Jeff Gordon: Texas Win Could Validate Turnaround

Jeff Gordon is a four-time NASCAR Cup Series champ, with his most recent title coming in 2001.

Gordon's last win came in October of 2007 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Though it has been 46 races since that victory, his next triumph may come at Texas, a track that Gordon has yet to win at in his illustrious career.

There is no doubt that 2009 has been the rebirth of a career that many had casted as over after a lackluster 2008 which produced a winless season and a seventh-place finish in the championship standings.

For an average driver, that would be considered a success. But Gordon is not average, and that is motivation to not only win a few races, but to add another championship.

At Texas, Gordon has been close. In April of 2007, he was leading with 20 laps to go, until he hit the wall and ended his shot at winning.

In another race in April of 2004, he was leading in the waning stages of the 500-miler until his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet dealt with an electrical failure that saw the four-time Cup champ go from the lead to third place.

Last fall, he came home in second place to race winner Carl Edwards, albeit the finish was on fuel mileage. Regardless, a top-five finish is a top-five finish.

On Sunday, the finish may be different. The No. 24 team has led laps in all but one race this year, and Gordon has not finished worse than 13th in six races.  

He has led 289 laps only six races into the season, and is on pace to lead over 1,000 laps. That projection will far exceed his 2008 total of 447 laps led.

His 2009 stats include an average finish of 5.2, and an average starting position of 10.7. The Vallejo, CA, native also leads the series with the most top 10 finishes (five) and  most top-fives (four).

Last season, Gordon struggled on intermediate tracks like Texas. In this very same race in 2008, he finished 43rd, which tied his worst career finish at any track, including this very same facility back in 1999. 

After watching him struggle at Texas, there were some murmurs about what was going on in the 24 camp. It was clear that No. 24 team was off in performance in 2008.

The team went to work and tested, with Gordon remarking how he had never in his career tested more than he did in 2008. The struggles continued late into the summer, even though they secured a spot in the Chase, hardly looking like championship material.

Throughout the Chase, fans watched as the team slowly showed signs of improvement. Gordon backed it up with finishes inside the top 10 in seven of the 10 races.

Coming into 2009, the expectations were there, but critics were not considering him to be a serious title threat.

Well, here we are six races into the young season, and he is leading the points and is a weekly contender for the win thus far.

If you watch this team on the track, they appear to have a different look, whether it is their “us against the world” mentality or a motivation in having something to prove to themselves, to the media, or to the fans.

Winning at Texas wouldn’t just be any victory. It would be at a track that Gordon has yet to conquer, and a facility that has teased Gordon from reaching Victory Lane. A win on Sunday would be the true exclamation point that the No. 24 is back as a force to be reckoned with like in their glory days of the late 1990s.