Gordon needs win to keep from losing further ground

Gordon needs win to keep from losing further ground


The stats line for Jeff Gordon at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the last couple of years is dotted with top-10 finishes, and that's good the four-time Sprint Cup champion.
But if he is to become a five-time champ, and do it this season, Gordon could use a victory in Saturday night's Bank of America 500.
"Those wins are so vital right now," Gordon said. "We leave the track each weekend knowing that we did everything we possibly could, but we're not going to be satisfied until we win."
Gordon will start Saturday's race—which is the fifth event of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—fourth in points. He will be 85 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, and thus, still within sight of his first Cup championship since 2001.
But to get a better view of that trophy with four races left, he is probably going to have to pick up the pace starting this weekend.
The last four weeks, Gordon has finished sixth, 11th, fifth and ninth. After the ninth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway last week, a frustrated Gordon said, "There's no doubt, we need to get better. There's no doubt."
And nothing would be better than a victory and the bonus points which come with it Saturday.
"We need those extra points so we don't keep losing ground to those guys ahead of us who have wins either earlier in the season or now in the Chase," he said.
Gordon has not won a Sprint Cup race since Texas in April 2009.
And the man who has won 82 times in his career, has not won at Charlotte since the fall of 2007.Gordon finished sixth at Charlotte earlier this year and fourth in this race a year ago. He led laps in both of those races—64 of them last fall.
But he wasn't smiling when he talked about any of that.
"We weren't very good there in May so we've been really looking hard at our notes and setups and cars and trying to do some things to be better when we go back there.
"It's a very fast racetrack, high-banked, and I think it's hard to pass there so qualifying is pretty important. We've been missing some of that the last couple times.
"I think we've learned some things since we were there and track position is important everywhere we go, but having a really well-balanced racecar there is equally or more important."
Despite his dry-ish spell at the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval, Gordon confesses major affection for the place.
It's a love affair that began back in October of 1993 when he got his first-ever Cup pole. It grew the following May when Gordon got his first-ever Cup victory.
"I remember being speechless after that first victory," Gordon, who has 611 career starts, said. "It was the highlight of my racing career to that point. The car just came alive in the cooler night conditions and Ray (Evernham) made a two-tire call at the end of the race that put us in the perfect position for the win."
Gordon said he would love to get speechless again at CMS.
"Hopefully," he said, "we can run up near the front and have a shot at the win. Who knows, maybe Steve (Letarte, his current crew chief) will have an opportunity for another gutsy call like that this weekend and we'll make it back to victory lane at Charlotte, right where it all started."
By Jim Pedley

Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service