Drive for Five~~Gordon was sixth in points last year. Gordon should contend for his fifth Cup championship – if he doesn't let distractions and NASCAR's youth get in the way.
Jeff Gordon
2006 season statistics
Wins: Two (Sonoma, Chicagoland)
Best Finish: First
Top-fives, top-10s, DNFs: 14, 18, 7
2006 Recap
Inconsistency plagued the four-time Cup champion all season long as Gordon struggled with the coil-binding setup. When Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte were on their game, they were very good. When they weren't, they were absolutely horrible. A very telling statistic was this team's seven DNFs, which is almost unheard of for Gordon or a Hendrick Motorsports team. Gordon led the Chase early, but a fuel-pump failure at Kansas followed by two more DNFs doomed his chances for a fifth title. Noteworthy were Gordon's poor finishes at all the majors: Daytona, Indy and Lowe's – places where he usually does well.
2007 Outlook What's next
Gordon turns 36 this year and already has expressed a desire to end his Cup career by 40. That means time is running out on that elusive fifth title. Late last season, after their chances for the title evaporated, Letarte and Gordon began to work on their '07 strategy. Look for Gordon to come out strong, be a sure bet for the Chase and a real threat for the title.
Best-case scenario: Another Daytona 500 victory is a real possibility, along with several more wins throughout the season, as Gordon is one of a handful of drivers who can always be considered a threat to win at any race track he visits. Despite his early criticism of the new Car of Tomorrow, expect Gordon to master its intricacies early, as his car control skills along with his ability to work with his crew chief to make a race car better during a race are second to none.
Likely scenario: Gordon becomes a father for the first time this year. Will it be a distraction or an inspiration for him? If it is the former, '07 could be a long. If it is the latter, it could fuel Gordon's best season in five years.
Beware: No longer the young gun he once was and now one of the sport's elder-statesmen, is Gordon hearing the footsteps of the next generation of drivers loudly reverberating in his racing helmet? And can he still run wheel-to-wheel with the ever-increasing number of 20-somethings in Nextel Cup?
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My boy is on his way to his fifth title. The only thing i have to be a tid bit scared about is NASCAR implementing 16 races using the Car of Tomorrow and the problems that will occur when getting to know these cars. i think this season will have to have an asterik next to it. but never the lett, gordon will prevail and get back on track and soon he will over take, the over rated Earnhardt Sr., on the wins list.
March 11, 2007 1:41 am EDT Not washed up
By Jerry Bonkowski, Yahoo! SportsAlmost a winner on Sunday. (Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS – If actions speak louder than words, then Jeff Gordon is screaming without opening his mouth and letting his driving do his talking for him.
With a 10th-place finish in the season opener at Daytona, followed by back-to-back runner-up finishes – including here at Las Vegas in Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 – Gordon is making several points very clear in 2007.
First, in being ranked second in the Nextel Cup standings – just six points behind series leader Mark Martin – Gordon is proving he's far from washed up.
If he can maintain this early-season performance and consistency, folks may soon start talking more about whether Gordon will win his fifth Cup championship this season rather than wondering when he's going to retire.
Second, speculation that Gordon's focus may be blurred in 2007 with his marriage last November and his first child due this summer has been off-base. The so-called off-track distractions may actually be helping him maintain the kind of focus he displayed during his four championship seasons – or at least they aren't affecting his on-track performance.
Third, Gordon is staking his claim that he's still the No. 1 guy at Hendrick Motorsports. With last year's Cup championship and 18 wins and 48 top-five finishes since 2004, a case could be made that Gordon's teammate and Sunday's race winner Jimmie Johnson has supplanted Gordon – who has 11 wins and 40 top-fives in that span – as the major domo at Hendrick Motorsports.
Not a chance.
To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of Gordon's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
"It's a great start to the season," Gordon said, an assessment with which Johnson concurs.
"I think Jeff is extremely focused and our communication is getting better and better," Johnson said. "Jeff's going to be working hard for that fifth championship this year."
So, too, will Johnson be working hard to score a repeat Cup championship, and if it means he'll be both battling and trading advice with Gordon, the reigning champ is all for it.
"We're competitors, we work hard against each other, but he knows that we're going to be better off working together and doing it together," Johnson said of Gordon. "And if it gets down to a five-lap shootout at the end, so be it. Whoever's got the stuff that day is going to be the winner."
While Gordon is used to being scrutinized by the media and non-fans, this season began with even more critical hyperbole than usual.
Johnson's emergence as a more successful driver the last two seasons, coupled with Gordon's nuptials and his wife's pregnancy, prompted critics to wonder if Gordon would be able to maintain his typical focus or whether his priorities would shift and his desire wane. An extreme example of the latter could include Gordon hastening his retirement from racing.
Gordon couldn't help but laugh then at such lunacy, and he's still laughing today. When Yahoo! Sports asked Gordon what he thought about all those questioning his focus, he replied equally humorously.
"Well, I think I would have won the race today if I didn't have a baby on the way," Gordon deadpanned. "I guess that was my distraction out there. I lost my concentration thinking about that baby and what I'm going to name her, and I didn't win the race today."
But once the laughter died down, Gordon once again grew serious. There's been no downturn in his skills, motivation or desire. He's as focused as he's ever been.
"Nothing's going to take away from what we do as race car drivers when we get inside that car," he said. "Honestly, I've got so many distractions already I don't see how I can get a whole lot worse. … But we'll just deal with it."
Given the numbers he's posted in the first three races, the four-time Nextel Cup champion is dealing quite well, thank you very much.
Despite not winning since last July at Chicagoland, he did come closer Sunday to finally tying Dale Earnhardt for sixth-place on NASCAR's all-time victory list (76) than he has at any point since his Chicagoland victory.
Gordon, however, also got off to a great start in 2005 – winning three of the season's first nine races – only to freefall downward in the standings and miss the Chase for the Nextel Cup. But he feels this season is totally different.
"I feel like we're a much different team than we were last year at this time and even the team I had in 2005," he said. "I'm excited about what we have in store for us."
If what he's accomplished thus far this season is any indication, Gordon's going to get a lot more excited and distracted, and that doesn't seem to be such a bad thing.
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Gordon, Martin taking different paths.
By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing Writer
March 17, 2007
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) -- Slogans like ``The Drive for Five'' are on the back burner for Jeff Gordon. For now, he and his team are just focused on the next race.
The four-time NASCAR champion is off to one of the best starts of his career, with three straight top 10 finishes.
The only other time Gordon finished in the top 10 in the first three events of the season was 1997. An engine failure at Atlanta Motor Speedway ended that streak, but Gordon went on to win the second of his championships.
``Our team is very solid,'' Gordon said as his crew prepared his No. 24 Chevrolet for Sunday's Kobalt 500 on Atlanta's 1.5-mile oval. ``I feel like we've made a lot of ground from a year ago.
``We knew last year was going to be a tough building year for us, and now we're starting to really see the benefits of that building year.''
In one of the lowest moments of his illustrious career, Gordon failed to qualify for the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship in 2005. He said that was a wake-up call.
``We knew at that point that we had to reassess everything we were doing, everything we were using, the whole team,'' Gordon said.
Steve Letarte, a long time employee at Hendrick Motorsports, took over as crew chief for Gordon in the last 10 races of 2005 and the chemistry was instant. Gordon's team built momentum with four top 10 finishes, including a win at Martinsville, in the last five races that season.
Last year, Gordon won two races and made the Chase and finished sixth in the points. Meanwhile, teammate Jimmie Johnson, whose car Gordon co-owns with Rick Hendrick, won the Cup title.
``If Jimmie or any team at Hendrick Motorsports does well like they did last year it only motivates the rest of us, and I think that we knew it was going to take time,'' Gordon said. ``These first three races have gone extremely well.
``I still don't know if we've seen the full potential, but the car's driving good, I'm having fun, I'm more confident, the team's more confident. I feel like Steve has done a really great job as a leader and taking on that leadership role. So that takes time.''
While Gordon heads into Sunday's race second, trailing Mark Martin by six points, most everyone considers him the series leader, since Martin insists he will sit out the next two races at Bristol and Martinsville.
Gordon, who will become a father for the first time this year, said he is happy for Martin, who is cutting back to a partial schedule to have more time for family and fun.
``He's made that decision with his family,'' Gordon said. ``They've been committed to him all these years, following his dreams, and I think that he's at the age (48) and maturity level where he's recognized how important his family is and I respect that. He wants to spend more time with them and not be caught up in racing.
``This series is so competitive that no matter how good you do and you don't win the race, you can be miserable the whole week until the next race. Your family puts up with a lot, and I respect that he's made that commitment and promise to them. I think it's something he'll live up to.''
Since moving over the winter from his longtime home at Roush Racing to Ginn Racing, Martin has spoken often of the opportunity that new team owner Bobby Ginn is giving him to drive whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He can mentor young drivers and spend qualify time with his family.
There has been considerable speculation that Martin, a four-time series runner-up but never a champion, might choose to stay in his new No. 01 Chevrolet as long as he keeps running at the front of the pack.
But Martin, who will make his 621st consecutive start on Sunday, is adamant that he will be nowhere near Bristol next weekend, even if he comes out of this race still in the points lead.
``It's a lot easier to do when I know I'm driving that 01 car and I have the support of everyone and I know that I don't have to walk away from the sport that I love, the people that I love, the fans,'' Martin said. ``I love what I do and I'm not walking away from it. I'm just taking a break.''
On the other hand, the 35-year-old Gordon is in the prime of his career and has different goals.
``We know that this year is really a championship for us or not a successful year,'' he said.
Updated on Saturday, Mar 17, 2007 8:15 pm EDT
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Well, I would think it is safe to say that if it had been anyone, and I mean anyone other than the 48 in front of him, Jeff gordon would have won at Martinsville today. Now I know alot of fans are going to say Jimmie shut the door on him, especially considering those words came out of Jeff's mouth, but I think when he see's the tape, he'll see that it was just flat out great short track racing. And as much as I would have loved to see the 24 cross the line first, I think this may be a good thing. The worst finish he has had so far is 12th! He's getting hungry, not to mention irratated. And as history has shown, when Jeff Gordon gets that way, he is damn near impossible to beat. We all know that Hendrick Motorsports is back on top as far as being the best team in Nascar, all we need to do now is run away with the whole damn thing, not to mention get that 25 car some good runs. Congrats to Jimmie, and mark my words, the 24 is back, not that he ever left. This could prove to be one of the best seasons in a very long time.
GO24
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DRIVE for FIVE
From your mouth to God's ears!!! He sure is looking good so far!!
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