Take 5: Five Thoughts Leaving Atlanta

Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

2015 has not been a fairy tale for Jeff Gordon

This is Gordon’s final full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series. After winning the pole for the Daytona 500 and finishing second in the Budweiser Duel it looked as though the fairy tale for Gordon and the No. 24 team was going to write itself. Since then Gordon has been involved in wrecks in Daytona and Atlanta and the result has been consecutive finishes outside of the top-30.

Luckily for Gordon the first two races can be chalked up to bad luck.

Gordon was running near the front all day in Daytona before the last restart and the last-lap crash. This past weekend in Atlanta the No. 24 machine was a work in progress for the majority of the race but was inside the top-10 before getting caught up in a wreck with just over 60 laps left in the race. Had Gordon avoided being in those wrecks he most likely would have had a pair of top-15 finishes to start the season, if not more. This weekend Gordon will hope that Vegas will be the place where his luck turns around. It might only be two races into the season but the last thing Gordon wants to do is string together five or six races like this.