Gordon not ready for sentimentality

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C.

Sentimentality can wait. Jeff Gordon is not ready to focus on life after racing as his farewell tour arrives at the longest event on the NASCAR schedule.

Gordon, in what’s become a weekly line of questioning, was asked for his emotions running his last Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway tonight.

“I think if this were my final race ever, it’d be different,” the four-time Sprint Cup champion said. “But I have a whole season ahead of me and that’s not where my mindset is at right now.”

For Gordon, the task is finding enough speed to compete at one of his favorite tracks. He will start 18th, well back in the pack behind pole sitter Matt Kenseth.

Gordon has won five times here, including three Coca-Cola 600s in a five-year span with victories in 1994, 1997 and 1998. He last win came in Charlotte’s fall race eight years ago and he’d love to wind up with one more checkered flag.

“A part of me wishes it was” Gordon’s final race, he said, “because this is a very special race and moment for me and I’m looking forward to that.”

Gordon, who turns 44 in August, removed some of the mystery about his future with Thursday’s announcement that he’d join the Fox Sports broadcast booth next season calling races for NASCAR’s Xfinity Series.

TV has long been in the back of his post-racing plans and he has grown more comfortable, he says, with the three Xfinity events he called this season. Still, Gordon expects some very sharp tugs at his heart next February when it’s time to go racing at the Daytona 500 and he is not lined up.

Gordon said he spoke this week with Fox broadcaster and NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip explained how odd it felt the first time there was a driver’s meeting that he didn’t attend as a competitor.

“I won’t really know how that feels until I go through it,” he said. “But it’s going to be different.”

Other things to watch in today’s race:

JGR WEEKEND

Joe Gibbs Racing got Charlotte’s two weeks of racing off to a strong start when Denny Hamlin won the All-Star Race last Saturday. On Thursday night, Matt Kenseth won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 and led three JGR racers in the top five. Carl Edwards starts third and Hamlin is fifth.

Kenseth liked the way things are trending for his organization.

“It’s nice to have the speed and know that it’s there if you do the rest of the things right that you have a chance at winning,” he said.

Kyle Busch, the fourth JGR driver, will start 17th in his first points race since breaking his right leg and left foot at Daytona three months ago.

HARVICK’S CHANCES

Kevin Harvick’s season combined with how well he races at Charlotte could lead to his third Coca-Cola 600 victory since 2011. Harvick has finished first or second in eight races this year. He has also ended in the top 10 in eight of his past nine races here. “This is an important race as far as ones that you circle on the calendar,” he said.

Dillon wins Xfinity race

Austin Dillon’s driving was good.

His celebration might have been even better.

Dillon reveled in his first win at his home track Saturday with head-first slide into the infield grass at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 25-year-old Dillon passed Denny Hamlin with 15 laps remaining and went on to his second Xfinity Series victory of the season.

“I stuck [the slide] pretty good,” joked Austin, a former baseball player who played in the Little League World Series.

Dillon started on the pole and had the fastest car all day, leading the first 98 laps and 163 of 200 overall.

Hamlin finished second, nearly 3 seconds behind Dillon.

Kasey Kahne was third, followed by Regan Smith and Xfinity Series regular Darrell Wallace Jr.

“I didn’t want to get out of this car [because] it drove so good,” Dillon said.