With two races to go, Gordon throws conservative approach out window
By Terry Blount
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: November 5, 2007, 9:42 PM ET

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Jeff Gordon must long for the good old days.

Under the old points system, Gordon would have celebrated Sunday night at Texas Motor Speedway. His seventh-place finish would have clinched the 2007 Nextel Cup championship.

That's not the real world these days in NASCAR. Gordon left TMS feeling like the title is slipping away from him with only two races to go.

He watched teammate Jimmie Johnson pull off a gutsy victory for his third consecutive win, dropping Gordon from a nine-point lead to a 30-point deficit.

"It was a pretty disappointing day," Gordon said. "We're not getting close enough. We haven't stepped up where we need to."

If Gordon is going to step, this weekend is the place to do it. The advantage at Phoenix goes to Gordon.

He won on the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval in April for his first at victory at the track, but it's a place where he always has raced well.

His average finish at Phoenix is 8.2, second-best for Gordon among all the Cup tracks.

"Phoenix is a good place for us," Gordon said. "We'll go there, fight hard and try to get those points back. I think we can beat [Johnson's team] there. I think we have the car to do it. We've just got to find the right setup that makes me comfortable."

Johnson is winless at Phoenix, but he also has raced well there in his career.

His average finish at PIR (7.2) is one better than Gordon's. Johnson finished fourth at Phoenix in April.

But Gordon has one other advantage. Phoenix is the last Car of Tomorrow race this season. Gordon has been exceptional in the COT, with an average finish of 5.2.

He has three wins and has finished fourth or better in eight of 15 COT events, including four of the past five. Only once has Gordon finished lower than 11th in a COT race.

Johnson has four COT victories, but his average finish is 7.3. He has finished 14th or worse in five COT races.

Clearly, the COT race at Phoenix is the place where Gordon needs to regain those 30 points to get back in front of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

That margin is easy to overcome. The difference between third place and 10th place, assuming neither driver leads a lap, is 31 points. If a driver wins and leads the most laps, he's guaranteed to finish at least 30 points ahead of the fourth-place finisher.

"Thirty isn't much," Gordon said of the deficit. "But the 48 is spanking us. Those guys have done an excellent job of coming from behind. They've won three in a row and are on a roll. We have to answer back."

Gordon has finished in the top 10 in 11 of the past 12 Phoenix races. He has posted top-5s eight times at PIR. But he probably needs to win this one, because Johnson has finished seventh or better in the past four Phoenix events.

"Nobody is trying to protect points now," Gordon said. "We have to race for the win, but you have to be smart at the same time. We've got to put some pressure back on them and outperform them at Phoenix."

This event also has special meaning to Gordon outside of racing. It was the week of this race last year when he married Ingrid Vandebosch in a private ceremony in Mexico.

"I'm going to celebrate my anniversary and my wife's birthday," Gordon said.

Ingrid's 38th birthday is Thursday, so the couple will celebrate in Phoenix with baby daughter Ella Sofia. Maybe it's a good omen.

"All we can do now is go to Phoenix and race our best," Gordon said. "We hope we can turn it around and get some momentum back on our side."

Gordon had a 68-point lead over Johnson after winning at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Oct. 13. But three victories by Johnson have enabled him to regain the No. 1 spot in the standings.

And it isn't like Gordon raced poorly in those three events. He finished third at Martinsville and seventh at Atlanta and Texas.

Usually that's good enough to stay in front, but not when the man pursuing you goes to Victory Lane all three times. It's the first time this season any driver has posted three consecutive victories.

Rick Hendrick is proud of both his drivers, but he said Gordon needs to show his toughness if he's going to catch Johnson.

"I've been around Jeff a lot of years," Hendrick said. "I've heard him on the [team] radio and I know he can be awfully aggressive. Jeff knows he can't win this thing being conservative. That's a dead issue now."

Gordon has to go all out to win, and Phoenix is a good place for him to step up and make it happen.

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Gordon seeking answers

By GODWIN KELLY
MOTORSPORTS EDITOR

DAYTONA BEACH -- Jeff Gordon fought an ill-handling stock car to a seventh-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway and watched teammate Jimmie Johnson leapfrog him in the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings.

"We sucked tonight," said Gordon, who is listed as Johnson's car owner under the Hendrick Motorsports umbrella.

Johnson, the defending Nextel Cup champion, has won three straight races to boost his season total to a series-leading nine.

Gordon has not finished worse than seventh in the last three weeks and still can't keep up with his friend and in-house nemesis. He is now 30 points behind the standings leader.

"We're getting beat," said Gordon, a four-time NASCAR champion. "It was a pretty disappointing day right there. We want to be fighting that hard for wins and up there battling in the top three."

Johnson and Gordon are not only teammates, but their stock cars are prepared under the same roof at Rick Hendrick's massive racing facility. The teams work in harmony at the shop, but go their separate ways on race day.

Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus used late-in-the-race pit strategy to pull this victory out of the hat. On his last pit stop, Johnson took four tires and used the fresh rubber to outrun Matt Kenseth in the closing laps.

Gordon started second, but his car misbehaved until the last segment of the race. By then, it was too little, too late.

"We just couldn't ever get it right earlier in the night," he said.

Now the battle spills over to Phoenix where Gordon has just one win in 17 starts. Johnson has two wins in a dozen starts.

With Clint Bowyer taking a hit in points, this is a two-man race. Johnson looks unstoppable.

"It's disappointing we've gotten beat the last three weeks," Gordon said. "All we can do is go to the next race and hope that we can turn it around and get some momentum back on our side.

"There is really no other way to put it other than they've been performing excellent. And we haven't stepped up where we need to."

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After the most awesome year Gordon has had, if he doesn't get the championship that will be a huge disappointment. I think I'll cry.

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"My wiener has never been so exhausted." - Kurt Busch

I'm already crying