By Jordan Bianchi

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May 9, 2012 - No driver has been more snake-bit this season than Jeff Gordon, whose luck has been so bad that it makes one wonder if he walked underneath a ladder in the presence of a black cat.

But just how bad has it been? Let's look back at Gordon's season so far:

• Daytona: After flipping in the Budweiser Shootout, Gordon's was running fifth near the halfway point of the Daytona 500 before his engine blew.

• Phoenix and Las Vegas: Gordon finished a respectable eighth at Phoenix and was decent at Las Vegas, finishing 12th. No bad luck there.

• Bristol: Gordon was fighting for a spot in the top 10 when teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. made slight contact with the No. 24 car, which cut Gordon's tire and sent him crashing hard into the wall. He finished 35th.

• Fontana: Gordon was running fifth, but two pit road penalties – one for dragging a gas can and one for an uncontrolled tire – made a surefire top 10 vanish and instead left him in 26th place.

• Martinsville: Gordon was running alongside Jimmie Johnson battling for the lead when David Reutimann's car infamously stopped on the track and brought out a caution. On the subsequent green-white-checkered restart, Clint Bowyer dove underneath Gordon and spun the leaders. Instead of a win or a top-two result, Gordon finished 14th.

• Texas: A fourth-place finish at Texas marked his best result of the season and moved him to 17th in points.

• Kansas: A dropped cylinder late in the race took away a top-10 run and saddled him with a 21st-place finish.

• Richmond: Gordon cut a tire during an early restart and had to pit under green, putting him multiple laps down. He finished 23rd.

• Talladega: After starting on the pole, Gordon had an overheating issue which made him drop to the back. Then he was caught in a wreck and finished 33rd.

After 'Dega, Gordon dropped five spots in the standings to 23rd – the deepest he's ever been at this point in the season.

Seven times in 10 races, Gordon has had something happen to him out of his control. Yet he refuses to acknowledge the black cloud that has seemingly been following him around.

"I don't believe in bad luck," Gordon said after his pole-winning run at Talladega. "I don't. I feel like you make your own luck. ... Because if that were the case, that means that when you win races, you're doing it because you are lucky. I don't think people win races because they are lucky. They put themselves in positions.

"I guess if there were 43 cars driving along and I drove over a little pinhead that poked a little hole in my tire, then I would say that was pretty unlucky. But the stuff that has been happening to us is not luck."

Whatever Gordon wants to call the issues that have plagued him this season, they've all been costly.

When you add everything together using a conservative estimate of where he would have likely finished, Gordon has left a total of 144 points on the table. Amazingly, those 144 points would put him second in the standings – just two points out of the lead.

But facing the reality of the situation he's in, Gordon knows there is only one thing he can do: win and get a wild card spot.

"Getting two to three wins, I think we are capable of doing it," he said. "I think a lot of people would go, 'What? You're crazy. Look at where you are at in points the way you've been finishing.' But, the performance has not added up to the results. We are very capable of winning races."

That is, of course, if Lady Luck allows him to.

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