page_title: NASCAR Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon
section_title: 2008: First winless season
hierarchical_section_title: NASCAR Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon / Career / 2008–2010: Struggles / 2008: First winless season
caption_attribution_description: Shot by The Daredevil at Daytona during Speedweeks 2008
context_page_description: American stock car racing driver Jeff Gordon enjoyed a successful career in the Cup Series, the top category of NASCAR. Gordon spent his entire driving career with Hendrick Motorsports, making 797 starts between 1992 and 2015 in the No. 24 Chevrolet for 24 seasons. He briefly came out of retirement during the 2016 season by competing in HMS' No. 88 Chevrolet for eight races, giving him a career total 805 starts. Gordon's career achievements include four championships, 93 points-paying victories, and 81 poles.
context_section_description: Gordon finished fourth in the 2008 Budweiser Shootout and finished third in the Gatorade Duel qualifying race. He started the 50th annual Daytona 500 from the eighth position and led eight laps, some under caution, but on lap 159 suffered suspension failure and finished 39th.
  Gordon wrecked with five laps to go at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, claiming that it was one of the hardest wrecks he's ever had, and leading him to call for safety improvements on the inside walls of LVMS and other similar tracks. The wreck has had drivers and owners from all around NASCAR now concerned with the lack of a SAFER barrier on the inside walls at tracks and the design of the wall where it allows access for emergency vehicles. Greg Biffle went as far to say that the wreck should be taken as seriously as the one that killed Dale Earnhardt in 2001. Other drivers who have publicly supported Gordon's call for safety improvements include Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, and Kurt Busch (whose brother Kyle, a former teammate of Gordon's, would break his leg hitting a similar SAFER barrier-lacking inside wall seven years later).
  Gordon collected his 64th career pole for the Kobalt Tools 500 on March 7, then went on to finish fifth in the race after only leading three laps. Three weeks later, at the Goody's Cool Orange 500 on March 28 at Martinsville, Gordon won the pole, and finished second in the race after being caught up in a crash caused by Aric Almirola and coming back from the tail end of the field; Gordon led 90 laps in the race. The week later at Texas, Gordon finished a career-low last-place after being involved in a crash in turn 4 on lap 110. At Darlington's Dodge Challenger 500, Gordon recorded his fourth consecutive Top 3 finish in the event after finishing third. At Sonoma, Gordon also finished third to claim his fourth Top 3 finish in the last eight races.
  On September 7, with his 8th-place finish at Richmond, Gordon made his fourth appearance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup earning the 10th seed out of 12 drivers.
  Gordon collected his 66th career pole at the Dover International Speedway for the Camping World RV 400, and led 30 laps in the race while scoring a Top 5 finish, while Greg Biffle won. On October 31, Gordon earned his fourth pole of the 2008 season, and first ever at Texas Motor Speedway. Gordon finished second to Carl Edwards.
  Gordon finished seventh in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup, 368 points out of first-place. He finished winless for the first time since 1993. This was also the final season the team ran the flames paint scheme that was introduced in 2001. In 2009, the 24 car would unveil its third 'regular' paint scheme. The new scheme was not much different from the previous flames design, but the color blue was replaced with black. This was the first time in Gordon's career that his primary paint scheme did not feature the color blue.
caption: 2008 DuPont-sponsored Cup car during Speedweeks at Daytona
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