Experience gives Gordon an edge at Darlington

Experience gives Gordon an edge at Darlington

 

By Jim Pedley
Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(May 5, 2011)

 

When asked recently what he remembers about his first Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon had to divert extra brain power to the memory banks. Not much, he finally said. Just that he wasn’t intimidated by one of NASCAR’s most intimidating tracks and that he ran well until he got a flat tire or something like that.

 

Gordon will need to run well again Saturday night at Darlington in the Showtime Southern 500. And not just until he gets a flat tire. Sitting 16th in points, he will need to show the form that has carried him to seven victories at the egg-shaped track in the years since that first start in 1993.

 

Can do, he said. And can do despite the fact he and his Hendrick Motorsports team have been wildly yo-yo-ing in terms of performance this year—they have a win and two other top fives but also two finishes of 36th or worse.

 

“I’m not happy with where we’ve been, no,” Gordon said. “I’m pretty happy with where we’re headed. I really love the direction that things are going in and the things that Alan (Gustafson, his new crew chief) and the team have found since Texas to make us better.”

 

Gordon is certainly aware of where he is headed this weekend. To the track with all the daunting nicknames. Nicknames, he said, that are well deserved.

 

“I think it’s (earned nicknames ‘The Lady in Black’ and ‘Too Tough To Tame’) because that track can just reach out and bite you so easy and you have to race the track,” Gordon said. “It’s a one-groove race track typically so it’s not one of those tracks—it’s just one of those tracks where you can be riding around by yourself and just make the slightest little bobble and you’re in the wall. We’ve seen it just eat up racecars and competitors over the years.”

 

Darlington has become a tad less terrorizing since it was repaved in 2008. Gordon said the smoother surface has made the place faster and has de-emphasized the driver vs. driver equation.

 

But, he said, “as the pavement wears each and every year, it starts to get back more and more to the too tough to tame.”

 

What has not changed for Gordon is his approach to racing at Darlington, which has been hosting Cup races since 1950.

 

“Staying out of the wall,” he said, is strategy No. 1. “It’s definitely one of those tracks that challenges your nerves. You have to be really committed. It’s a fast racetrack, but you have to be really committed to the line that it takes to go fast around there, which is right up next to the wall.”

 

Gordon knows what he’s talking about. His seven wins at Darlington are the most among active drivers. And as impressive as his 11.0 average finish is in his 30 starts, it pales next to his 2.9 in his last seven starts—all top fives—at the 1.366-mile track.

 

“You have to be committed to the gas, especially qualifying,” Gordon said. “To me, you just have to be able to go for it there and then just to get the balance right you have to keep that car on the edge through the corners and then compromise because (Turns) 1 and 2 is totally different than 3 and 4 for what it takes to get the car through the corners.”