Gordon clearly enjoys return to Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Jeff Gordon strolled to the front of the infield media center Friday at Martinsville Speedway, a mischievous grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

He grabbed the cordless microphone.

“We’re pleased to have with us Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet,” came the surprising utterance.

The moderator had stepped out for a moment. Gordon, in a moment of sheer spontaneity, had stolen the moderator’s obligatory line and introduced himself.

The room erupted into laughter. The jovial driver’s smile widened. Funny how knowing you’re back on a piece of turf where you’ve won seven times can make the heart particularly playful and relaxed.

“We’re pretty excited about being here at Martinsville,” Gordon said. “It’s a great race track for us. Love getting to the short tracks. We didn’t have as good of a car as we wanted in Bristol so we know we got a little bit of work to do there, but this has always been a solid track for us and last year was a solid track for us. We got beat so we’re back trying to step it up a notch.”

The fact that the four-time Cup champion hasn’t won on the 0.526-mile Martinsville hardtop since the fall of 2005 doesn’t seem to be a source of stress for Gordon. Neither does that fact that his season, much like Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson’s, hasn’t produced the kind of results that some envisioned or expected.

“I don't mind people saying, ‘Hey, you are 14th in points, you aren't having the type of year you had last year,’” Gordon said.  “It bothers me when somebody says we aren't running good because we have been running great. ... I know how it works. I can win this race and everybody will say, ‘Oh, he is back, everything is great, perfect, no problems.’ That is just the way the world works that we live in."

Even though Gordon has been a tick off from his traditionally front-running self in a couple of the season’s first five races, indications are that he’ll be as stout as ever at Martinsville in today's Goody's Cool Orange 500. He won the pole in Friday’s qualifying session with a speed of 96.288 mph and has been consistently fast throughout the weekend’s practices.

The biggest obstacle between Gordon and victory lane in recent trips to Martinsville hasn’t been poor performance. It’s been Johnson. The two-time defending Cup champ has claimed three consecutive Martinsville triumphs, including one in this race last year after an aggressive-late race duel for the lead with Gordon.

“I think they will make a stand,” Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton said of the Hendrick teammates’ prospects of continuing their stranglehold on Martinsville. “I think that they will be extremely strong this weekend and how much that carries over depends on the team. … They obviously have a setup and a feel for the cars that has yielded results, that’s obvious. … They pretty much, as seen by me, have dominated this race track for a while and until somebody can take that away from them, it’s theirs.”

Gordon, who has seven poles to supplement his seven wins at Martinsville, wound up second in this race last season and placed third behind Johnson and Penske Racing’s Ryan Newman last fall. Gordon is in search of his first win of 2008 despite qualifying in the top-10 for each of the season’s first six races and earning two poles. He won six races in 2007.

“When you’ve had the type of year that we had last year it’s only natural for the expectations to be high and if we don’t live up to them we’re going to get criticized and people are going to question,” said Gordon, noting that he believes the Bristol race two weekends ago was his only outing of 2008 in which he hasn’t had a car capable of running up front. “As a race team, if you live by that it would be a short career. You’ve got to go out there, you’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to make your cars and your team the best you can and you hope to have good fortune along the way.”

There are few places where Gordon has had better fortune than Martinsville. One of the biggest keys to his success, he says, has been his team’s ability to consistently produce good handling cars that roll well through the speedway’s flat, tight corners. But he admits his initiation to the paperclip-shaped facility beginning his rookie season of 1993 wasn’t easy.

“I do remember my first few times here was just so frustrating,” he said. “I just could not figure this track out, what it took with this big heavy car to get around here. I was testing here and running some laps and started to find some things that really started to make sense. The car started to do what I was wanting it to do.

“Then we started having success here and all those things have now contributed to being a track that I certainly love to come to. Of course, when you’ve won here seven times that also helps.” 

• Mentioned Drivers:
• Jeff Gordon