MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Even if his car wasn't perfectly balanced all day at Martinsville Speedway, and he lost more ground to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the championship, Jeff Gordon was still able to smile after the Tums Fast Relief 500.

But even though he was smiling, Gordon didn't hide his feelings about his fifth-place finish. Gordon had said on Friday that he needed to make a strong statement in this race if he hoped to challenge Johnson, the three-time defending Cup champion.

"Again, it's slightly disappointing that we couldn't get that dominating run that we really needed," Gordon said. "We needed to come out of here leading the most laps and winning the race -- to try to gain as much as we could on the No. 48 [Johnson] and the No. 5 [Hendrick teammate Mark Martin, who remained second in the championship].

"So I'm a little disappointed in that, but it was a solid day."

Gordon, a seven-time Martinsville winner who scored his 10th consecutive top-five finish here, led comfortably early in the 500-lap race. But his No. 24 Chevrolet was better on the long runs and when three of the race's 14 cautions fell in the final 57 laps, Gordon's fate was set.

Gordon restarted fourth with three laps remaining but he couldn't hold off Kyle Busch and ended up fifth when John Andretti spun on the last lap and prematurely ended the green-white-checkered finish.

Johnson, who finished second to race winner Denny Hamlin, thus unofficially built his point margin on Martin to 118 and Gordon to 150.

"The car was definitely right at the end, but not for the restarts," Gordon said. "I don't know if it's my style, our setup or what it is. The car just came to us on the longer runs and not the shorter ones." (Continued)