Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Hornish and Kurt Busch.  He replaced Steve Addington, who moved to Tony Stewart’s championship team at season’s end.  Gordon visited victory lane for the first time with Keselowski at Kentucky Speedway.  They would add four additional victories that season.  He would also win once with Busch and Hornish. 2012 saw him move up to the Cup Series and work with AJ Allmendinger for the first 17 races.  He was swapped to work with Hornish the second 1/2 of that season.  He posted one Top 5 finish with each driver.  Penske hired Joey Logano in 2013 and paired him with Gordon.  Gordon got his first Cup win at Michigan when Logano won both the pole and the race.  The following season Logano would visit victory circle on five occasions and finish fourth in the points.  The following season was even better as they duo won six times; including the season opening Daytona 500.  However they were only able to manage a sixth place finish in the points.  In 2016 Logano would post three wins and 16 Top 5 finishes.  He got edged out by three points in the Championship race as Johnson won the title.  2017 saw Logano get off to a good start finishing in the top 6 in eight of the first nine races; including a win at Richmond.  But Logano failed post race inspection and it was ruled "encumbered".  He'd have to win again or make the Chase via points.  After that win Logano took a major down turn and finished 21st or worse the next six races and eventually missed the Chase.  As 2018 dawned Penske kept the pair together thinking there was more success to be had.  2018 saw Gordon and Logano reach the pinnacle of success. Logano only posted three wins this season but they came at the right time. First he won early in the season to lock them into the Chase. He managed to run well and make it through the firs two rounds. In the third round; Logano "moved" Martin Truex on the last turn, last lap to get the win and lock himself into the season's final race and a shot to win the Championship.  He had a good short run car; and as luck would have it; a late race yellow set up a short run to the checkers. Logano bypassed the leaders quickly and went on to get the win and claim the Championship. Gordon and Logano tried to defend their title in 2019.  The duo didn't quite have the success they had in 2018.  They did start the season off with a fourth place finish at Daytona and won two weeks later at Las Vegas; securing their spot into the playoffs early in the season.  The next 12 races all but three finishes were inside the Top 10 and at Michigan they won again.  When the Chase started the pair raced hard and ran up front.   They looked to be in good shape to make it to the final race at Miami as long as someone didn't win and knock them out.  At Phoenix; the final race before Miami, Logano has a little issue early and lost a lap; but was later able to get it back.  He was still in good shape to advance as long as Denny Hamlin or Chase Elliott didn't win.  Elliott blew a tire about half way and crashed; but Hamlin went on to claim the checkers and in doing so knocked Logano out of a chance to have an opportunity to repeat as Cup Champion.  The pair ran well in the seasons final race finishing fifth and at seasons end came home in fifth place in the points.  For 2020 owner Roger Penske made some unexpected crew chief changes.  He swapped all three crew chiefs among his trio of drivers.  For 2020 Logano will get Brad Keselowski's crew chief Paul Wolfe; - while Keselowski will be paired with driver Ryan Blaney's crew chief Jeremy Bullins.  2020 almost started out on a fantastic note for Blaney and Gordon.  They finished a close second in the Daytona 500.  Then things took a downturn when they only had one finish in the Top 15 the next five races.  Then they seemed to flip the switch and the next seven races they had one race finish worse than fourth, along with a win at Talladega.  Their win got them in the Chase; but a bad first round promptly put them out of contention.  The season's last five races saw them with a worst finish of seventh and they finished ninth in the points.  In 2021 Gordon and Blaney seemed to be the strongest team in the Team Penske organization.  They would win in Atlanta; the season’s sixth event.  They won at Michigan and again the following week at Daytona as the regular season closed out.  In the playoffs, they were eliminated just before the Championship race.  On June 28, 2021, Gordon announced that he would be retiring from crew chiefing after the 2021 season.  In 2023 Gordon was a ‘part-time’ crew chief.  He only was on top of the pit box when Legacy Motor Club co-owner Jimmie Johnson made a start.  It was not a good year.  Oddly enough their “best” run came at Daytona when Johnson got caught up in a late race accident and finished 31st.  At COTA he got caught up in a wreck on the first lap and finished 38th.  His final start came in the Coke 600.  But he spun out three times and finally crashed the car badly enough he was out and finished 37th.  The duo was supposed to make a start at the new Chicago street course in July; but a tragedy involving his in-laws saw the team pull the entry.  Gordon also does some announcing on PRN NASCAR racing broadcasting when not working as crew chief.  For his career Gordon called the shots for 358 Cup races and his drivers got 25 wins; including the 2015 Daytona 500.  All but his last five wins were with Joey Logano.  His drivers also got seven wins in the Xfinity Series.