Gordon going for win record at All-Star race: Saturday night’s All-Star event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a “Sprint” race, and Jeff Gordon believes there is only one way to approach the annual event. “Go ‘all out.’” Gordon is currently tied with the late Dale Earnhardt for most victories in the non-points event for race winners. Each of Gordon’s three victories, coincidentally, occurred in years he won the NASCAR Cup Series championship (1995, 1997 and 2001). In 1995, he won all three segments en route to his first victory in the event. He won again in 1997 and, in 2001, he drove a backup car to victory after being involved in a first-lap crash [when it rained and over half the field was wiped out].(Performace Plus PR)(5-15-2008)

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Performance PR Plus For Dupont Motorsports, Press Release

DOVER, Del. (May 27, 2008) - Jeff Gordon has had several “monster” weekends in DuPont’s backyard, and the four-time Dover International Speedway winner hopes this Sunday’s Best Buy 400 provides another.

Gordon grabbed his first win at the one-mile track in the fall of 1995 in dominating fashion, leading 400 of 500 laps. In 1996, the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion led 510 of 1,000 laps en route to a sweep at “The Monster Mile.” Gordon’s fourth victory here occurred in 2001 when he led 381 of a possible 400 laps.

“It would be nice to have another race like that this weekend,” said Gordon, who has three poles, 13 top-fives and 18 top-10's in his 30 starts. “Every weekend, our goal is to qualify near the front, run up front, lead laps and have a chance at the win. But this is a tough place to get around – it’s fast and there’s always a lot of action.”

But dominance does not always end in victory. During his 13-win championship season of 1998, Gordon came “oh-so-close” at Dover. After starting second, he led 375 of 400 laps before a late pit stop for fuel relegated him to a third-place finish.

“Fuel strategy can play a role in determining the outcome of a race, and we used it to our advantage last weekend in Charlotte,” said Gordon, who ran the final 62 laps at Lowe’s Motor Speedway without stopping to secure a fourth-place finish in the 600-mile event. “We needed track position during the race and could never seem to get it, so we decided to gamble.”

The result gave Team DuPont their second consecutive top-five finish. It also marked their third straight top-10 finish, a stretch of races that has moved Gordon up four positions to 10th in the point standings.

“It’s been a battle,” Gordon said. “We fought back from a lap down at Richmond and Charlotte to get a good result. Hopefully, we can have another good finish this weekend.


“This is always a special race for this team. We want to run well since DuPont’s headquarters are located in nearby Wilmington. We’ll visit with many of the employees this Thursday and many of them will be at the track cheering us on.

“It’s our chance to thank them for all they do to support us.”

Another way to say thanks? With a “monster” win on Sunday.


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By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, May 31, 2008

DOVER, Del. – Jeff Gordon’s contract extension with primary sponsor DuPont doesn’t mean the driver is already laying the groundwork for his retirement from NASCAR Sprint Cup competition.

“I think people are reading into it a little bit too much,” Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, said Friday prior to qualifying for Sunday’s Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway. “I haven’t made any decisions for what’s going to happen one way or the other past 2010. I’ve always been the type of driver – I never look too far ahead.

"I wanted to secure my position at Hendrick Motorsports. That’s why I worked as hard to be an equity owner and do a lifetime contract with Hendrick Motorsports, because I knew that’s where I wanted to be as long as I’m driving a race car.”

On May 28, DuPont and team officials announced the signing of a two-year agreement for the company to remain as the primary sponsor for the No. 24 Chevrolet. The original agreement was for three years with a two-year option, and officials were merely exercising that option.

Gordon has a lifetime contract with Hendrick Motorsports, and is a co-owner of the organization’s No. 48 entry driven by Jimmie Johnson. DuPont has been Gordon’s primary sponsor for 16 seasons, coming on board in 1992 when he made his debut in the season-ending race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“We’ve got to have sponsorship, and if you extend sponsorships out too far, sometimes you could be losing money because we don’t know the expense of the sport too far in advance,” he said. “What you try to do is secure sponsors, companies you want to align with, companies that have been loyal to you and you’ve been loyal to them. [Companies] that put the effort into the race team, give you the dollars to do what you need to do to be competitive and also the marketing behind it.

“We have a great package between DuPont, Pepsi, Nicorette, Georgia Pacific and Quaker State. All [the extension] really means is that we have that great package through 2010 and we really don’t want to think past that because we don’t know what the expenses are and how much it's going to cost past that.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop driving after 2010, it just means that we won’t start negotiating to see what happens past 2010 until probably the beginning of 2010.”

Gordon, 10th in points, qualified seventh for Sunday’s race. A six-time winner a year ago, he hasn’t won since last fall’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a stretch of 18 races. His last championship came in 2001.

“I’ve always said that as long as physically I can be in the car and be competitive and I enjoy what I’m doing, I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “Even though I want to spend more time at home, I still love coming to the track and being competitive, and I feel like I’m capable of being competitive out there on the track.”

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By SceneDaily Staff
Sunday, June 01, 2008

DOVER, Del. – It might not have been the kind of stellar showing he would have preferred, but Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon admitted that merely staying on the lead lap Sunday was an accomplishment.

Gordon finished fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup SeriesBest Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway, a significant distance behind winner Kyle Busch. He led three laps in the race, earning valuable bonus points, and climbed four spots to sixth in the series standings.

On a day when Busch set a fast pace and literally had the field covered, a top-five finish was good enough for Gordon.

“Well, we finished fifth," he said. "You got to be happy about that. You know, it was a distant fifth and we got just too loose there at the end. I was just riding it to the finish. I knew it was going to be a big points day. Unfortunately some guys had some big trouble. We’ve got an awesome pit crew and team. They are doing their job right here on pit road and with communication. It was a solid day for us. We were about a fifth place car, and that’s what we got."

That big trouble came when six of the series' top 12 drivers were involved, in some fashion, in a major pileup early in the day. That opened the door for a major swing in the standings. Gordon and Greg Biffle were the big gainers (Biffle climbed six spots to fifth) in the shuffle.

After the race Gordon quickly praised his crew for the adjustments it made over the course of the 400-lap event and for keeping him in contention. He didn't seem at all disconcerted with the distance between himself and the winner, focusing instead on the top-five part of the run.

“We were real solid," Gordon said. "We started off real good and then we got a little bit tight. We made some adjustments and I’m really proud of these guys. [Crew chief] Steve Letarte and all these guys on this Chevrolet really made some great adjustments and got us up in the top five.

"We pretty much stayed there the rest of the day. We tried to fine-tune, but it was a distant fifth, a good fifth. I’m really happy with the way this car and this team performed this weekend, but we’ve still got some work to do.”

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Performance PR Plus For Dupont Motorsports, Press Release

LONG POND, Pa. (June 3, 2008) - Following three consecutive top-five finishes, defending Pocono 500 champion Jeff Gordon has gained seven positions in the point standings. Now sixth entering this Sunday’s 500-mile event at Pocono Raceway, Gordon and Team DuPont eye a fourth consecutive top-five finish – at Pocono and on the 2008 season – to further strengthen their position in the standings.

With 13 races completed and only 13 remaining before the field is set for the “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup,” the driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet knows the job is only half-complete.

“Our goal each year is to be in the Chase,” Gordon said. “We’ve had an up-anddown season so far, but we’ve had a string of good finishes recently and we need to keep building on that.

“While we were focused on the championship battle last year, the competition was able to focus on 2008 – and that allowed them to get ahead of us a little bit. But, with the Chase, you can be a little ‘off’ right now and still be a threat for the championship.”

Gordon’s “off” year has produced two poles (tied for the series lead) and six topfives (tied for second). His 40 bonus points for leading laps ranks fourth in NASCAR’s premier series this season.

“We’ve run well at some races this year like Darlington and Dover, but we still have some work to do,” said Gordon. “We just need to consistently run in the top five and keep making gains.”

At Pocono, Gordon has collected four wins, including a victory in last year’s rainshortened event, two poles, 15 top-fives and 21 top-10's. Those statistics occurred over 30 races at the track, but Gordon felt like it was 1993 when he drove the “Car of Tomorrow” for the first time on the 2.5-mile layout during a test last week.

“I felt like a rookie during the test,” Gordon said. “The car was just not doing what I wanted it to do.

“But I have confidence in my team, and they have confidence in me.” Which has led to 81 career victories and four championships together during Gordon’s 16-year career.


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LONG POND, PA - JUNE 06: Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, stands on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pocono 500 on June 6, 2008 at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, June 07, 2008

LONG POND, Pa. – When Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team tested at Pocono Raceway recently, they were not even close to being the best on the track.

So they borrowed the setup from teammate Jimmie Johnson and began working from there.

That's an unusual move for the Hendrick team. Certainly the group shares technology and information openly, but Gordon traditionally has been unable to drive a car with Johnson's setup in it. With the new car, though, the gap between what drivers want seems to be lessened and Gordon found himself quickly adapting and adjusting from that baseline.

That's the latest step for Gordon as he and his team try to gain speed in NASCAR's new model, which was used in only 16 races last season and is appearing on all tracks this season. It would be a stretch to say that Gordon is having a bad season - the driver is sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings and riding a streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes.

So while he hasn't won a race and hasn't been a factor contending for the top spot most weeks, he has kept his team solidly in contention to make the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup. That makes it hard for him to question his season to date.

"I think we've got the best team out there, I really do," Gordon said Friday at Pocono Raceway. "I don't think we've gotten the most out of the cars and I put myself in that category when I say ... it's not just the guys on this team or Hendrick Motorsports, it's all of us. We're working hard to make those gains. It's hard for me to give us a bad grade because of where we are at in points and because of how good our team is, so I give us a 'B', 'B-plus'.

"Based on sometimes how we've performed on the track you would think it would be easier to grade us lower than that, but to have four straight top 10s and three straight top fives, that's something I'm pretty proud of."

Still, Gordon says his team is not as close to winning as he feels like it needs to be. He thinks he should perform well at the upcoming road-course race at Infineon Raceway and that his team could win based on how a race plays out. He is still looking for more from this car, though.

"There's no doubt we can win, we can win everywhere," he said. "If you just base it off sheer speed, we still need to gain and we feel like we've got until September to make all those gains and be in the Chase and start the Chase off ... solid and have something for those guys."

While he wants to make this car work for him and says that the team needs to find a little more speed, Gordon points out that there's just not that much difference in terms of speed from team to team right now. With this new car, it could just "be something small that makes up that bit of time."

So he doesn't seem overly concerned. The four-time Cup champion knows how to build a competitive effort.

One of the keys to that is having a team that is confident as well as capable. So when Gordon analyzes his team, he sees a lot that is working well.

He just needs a little more to move into the elite tier of competitive groups this season.

"We're in the Chase but we need to be more competitive," he said. "I feel like we do have some work to do. We're not going to to deny that. I feel like we're one of the best organizations out there and we can make those gains. Our performance has been building our confidence that we're not that far off, that we just need to just keep working.

"We've got an incredible team, pit crew, all those things are right there. I think [crew chief] Steve Letarte's doing an awesome job calling the races and communicating with me. We need to find a little bit of speed. We're happy to be where we're at in the points, but we're not happy we haven't been leading more laps or putting ourselves in position to win more races."

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