Jeff Gordon is flying high and in a horrific tailspin at the same time.
On one hand, he’s the driver to beat in Saturday night’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona, having won four of the last five restrictor-plate races, including the 400 last July and the Daytona 500 in February.
On the other, he has plummeted from second to 14th in the Nextel Cup standings in the past six weeks because of atrocious luck, wrecks and mechanical failures. The four-time champion has fallen so far, so fast, that suddenly he finds himself dangerously close to missing the Chase for the Championship playoffs.
You will pardon him if he can’t bank on Daytona International Speedway as a place to start a rebound, or even as a safety net, even with his recent record there.
Sure, he looks forward to the 400.
“[But] I was looking forward to Michigan, but we stunk there (struggling to a 32nd-place finish two weeks ago),” Gordon said. “I was looking forward to Sonoma (Calif., last week) but we broke there [and wound up 33rd].”
He has other worries at Daytona.
“There’s always the risk of getting caught up in the Big One,” he said of the massive wreck drivers now deem almost inevitable in each plate race at Daytona and at Talladega, Ala. “We hope we can get through that and put a solid effort out there.”
He won’t be in the same Chevrolet that was so successful in February. As with all Daytona 500 winners in recent years, his car was taken away and placed on display at the speedway’s Daytona USA theme attraction.
“I wish I had that car that’s sitting in Daytona USA, because I know that’s a great car for Daytona,” he said. “Even though we won the race at Talladega [May 1], Talladega is not a handling race track. We’ve actually done a little bit of work to our car since then to make sure we have a good handling car, as well as a fast car, for this weekend.”
Talladega, at 2.66 miles around, is wider and more forgiving than 2.5-mile Daytona, where cars must steer more precisely.
More than offsetting his three victories this year, he has finished 30th or worse seven times. In the astounding nosedive of the last six weeks, his finishes were 39th, 30th, 39th, 9th, 32nd and 33rd.
Last week’s road race at Sonoma was in a way typical of the plunge, but it also stung worse. Maybe it was rock bottom.
“I think it was maybe a little more frustrating for us this past weekend because we sat on the pole, we were fast in practice, and we were leading the race,” Gordon said. “We knew that was a really good opportunity for us. Whether we got the win or a top-5 finish, there was a great opportunity for us to do that, and we felt like we let that slip away.”
It wasn’t the team’s fault, other than selecting an experimental transmission whose shifter mechanism broke. The same problem also hit Gordon’s top teammate, Jimmie Johnson, leaving him 36th at the finish, and knocking him out of the points lead.
“Some [of my problems] have been mechanical failures–but you make those decisions as well,” he said of parts selections.
What is slip-sliding away is time in this, the season he earlier had proclaimed as his “Drive for Five,” the year he hoped for his fifth championship.
“Just because we’ve won four championships, there is no guarantee–especially when you’ve had some of the issues we’ve had,” Gordon said.
“But I feel like we’re as good and as strong as any team out there. We haven’t really lost confidence. That’s still there. The attitude of the guys (crew chief Robbie Loomis and the team) is as good as it can be under the circumstances.
“So I don’t think we’re panicked or have lost control. I think this team is really good at focusing on the next race and putting those other races behind us.”
The Chevrolets of Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip have faded in the past year from their restrictor-plate dominance of recent years, and have given way to Gordon.
`They might not be the factor they used to be,” Gordon said, “but I think they’re still a major factor as to who we have to beat.
“There are definitely other cars. Tony Stewart has been extremely strong on the plate tracks (though Stewart has yet to win at one) and so have some of the Roush cars (particularly Kurt Busch, who finished second to Gordon in the Daytona 500).”
DEI, along with other teams that have been strong at plate tracks in the past, have acknowledged putting an awful lot of eggs in that basket.
Restrictor-plate engines and cars are different animals than those used at the rest of the tracks–so in addition to stifling horsepower, plate racing can siphon off the energy of entire teams.
So, in addition to the bad luck, might Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports team have focused so much on the “plate program” that other technical areas have suffered?
“I think we’re too big (550 employees) for that,” Gordon said. “We always put a lot of effort into our plate program, and our engine program in general.
“Our engines are up there on restrictor plate tracks and non-restrictor-plate tracks. They stack up against anybody.
“It’s hard for me to say that has affected Hendrick Motorsports because you’ve got Jimmie up there in second [in the points] and he has been pretty consistent, and has had very few failures throughout the season.
“I feel like [the bad luck] is more targeted toward us (his No. 24 branch of the team specifically) and not necessarily a Hendrick thing.”
Whatever the case, it has to stop, soon–as in Saturday night at Daytona–if Gordon’s Drive for Five is to get out of the ditch.
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ehinton@tribune.com
