Cut tyre spoils Gordon's night.

Jeff Gordon's hopes of a fifth career Winston Cup win at the famed Daytona International Speedway disappeared early in the running of Saturday's Pepsi 400 when he cut a tyre on his #24 DuPont Chevrolet.

Jeff Gordon started third in his bid for a third Pepsi 400 victory on Saturday night and had soon manoeuvred his way into the lead. However on lap 32 the driver of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suddenly slowed and headed towards pit road with a cut tyre.

Although some swift pit work by the DuPont crew enabled Gordon to stay on the lead lap, without the aid of a draft around the massive 2.5-mile facility, the defending Winston Cup Champion was soon swallowed up by the leaders and put a lap down.

However Gordon refused to give up and between laps 50 and 150 he valiantly battled to get his lap back and was a constant hassle to the race leaders.

With overtaking very difficult to achieve without suitable help from those cars behind you, Gordon slowly kept working towards leader Michael Waltrip and his DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr who headed the pack. However although he managed to keep himself positioned third in line for several laps, he was never able to regain his place on the lead lap.

With some 15 laps remaining in the 160-lap event Gordon graciously accepted that he was fighting a lost cause and dropped back to allow the leaders to fight for the win without his interference.

Gordon's persistence paid off with a 22nd place finish, the first car off the lead lap although the finish dropped him to fifth in the points standings.

"We had a cut tire," said Gordon bluntly. "We had so many things. We had some good luck because we missed a lot of big wrecks. But we had bad luck with a cut tire and some other things and just could never get our lap back and just kind of fought and fought and fought and never could get it back. So, I guess we should feel fortunate to finish 22nd." Gordon has now gone winless in the last 25 races dating back to last year's Protection One 400 at Kansas

"We were looking good, got up there to second, made a great effort. Had a good car. Then we came in and had a problem with the fender brace. We had to fix it or we would have cut another tire, so that cost us time. We never could get back into position to get our lap back."