NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Round Two – Loudon
Jeff Gordon looking for big rebound as Chase resumes at NHMS…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted September 23, 2012   Loudon, NH
Jeff Gordon is in the Chase cellar but starts first at New Hampshire. (Photo: Getty Images)
Sunday’s Sylvania 300, the second race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is likely to be a cat-and-mouse game as teams deal with a difficult-to-figure race track, tight passing lanes and fuel-mileage calculations.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is known as one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks for passing, so pit stops and the few seconds that can be trimmed from track time over the course of a race can be critical.

It also helps to have a lot of history on the track, and pole winner Jeff Gordon steps front and center on that count. He has raced 35 times at NHMS and won three.

“[This is] one of those tracks, I feel like, on the circuit that I have a good feel for what I need,” Gordon said. “Like going to Martinsville. I go to Martinsville with confidence because I feel like I really know what to tell the team I am missing, or what I need, or when it is right. … I drive the track a certain way that has worked for me. And, I haven’t stopped driving it that way for 15 years. It’s just that cars have gotten faster. Tires, setups, all these things. It is about driving the car the same way and giving good feedback.”

Sunday’s race is particularly important for Gordon, who ran well last week at Chicagoland but finished 35th after his Chevrolet’s throttle stuck and he slammed the wall. He is 12th – last – in Chase points after one playoff race.

“We have a lot of work to do, and it’s not going to happen all in one race,” Gordon said. “It’s going to happen over nine races. We’re certainly not going to quit. We’re going to go out and fight, and we’re going be aggressive. We’re going to do everything we’ve got to do to try to win races, and we’ll see where we end up.”

Among the things Gordon and his team must address is the possibility of the race becoming a fuel-mileage affair, a circumstance that wouldn’t be unusual at NHMS.

“This is a big one, because track position is so important here,” Gordon said. “You want to risk your fuel mileage, your tires by maintaining track position. That means you have to find a way to stretch that fuel. You just never know when it is going to go green for long periods of time. This race – historically, you get long runs at the end, and you better have good fuel mileage.”

Gordon will start the race alongside non-Chaser Kyle Busch. Also in the top 10: Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr. and Sam Hornish Jr. Hornish will start in the rear of the field after a driver change for Dave Blaney, who qualified his car.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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