CUP: Jeff Gordon Racing For No. 5

Sprint Cup

CUP: Jeff Gordon Racing For No. 5

Jeff Gordon is in an excellent position to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship...

Tom Jensen | Posted July 09, 2009 Joliet, IL

Jeff Gordon was involved in more than one run-in with another competitor on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jeff Gordon long ago made peace with the fact that NASCAR’s Chase to the Sprint Cup playoff format didn’t work in his favor.

After all, had NASCAR not adopted the Chase format in 2004, Gordon in all probability would already own six Sprint Cup championships instead of the four he has now. But regardless of whether he had four or six titles, Gordon still ranks third all-time, behind only the sport’s twin titans, Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.

Still, that has not cooled his desire to win another championship, something Gordon has always referred to as “the drive for five.” And sitting second in points with eight races to go until this year’s Chase field is set, Gordon’s feeling good about life these days, especially with the way his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS has run this season.

“I think the performance has been very good,” said Gordon, fifth-fastest in Thursday’s opening round of practice for the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. “Looking at how we ended last year and last season in general if you would have asked me when we ended the season if we could be second in points and won a race at Texas at this point, I would have said ‘Hey, that would be fantastic.’ I would love to have that kind of great season going.”

That said, Gordon sees plenty of room for improvement. In the last eight races he has only led four times, three of those for fewer than 10 laps in each race. And over a grueling 36-race season, the intensity of competition can be wearing.

“It gets tough when you're in the grind each and every weekend,” said Gordon, who won championships in 1995, ’97, ’98 and 2001. “You get extremely competitive the higher up in points you go, the more pressure that you put on yourself and the team and you want to go out there and perform and win races every weekend or battle for them. You want to be leading the points. And so, it's a little disappointing that we haven't been able to maintain that lead and we've had some inconsistencies there. But we've stepped up so much from last year that I really am excited about what we have right now and still feel like we have even bigger things ahead of us for the season.”

So what does Gordon have to do to finally capture that elusive fifth championship? The first thing is win a couple of more races during NASCAR’s regular season, because each race victory is worth 10 bonus points in Chase seeding.

“Right now at this point in the season, we'd like to get some bonus points with those wins,” Gordon said. “And then you've got to look at those 10 tracks that are in the Chase.”

Gordon cited Phoenix International Raceway and Martinsville Speedway as two tracks where he hopes to makes gains in the Chase. But overall, he’s feeling pretty optimistic, even with tough competition like his Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson, and Tony Stewart, who uses Hendrick equipment.

“We performed really well at New Hampshire, so that was a great weekend for us because it gives us a lot of things to go forward on as we get further into the season and toward the Chase,” said Gordon. “I feel like while Martinsville has been one of our better tracks, we've been beaten there the last few times and so I feel like our short track program could improve just a little bit. If we were going back to Daytona I'd make some big changes, but we're going to Talladega; I feel like we're really good there. Our 1.5-mile program is just been incredible. And I think our race team, the calls that Steve (Letarte, crew chief) is making, communication as well as the pit crew, has really stepped up. I feel like for the most part that we're really in a great position to be a real threat once the Chase comes around.”

Of course, to win that fifth title, he’ll need to beat his teammate Johnson, the three-time defending Sprint Cup champion, and points leader Stewart, who has two titles of his own and has been sensational in his first season with the first-year Stewart-Haas Racing squad.

“It is our job to go out there and make sure we don't get beat by them,” said Gordon of SHR. “We are getting beat by them right now but we are hoping when it comes around time for the championship, we step it up and hopefully we can win the thing and finish ahead of them.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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Tom Jensen

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