Gordon’s bad run keeps on running

Dick Brinster

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2000 | 1:57 a.m.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Jeff Gordon ended up in a familiar spot Sunday - running alone on the race track.

Except this time the defending Daytona 500 champion was way back in the field, not up front by himself.

Just 25 laps into the race, smoke began spewing from his car, and soon he sat helplessly behind the pit wall, his crew working furiously to replace a broken oil line fitting.

The three-time Winston Cup champ was hoping to rebound from a rash of problems that kept him from winning his third straight title in 1999. But this season-opening race was nothing more than an extension of last year, when those who helped make him great began a mass defection.

Gone is crew chief Ray Evernham, who called the shots for all but the last two of Gordon's 49 career victories. Gone are the Rainbow Warriors, the elite pit crew of NASCAR.

Even the color of the car has changed, if only for one race to sell dyecast models. The blue streak had turned silver, but it didn't do much streaking. The 28-year-old superstar finished 34th in a field of 43.

He spent some time racing winner Dale Jarrett - who stole the Warriors - whenever the lapped cars of the backmarkers restarted inside the leaders.

But Gordon always slipped back through the field, reflecting the direction his career has taken since winning this biggest of all stock car races last year for the second time.

The Kid hasn't finished better than 10th in his last seven races. In 1998, he had 20 straight top 10s.