Gordon gives up on title

The four-time champion was heading for a fourth place at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday night when he suffered an engine failure, dropping him to tenth in the standings.

"It's just not meant to be this year," said Gordon. "We are happy to be in the Chase but from now on we will just try to win races.

"We needed a good run at Lowe's and we had that, but we needed a solid finish to take some momentum to the next race."

Had Gordon finished in fourth he would be seventh in the standings, 128 points behind championship leader Jeff Burton, but instead he is now 216 adrift.

"All we care about is going out there and getting the best performance that we can, but we've got to finish," Gordon said. "It just hasn't been in the cards for us these last three races and that has taken us out of it."

However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver knows that only bad luck has been costing him good results.

"My car is always so easy to drive," he said, "it was unbelievable on Saturday night, everyone has done an awesome job, so it's unfortunate."

Gordon has a good record on the five remaining tracks for this season, having scored a total of 11 wins at them in the past.