CUP: Gordon Anxious For California Run

Sprint Cup

CUP: Gordon Anxious For California Run

Multiple NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jeff Gordon was caught in Daytona's last lap madness...

Mike Hembree | Posted February 20, 2010 Fontana, CA

Jeff Gordon was disappointed with his finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Almost lost in the Daytona hubbub – Jamie McMurray’s surprise win, Potholegate and wreck after wreck – was the fact that Jeff Gordon, a three-time winner of the Great American Race, finished the big event like a pinball, his car bouncing around in the middle of the 500’s last-lap accident.

The result was a 26th-place finish, putting Gordon in that group of drivers who need a strong rebound Sunday in the Auto Club 500. Gordon described the Daytona finish as “bumper cars at 195 miles an hour” and the racing at Daytona International Speedway as occasional madness.

Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway should be somewhat saner and the first true test of teams’ capabilities for 2010.

“This is to me the real test of what we did over the offseason and the improvements that we feel like we’ve made,” Gordon said. “The areas that we focus on from communication between Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and myself and the engineers and the whole team, not only in practice, but throughout the race. We implemented that in Daytona and over the offseason, but this is the real test because it’s not a restrictor plate race. (Here) what inputs I put into the car really have an input into the results as well as what the team does instead of just going out there and holding it to the floor and drafting.”

The measurement of success at ACS will be skewed to a degree by the fact that, in the spring, teams will be racing with a rear-deck spoiler on the cars instead of the current wing. There is a difference of opinion among drivers about the level of change the move back to spoilers will cause, but Gordon said one thing generally is true – the good teams will be good, regardless.

“I think strong teams are strong teams,” he said. “They could change the car every week, and I still think the strong teams are going to shine. There’s no doubt that dynamic of how people are going to adapt to it and the homework that’s done in the balance change, downforce changes and what you have to do to your car when that spoiler comes around to make sure that you are still very competitive. That’s certainly going to be a big challenge for all the teams.

“We would like to think that at Hendrick Motorsports we’re as good or better than anybody out there at adapting to those changes, but we won’t know until that time comes. We will do some tests, and we will get some better indications from that, but this race still is very important because we’re still trying to get bonus points for wins, we’re still trying to make it into the Chase and with our 26th-place finish in Daytona, we’ve got some work to do.”

Although Daytona ultimately was disappointing, Gordon said his extensive experience in the sport has taught him not to be overly pleased or overly concerned about the first competitive situation of the season.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve come out of Daytona with a win and stunk the rest of the season, and I’ve come out of there with a bad finish like we had this year and gone on to win the championship,” he said. “You can’t put too much into what happens at Daytona, but this race is important. It’s not even as important as where you finish. Of course, you want to finish well, but it’s how we run, it’s how we are as a team. It’s important for us to get laps and show our strengths on the track as well as on pit road and throughout the day. I think that will do more for us moving forward throughout the season than anything and build our confidence up and make sure that we can put a lot of strong finishes together.

"Last year, we came out of the box, not Daytona, but from here through the next like eight races, I felt like we were the best team.
In some ways it hurt us for the championship because we were probably a little more hasty to make any big changes or to do anything. We just kept fine-tuning, and that wasn’t enough to make us a strong enough team when it really counted. We didn’t get the wins that I felt like we were capable of or should have.

“We’re going to look at this season a little bit different. I think we’re going to be more aggressive. We want those bonus points. We want those wins. I think you have to get through the first five races to see where we’re at in the points, but I think you have to be very aggressive the first five, try to get some bonus points, try to establish yourself.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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