps to go. As he was leaving the pits, Biffle tagged the wall to bring out the caution for the seventh time of the day.

Kahne would take the wave-around to get back on the lead lap, but hit the wall while running 18th on the restart. He would eventually drop back to 22nd and finish the day two laps down to Logano.

"The whole race was good except running third we had something going on," said Kahne. "I was catching the leaders. The second half of the run I could usually catch the leaders. I was slowly reeling them back in, then something happened to my tires. I was just ready to crash for a lap and made it to pit road before it blew. Then we got behind and tried to come from 19th. On the outside I had already passed probably five or six cars and was feeling pretty good, and I lost the back, hit the wall and my day was over at that point."

This is the second week in a row Kahne had to overcome an issue midway through the race, but unlike last weekend at Dover, the No. 5 team could not rally to get the finish they needed.

5 team brought another great car this weekend. Tire problem, then hit wall trying to pass everyone back. Charlotte will be good! #Farmers5
— Kasey Kahne (@kaseykahne) October 5, 2014

After holding high hopes of advancing all four cars into the next round of the Chase, Hendrick Motorsports now faces an uphill battle over the next two weekends at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

Coming off Sunday's disappointing results, Gordon is eighth in the Chase standings and holds an eight-point advantage over Kahne in ninth. Finishing 39th and 40th on the day, Earnhardt Jr. sits 11th in the Chase standings, 25 points behind Gordon, while Johnson is 12th out of 12 drivers, 27 points out of eighth.

While there is plenty of racing left before four drivers are eliminated after Talladega, the Hendrick teammates need to have a solid two weeks if they want to continue their quest for a title into the next round of the Chase.

VIDEO: Jimmie Johnson tangles with Greg Biffle and hits the wall hard at Kansas