Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge, during practice at Infineon Raceway. Kahne will start the race from the pole position. (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

TIME TO REGROUP? Hendrick Motorsports continues to look for speed for four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who has had an erratic season so far. Gordon is hoping to reverse his luck this weekend at Infineon Raceway, where he has five previous victories.

Asked Friday if he was frustrated, Gordon said, “Not yet. I’m more frustrated that we’re not more competitive. To me, you can be the fastest car out there and not get wins. So that’s not really bothering me. What’s bothering me is that we’re hit or miss. We’ve put some top fives together. Some of them we earned; some of them we earned by strategy of some sort. We didn’t go out there and really perform well enough to get those and that’s where I feel like we really want to be is really getting the performance of our car. The team has been awesome in the pits with Steve (Letarte, crew chief) calling the races. All of that’s been great. It’s just getting the car to do the things that I want it to do to go faster.”

PLAYING DEFENSE Sophomore Sprint Cup driver David Ragan is arguably the most improved driver in the series this year and has a strong shot at making the Chase for the Sprint Cup in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford. What the Unadilla, Ga., native isn’t is an experienced road racer. So this week at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., he isn’t going for the victory — he’s just is trying to play defense and not make a huge mistake that would set him far back in the points.

“Defense is a good word,” said Ragan, the son of former Cup racer Ken Ragan. “You can’t afford to just throw any one or two particular races away. … So, just maintain, be on the defensive side. We know we can’t have the attitude we’re going to go in and be aggressive and try to pick up a of points, because we’ll probably get ourselves in a lot of trouble. So, maintain this weekend is a big word – top-15, stay on the race track all day and, like I said, the guys we’re racing with will be right there with us.”

Blog Post: Friday, June 20, 2008 4:13 PM Eastern

Biffle Deal Nearly Set - Greg Biffle said Friday morning that he expects to announce his new contract with Roush Fenway Racing next weekend at Loudon, N.H., where the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will race. Stay tuned for more details.

TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350 RESULTS

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor 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 numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. 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