Jeff Gordon hasn’t had much success this year on the 1.5- and 2-mile tracks where horsepower and aerodynamics are the biggest keys to going fast. But despite his struggles, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has reason for optimism entering Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Gordon posted the fastest overall speed during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ two-day test on Sept. 23 and 24 at the suburban Charlotte, N.C., track. And he has a history of success at Charlotte, a place where he has five points wins and seven poles in 31 starts.
“You can’t read too much into that because teams are focused on different things during the test, but it was a positive two days for us,” said Gordon, who qualified 18th and finished fourth in the Coca-Cola 600 at the track in May. “That was our mock-qualifying run, so we feel good about that – especially since we struggled during qualifying in May. And I feel like the No. 24 Chevrolet drove well on the long runs.
“We weren’t quite as good as some of the teams on shorter runs, so we need to work on that. But it was a very positive test, and we certainly didn’t leave frustrated.”
As much as Gordon has struggled at times this season on the intermediate tracks, his team appears to have made improvements. In addition to his strong run in the LMS test, Gordon also performed well in his most recent race at a 1.5-mile venue – two weekends ago at Kansas Speedway.
Despite battling flu-like symptoms throughout the weekend and being unsure if he could even go the entire race, Gordon posted a solid fourth-place result after losing a spot to Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle on the final lap.
“I’m optimistic because of how we performed at Kansas,” Gordon said. “We are learning more and more each time we run the Chevrolet Impala, so we are hopefully getting much closer to running consistently in the top five and battling for the wins.”
If Gordon is going to make a run at a fifth NASCAR Cup title, a good outcome this weekend is crucial. Finishes of 14th, seventh, fourth and 38th in the first four races in the Chase For The Sprint Cup have the California native eighth in the 12-driver, championship-determining field, 232 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
But he’s not giving up.
“There’s still a lot of racing left this year, and I’m not counting anybody out just
Gordon posted the fastest overall speed during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ two-day test on Sept. 23 and 24 at the suburban Charlotte, N.C., track. And he has a history of success at Charlotte, a place where he has five points wins and seven poles in 31 starts.
“You can’t read too much into that because teams are focused on different things during the test, but it was a positive two days for us,” said Gordon, who qualified 18th and finished fourth in the Coca-Cola 600 at the track in May. “That was our mock-qualifying run, so we feel good about that – especially since we struggled during qualifying in May. And I feel like the No. 24 Chevrolet drove well on the long runs.
“We weren’t quite as good as some of the teams on shorter runs, so we need to work on that. But it was a very positive test, and we certainly didn’t leave frustrated.”
As much as Gordon has struggled at times this season on the intermediate tracks, his team appears to have made improvements. In addition to his strong run in the LMS test, Gordon also performed well in his most recent race at a 1.5-mile venue – two weekends ago at Kansas Speedway.
Despite battling flu-like symptoms throughout the weekend and being unsure if he could even go the entire race, Gordon posted a solid fourth-place result after losing a spot to Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle on the final lap.
“I’m optimistic because of how we performed at Kansas,” Gordon said. “We are learning more and more each time we run the Chevrolet Impala, so we are hopefully getting much closer to running consistently in the top five and battling for the wins.”
If Gordon is going to make a run at a fifth NASCAR Cup title, a good outcome this weekend is crucial. Finishes of 14th, seventh, fourth and 38th in the first four races in the Chase For The Sprint Cup have the California native eighth in the 12-driver, championship-determining field, 232 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
But he’s not giving up.
“There’s still a lot of racing left this year, and I’m not counting anybody out just
