Gordon is Hendrick’s best shot at tying record
June 19, 2014
Staff Report
NASCAR Wire Service
If Hendrick Motorsports wishes to extend its three-driver, five-race winning streak, Jeff Gordon needs to be Jeff Gordon.
The
undisputed King of the Road Course has nine career wins on road courses,
a robust record considering the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series turns
left-then-right-then-left-again
only twice a year.
And
though both Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne each have a win at Sonoma
Raceway – site of Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 (3 p.m. ET on TNT) –
Gordon remains Hendrick’s best
bet to tie a Modern Era record for the longest win streak by a team.
Owner
Rick Hendrick’s drivers have won five consecutive races – Gordon at
Kansas, Johnson at Charlotte and Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr.at Pocono and
Johnson again at Michigan.
That streak is one short of the Modern Era record of six consecutive
victories by an owner, set by Hendrick during the 2007 Chase for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup. That year, Gordon won two in a row followed by a
four-victory streak that carried Johnson to his second-consecutive
series championship.
The
Modern Era is considered to have begun in 1972, when the number of races
in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season was drastically reduced, from 48
to 31. The all-time record
for consecutive car owner victories is an incredible 16 by Carl
Kiekhaefer in 1956. Kiekhaefer, like Hendrick, owned a multi-car team
that dominated NASCAR’s top series in 1955-56. Four different drivers
won for Kiekhaefer during his streak: Buck Baker, Tim
Flock, Herb Thomas and Speedy Thompson.
But
first thing’s first – and that’s a sixth straight win. And Gordon, who
has scored eight consecutive top 10s at Sonoma, is the team’s best bet.
“I grew
up in Vallejo – which is a few miles from the track in Sonoma – but I
was always racing on ovals or dirt tracks as a kid,” Gordon said. “It
was much later before I
turned my first lap at Sonoma while in a driving school preparing for
my first Cup start there. I immediately saw the challenges and the fun
of racing at Sonoma and on road courses. We’ve worked hard as a team to
be competitive on road courses and we’ve had
a lot of success at Sonoma. But it’s not an easy track to conquer.”
The
only Hendrick driver without a Sonoma victory is Earnhardt, whose
current momentum could change a shaky past at the track. In 14 previous
Sonoma starts, Earnhardt has yet
to finish in the top 10.
Hornish: Part-Time Driver, Full-Time Talent
A black No. 54 Toyota, no matter who’s wheeling it, must frighten the rest of the NASCAR Nationwide Series. It’s only natural.
Here’s
the only stat anyone needs to know: Over the first 13 races, here’s how
many times the No. 54 has finished outside the top five: Zero. Zilch.
None.
And
it’s not only Kyle Busch. Sam Hornish Jr. has pulled his weight, and
then some. In two starts, he’s won (Iowa), and finished fifth
(Talladega). In his only other NASCAR
Nationwide Series start this season, he finished second in the No. 20
Toyota.
He has
another chance this weekend, at Road America, site of Saturday’s Gardner
Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville (2:45 p.m. ET on ABC) – the first
of three road-course races
for the series this season.
Hornish's
average finish this season is 2.7 and his season-to-date (three-race)
Driver Rating is 119.2 - second only to Busch’s 128.6.
Busch
and Hornish have combined to give the No. 54 team four wins and four
Coors Light Poles in 13 races this season. Their impressive finishes
have put Joe Gibbs Racing’s
No. 54 team atop the owner standings by 59 points over second-place,
Team Penske’s No. 22 team.
Hornish
has a NASCAR Nationwide Series career average finish of 8.6 on road
courses. He has made two starts at Road America posting two top-five
finishes.
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