The mustache is gone, but #24-Jeff Gordon still is optimistic about his title chances that were thwarted by a stuck throttle in Sunday’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway. The throttle stuck and sent Gordon’s #24 Chevy into the wall on lap 188 after he ran in the top 5 most of the race. Gordon finished 35th, leaving him 47 points behind race winner #2-Brad Keselowski. Gordon said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that the throttle issue was the result of the way a bracket was mounted on the spring return designed especially for him with the new electronic fuel injection system implemented by NASCAR this season. ‘It’s something that I ‘m surprised didn ‘t happen sooner to us, just the way our bracket was mounted,’ Gordon said as he introduced a Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle paint scheme he will use in the October race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in conjunction with his ‘Drive To End Hunger’ campaign. ‘It just broke. ‘I don ‘t know if it was due to vibration. Whatever caused it for this weekend to happen, it’s our mistake. It’s something that shouldn ‘t have happened and it won ‘t happen again.’ Gordon said engineers at Hendrick Motorsports are working to correct the issue for this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. ‘It didn ‘t stick wide open,’ Gordon said. ‘It just stuck enough to where I carried enough speed to hit the wall. The impact wasn ‘t that severe. For me, immediately I was, ‘OK, now I know what went wrong. We ‘ve got to fix this, this and this, so if that problem ever happens again I ‘ll still be able to get the throttle back. We have a toe strap. It just didn ‘t catch my toe enough, so we ‘re redoing that as well. I could have pulled it back. Anytime these things happen you look at how you can prevent it in the future.’ Gordon said the throttle spring was unique to his car and not the other HMS cars.(ESPN)(9-21-2012)
