Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon hopes to improve recent performance at Loudon
Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon is second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading into Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
LOUDON, N.H. – If it seems like Jeff Gordon hasn’t run quite as strong in recent weeks as the first part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, it’s because he really hasn’t.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver and his crew chief Steve Letarte acknowledge it. And they hope to change it. But to get back to the form that saw Gordon score a win and finish sixth or better in six of this season’s first seven races, the driver and crew chief agree that they must first improve on tracks a little over a mile or shorter in length.
Gordon’s worst two finishes of the season – except for a crash-inflicted 37th at Talladega – have come at Phoenix and Dover, a pair of 1-mile tracks. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the four-time champion will compete in today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301, is a 1.058-mile oval that understandably brings some cause for concern.
“We just need to work on our short-track program,” Letarte said. “We walk into the 2-mile and the mile-and-a-half tracks with a lot of confidence, we have a real good baseline and a lot of confidence with what we’re going to start with. And we walk into these smaller tracks like here and Phoenix and Richmond and we don’t.
“We’re not exactly sure what we’re going to start with, we seem to struggle to find that confidence and that speed he needs.”
Gordon believes another factor in his slight dropoff in performance has been the gains made by other teams, particularly those of Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Tony Stewart. While Gordon hasn’t flexed the muscle of late that he did in the season’s first couple months, Johnson and Stewart have been steadily climbing.
Gordon, who led the standings for several weeks earlier in the season, now trails Stewart in points, with Johnson just behind Gordon in third.
“We've been off a little bit more than we were earlier in the season. It's not that we're off, it's that the competition has gotten better,” said Gordon, who has three top-fives since his win at Texas in early April. “The No. 14 (Stewart) and the No. 48 (Johnson), especially the No. 48, those guys have been running really, really good even though they haven't gotten the results. We've been getting the results, but we haven't been as strong as I feel like we need to. It's definitely something we're focused on.
“But you've got to focus on so many things right now at this point in the season. In our position you're trying to fine-tune the cars you're driving, get yourself mentally and physically in shape for the end of the season.”
As for the physical aspect, one factor that Gordon says hasn’t contributed to his mini-slide is back pain. After speaking on several occasions in recent months about the lower back pain that has led to soreness on and off since last season, Gordon says it’s also had a more desirable effect.
“The thing with my back is it's almost a blessing in disguise because I've always been fairly fit without having to do much,” Gordon said. “And I think that because of that, my core had gotten a little bit weak and I think over the last few years, especially with some wrecks, it's contributed to my back problems.
“And now, I'm getting much stronger, so I'm actually in better physical shape than I've been in a long time and still have a ways to go. But I think it's actually going to help me be more prepared for the end of the year and the Chase [For The Sprint Cup] than anything else.”
So while Gordon hasn’t produced recent results up to par with his early-season effort, he doesn’t appear that worried. Nor does Letarte. The two know where they need to get better. And ironically, the 1.5-and 2-mile tracks where Gordon has been his best this year were the places where he struggled the most in 2008. But the team went to work on their intermediate-track program in the offseason and the results have shown it.
If Gordon can just recapture the magic he’s brought to shorter tracks in years gone by, his team may be hard to beat going forward.
“If you panic or if you worry about it, you’ve already taken yourself out of the game,” Letarte said. “You know, I’m a big fan of, ‘Race the weekend you’re at.’ We’re not going to worry about Dover or Phoenix or Texas in the fall until we get through the summer.
“There’s still a lot of races to be run, a lot of races to try to go out and win and get bonus points [for the Chase]. … You start looking too far ahead, you’ll stump your toe before you ever get there.”
