By JENNA FRYER
The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Minutes into NASCAR’s annual industry luncheon, the driver known as “Four Time” spotted teammate Jimmie Johnson at the next table.

“What’s up champ?” Jeff Gordon whispered, reaching across to shake Johnson’s hand. “Two-Time now. Two-time.”

Despite losing the fight for the Nextel Cup title, Gordon is very much enjoying Johnson’s second consecutive championship. The Hendrick Motorsports drivers waged a fierce competition all season, but Johnson used an unbelievable late push to handily defend his title while denying Gordon a fifth one.

But Gordon showed no signs of bitterness Thursday when the 12 title contending drivers gathered at Cipriani’s to pick up their end of the season awards.

“Jimmie and I finished 1-2 and that was obviously a tremendous year for Hendrick Motorsports,” he said. “It’s certainly not something that I am going to hang my head about. I had a great year.”

A record-setting year, actually.

Gordon notched a record 30 top-10 finishes in the 36 points races, while winning six times and building a lead of more than 300 points during the “regular season.” And if NASCAR still had the same scoring system it used during Gordon’s first four titles, he would have locked down the championship with two weeks to go in the season.

But under the new Chase for the championship format, the field was reset for the final 10 races and 12 eligible drivers battled for the title. Gordon jumped out to an early lead with two Chase victories and a stellar 5.1 average finish.

Johnson was just a notch better, though, and reeled off four straight wins to grab the title away. His average finish was 5.0. It was a run reminiscent of Gordon’s early days, when he dominated the series and won everything in sight.

And in becoming the first driver since Gordon to win consecutive titles and notch double-digit wins (10) in a season, Johnson is tugging at Gordon’s hold on the role of the best active driver.

The two headed into the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Johnson needing a collapse to lose the title.

“The only way we were going to win it in Homestead was for Jimmie and those guys to have problems, and there’s nothing worse than going into a race and know that unless they have trouble – and you don’t want to wish that on anybody,” he said.

“I want to win that championship by beating those guys, and the truth of the matter is they beat us when it counted.”

Gordon said the days after the penultimate race at Phoenix, when he realized Johnson would win the title, were the toughest of the season for him. But when the disappointment subsided, he was able to view every one of Johnson’s feats as accomplishments that strengthen Hendrick Motorsports.

Instead of ruing the day he lobbied team owner Rick Hendrick to hire Johnson, Gordon is focusing on the overall operation at Hendrick, which won 18 races this year between its four drivers. Casey Mears and Kyle Busch each won once.

“This year was by far the best year I’ve seen all four Hendrick cars performing together, working together and communicating the way they did,” Gordon said.

“It was the best, and the results showed it and it speaks volumes of what kind of organization we have.”

Hendrick certainly cashed in Thursday, when Johnson and Gordon claimed most of the major awards. Each one came with a hefty payday – Gordon’s four awards totaled almost $400,000 – and the two drivers dutifully handed over their envelopes to Hendrick during the ceremony. The car owner showed no reaction as he quietly placed the thick stack in his suit pocket.

The car owner is looking to continue the success next season. The team will have a different look as Dale Earnhardt Jr. replaces Busch in the organization, but there’s been no indication the team will have any dropoff.

Gordon either.

A leading trade magazine told Gordon on Thursday it has rated him the No. 1 driver going into next season, an honor Gordon doesn’t think he’s earned.

“I wouldn’t consider myself the favorite,” he said. “I don’t see how ... looking at how this season ended up, going into next season, I don’t see how you can not pick Jimmie. If I was going to do a ranking, we’d be head-to-head, it would be very, very tight, very close.

“But if I was picking it, I would certainly pick Jimmie.”

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SCENEDAILY
SATURDAY JANUARY 5, 2008
BY SCENEDAILY STAFF REPORT

Jeff Gordon enjoyed one of the most consistent seasons of his career, earning a modern-era record 30 top-10 finishes as well as six wins en route to a runnerup finish in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.

Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team showed their strength early, with Gordon moving into the points lead after the fifth race and remained their until the field was reseeded based on wins following the season's 26th race. He was never worse than second again in the standings. Overall, he was outside the top three in the standings only once - following the season-opening Daytona 500.

Gordon, 36, is a four-time NASCAR Cup champion. He began competing in the series full time in 1993 with team owner Rick Hendrick, the only owner he has driven for in NASCAR's top series. Gordon has 82 career wins. In 2007, he earned more than $7.2 million in purses.

During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 30 in 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup driver points. Here's how Gordon's season unfolded:

By the numbers: Gordon finished second in the standings. He won six races with 21 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes.

Season highlights: Perhaps the entire season was a highlight. Gordon had an average finish of 7.3 and led in 13 of the 36 races.

Key setbacks: It's difficult to find a setback for this team. Gordon's worst finish in the Chase was 11th and he followed that with a stretch of four top-five finishes. It was finishes of seventh, seventh and 10th that knocked him into second and out of the championship.

Newsworthy moment: Aside from his performance on the track, Gordon made news when he became a first-time father. He and his wife, Ingrid Vandebosch, became parents in June and Gordon spoke enthusiastically and emotionally about the experience and the impact of fatherhood on his life for the remainder of the season.

In his words: "It's been a fantastic year for us. Our goals were to be consistent, to be strong. We had a few failures last year and some mistakes that were made that cost us an opportunity at it. So we set out to do exactly what we've done, which is to have an awesome average finish throughout the whole year. A shot at winning races, a shot at the championship."

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