Second place not enough to put Jeff Gordon in final four

AVONDALE, Ariz. — The "end" came for Jeff Gordon in the toughest of circumstances.

He scored a strong second-place run in Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway but fell a point short of staying in the championship hunt.

Gordon said race winner Kevin Harvick "was in another zip code. Nobody was touching him. But to come out of here second, I really thought second would get it done. We did everything we could other than have a faster race car than Kevin. That was never possible."

Gordon lost the fourth and last spot in next week's final four when Ryan Newman made a bold move in the final turn of the final lap to pass Kyle Larson and finish 11th, high enough to make the championship group next week and enough to bump Gordon from the group.

"It's tough to swallow," said Gordon, who saw a potential race win — and thus a spot in the final round — disappear in a controversial finish last week at Texas Motor Speedway. "I was staring down a potential win last week and didn't get it done. I was really looking forward to being in this round. I thought this one we would really shine in, and we did. It still wasn't enough."

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Gordon and Brad Keselowski — who also failed to make the championship round — and members of their teams were involved in a post-race fight last week that resulted in several pit-crew member fines and suspensions. Keselowski had made a risky move to try to win the race, resulting in Gordon crashing.

Gordon said Newman's aggressive move — with the season on the line — was acceptable. "It was acceptable last week," he said. "It was acceptable this week. But don't think that it's not going to come back to you. I could have taken out Harvick to make it, but I didn't."

Gordon said he didn't have a realistic shot at Harvick, "but we have a lot to hold our heads high about the way we raced this race and this season. I hope we taught people that you can race clean and you don't have to wreck people and ruin peoples' season. It just makes last week hurt that much more."

Gordon, who predicted Harvick will win the championship, said again that he endorses the new Chase format.

"I like it," he said. "I'm a little concerned where it could go with crossing over that line. I think it could get to that on the race track. I don't know that it's gotten there yet, but it's certainly possible.

"This is the most interest we've had in this sport in a long time, so obviously it's been good. The only thing I don't like right now is that I'm not in it next week."