Jeff Gordon said a year ago that if he won a fifth NASCAR championship in 2014, he’d call it quits on his illustrious career.

He fell just short of another title, but acknowledged Thursday he never would have done it anyway.

Instead, this year, his 23rd in NASCAR’s elite Cup series, will be his last. He made the decision midway through last year, when he was invigorated by his on-track performance and a very strong title shot.

When Gordon finally steps out of the famed and sometimes feared No. 24 Chevrolet, he’ll close the books on one of the most successful careers in auto racing history. He goes into this final season with 92 wins, trailing only Hall of Fame drivers Richard Petty (200) and David Pearson (105).

He won all the big races, collected four championships in just seven years and had 58 victories before his 30th birthday. The 43-year-old driver also has three Daytona 500 victories and a record five Brickyard 400 wins.

But there are many who believe Gordon would have broken the record of seven championships shared by Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt if not for NASCAR’s adoption of the Chase for the championship format in 2004. He went down to the wire in the title race that year, lost an epic battle to teammate Jimmie Johnson in 2007 and was denied a shot at the winner-take-all finale last season by just one point.

Coming so close but falling short stung tremendously, and Gordon said Thursday that it spilled over to pit road at Texas, where he and his crew brawled with Brad Keselowski and his crew.