Gordon suffers setback in opener

JOLIET, Ill.

Jeff Gordon was the first NASCAR Sprint Cup title contender out of contention in Sunday's Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Gordon’s throttle stuck on Lap 187 and his No. 24 slammed into the Turn One wall. He started 19th but was running fourth at the time.

“We’re done,” Gordon said over the radio. “Throttle stuck.”

Gordon sat in the garage as his No. 24 team worked on his car in the garage, then emerged for the final laps.

“I’m fine,” Gordon said. “We were having a great day. Who knows what we could have done with them at the end.

“We’re looking into it. Something with the return spring — where the return spring broke. It didn’t go wide open, it just didn’t come all the way back. Just enough ... for me to carry enough speed in there where I locked the brakes up and went into the wall. (It's) disappointing, the guys were doing an awesome job. We had to fight hard to come from 19th into the top five. Car was feeling really good, a couple adjustments away from making it a winning car.”

Gordon entered the Chase for the Sprint Cup 12th in the standings and 12 points behind leader Denny Hamlin. After Sunday, he remains 12th, but is now 47 points adrift of new championship leader Brad Keselowski.