Sprint Cup Driver Review: Jeff Gordon - MotorSportsTalk

After talking about the big stories and ranking our Top 10 drivers from the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, my colleague Tony DiZinno and I are now going to start taking a look back on how each of the 13 Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders fared this past year.

Placing sixth in the championship this past season was Jeff Gordon…

JEFF GORDON
No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
2013 Stats: Sixth Place, One Win, 8 Top-5s, 17 Top-10s, 434 Laps Led
Average Start: 12.9
Average Finish: 14.4
DNFs: 5

Estrada Says: Give Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team credit for putting themselves into the title picture after their addition to the Chase following all the Richmond problems. He avoided bad results before breaking through for a critical win at Martinsville. But then came Texas, where he blew a tire and slammed into the wall before finishing 33rd. It was a tough ending to his bid for a fifth Sprint Cup, but let’s not forget that his regular season wasn’t all that great (only five Top-5s in the first 26 races). Consistency is what the No. 24 camp will be searching for next year.

DiZinno Says: Taken on the whole, Gordon’s year wasn’t even as solid’s as teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s. But where Gordon thrived is when adversity was staring him in the face, and he had to get himself into Chase contention once again in the last month before Richmond and the sequence of events that followed there. Gordon’s closer to the end of his career than the start and if he wants to win that elusive fifth title, the combo of luck and consistency needs to be there more in the regular season. It was a great Chase, but a less-than-perfect opening 26 races. More peaks and fewer valleys are needed for the iconic No. 24 team in 2014.

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The NBC Sports IndyCar power rankings naturally were as jumbled as the action on the streets of St. Petersburg after a chaotic opener to the 2023 season.

Pato O’Ward, who finished second because of an engine blip that cost him the lead with a few laps remaining, moves into the top spot ahead of St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi, who finished fourth in his Arrow McLaren debut. Scott Dixon and St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who led 31 laps) rounded out the top five.

St. Pete pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (who started first at St. Pete after capturing his second career pole position) Callum Ilott (a career-best fifth) and Graham Rahal entered the power rankings entering the season’s second race.

Three drivers fell out of the preseason top 10 after the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – including previously top-ranked Josef Newgarden, who finished 17^th after qualifying 14^th.

Heading into Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, here’s NBC Sports’ assessment of the current top 10 drivers through the first of 17 races this year (with previous preseason rankings in parenthesis):

NBC Sports’ IndyCar Power Rankings

1. Pato O’Ward (5) – If not for the dreaded “plenum event” in the No. 5 Chevrolet, the Arrow McLaren driver is opening the season with a victory capping a strong race weekend.

2. Marcus Ericsson (7) – He might be the most opportunistic driver in IndyCar, but that’s because the 2022 Indy 500 winner has become one of the series’ fastest and most consistent stars.

3. Alexander Rossi (10) – He overcame a frustrating Friday and mediocre qualifying to open his Arrow McLaren career with the sort of hard-earned top five missing in his last years at Andretti.

4. Scott Dixon (3) – Put aside his opening-lap skirmish with former teammate Felix Rosenqvist, and it was a typically stealthily good result for the six-time champion.

5. Romain Grosjean (NR) – The St. Petersburg pole-sitter consistently was fastest on the streets of St. Petersburg over the course of the race weekend, which he couldn’t say once last year.

6. Scott McLaughlin (6) – Easily the best of the Team Penske drivers before his crash with Grosjean, McLaughlin drove like a legitimate 2023 championship contender.

7. Callum Ilott (NR) – A quietly impressive top five for the confident Brit in Juncos Hollinger Racing’s first race as a two-car team. Texas will be a big oval litmus test.

8. Graham Rahal (NR) – Sixth at St. Pete, Rahal still has the goods on street courses, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan remains headed in the right direction.

9. Alex Palou (4) – He seemed a step behind Ericsson and Dixon in the race after just missing the Fast Six in qualifying, but this was a solid start for Palou.

10. Will Power (2) – An uncharacteristic mistake that crashed Colton Herta put a blemish on the type of steady weekend that helped him win the 2022 title.

Falling out (last week): Josef Newgarden (1), Colton Herta (8), Christian Lundgaard (9)