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NASCAR

Jeff Gordon expects to return to top form in 2009

By SceneDaily.com

Jan 28, 2009

All things considered, Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon seemed to have a fairly decent grip on his failure to win a race in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Sure, the four-time series champ doesn’t like losing. No one does.

And he especially wanted to find victory lane to extend a personal streak of winning at least once every season since his second Cup campaign of 1994. But when it didn’t happen, Gordon didn’t fret too much – at least publicly – instead choosing to focus on his team’s successes.

So what if, by some twist of fortunes, the 81-time winner at NASCAR’s premier level happened to get shut out a second straight year in 2009?

Would the veteran driver once again be able to harness his disappointment with similar composure?

Maybe. Don’t count on it, though.

“Last year we could handle it,” Gordon said during the recent Sprint Media Tour hosted by Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “We do it for another year and that’s going to get a little bit tougher to take because I think you go two seasons in a row and that’s when things start to sink in a little bit more of … ‘Where am I at in my career and where are we at as a team?’ So, I’m certainly hoping we don’t have to deal with that but, I don’t want to think about that right now.”

Instead, Gordon is focusing on ending his 41-race dry spell that dates back to his most recent triumph, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Oct. 13, 2007. During that span, he has led 635 laps, notched five poles and netted 15 top-five finishes. Despite several strong performances over that span, a victory has eluded the driver who, throughout portions of his 16-year Cup career, has made winning look easy.

Gordon’s crew chief, Steve Letarte, who will be paired with the California native for a fourth full year in 2009, is more than willing to accept responsibility for his driver’s results last season.

“I’m the guy that wants the ball, so I’ll take credit for everything, and I’ll take blame for everything, and I’m fine with both,” he said. “The pit crew’s not good enough, you’re welcome to blame me; if cars aren’t fast enough, you’re welcome to blame me; if we’re not winning, you’re welcome to blame me. And I’ll take credit for all three, so with that said, I think Jeff is a fabulous driver, but I take a lot of responsibility in how that car performs, and I think our communication and our pit strategy and the simple fact that we’re there to win races and to lead laps, all of that stuff adds in. So there’s a lot you can do. You can communicate better with the driver, you can call better races, you can give faster pit stops.

“You know, really as a crew chief if you say anything’s outside your control, you’re really just kind of making excuses because really there’s no such thing as luck. You kind of create your own, you’ve got to make good decisions and have fast race cars.”

Poor handling cars, particularly at the 1.5-and 2-mile tracks that make up most of the Cup schedule, were Gordon’s Achilles’ heel last season. While other teams such as the No. 48 Hendrick group with driver Jimmie Johnson seemed to unlock the door to making NASCAR’s new car go fast on the intermediate tracks where they were used for the first time, Gordon’s bunch never completely did. And the result was not only the second winless season of the 37-year-old’s lengthy Cup career, but rumblings that Gordon might be losing his edge and extra scrutiny directed at Letarte.

“I’m proud to deal with that,” the crew chief said. “I took this job knowing all the details of this job. I’m a Boston Red Sox fan, and you coach for the New York Yankees or the Red Sox, you better take them to The World Series, and you know that going in. I knew when I took over as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief we were expected to win races and contend for championships and win championships. I can tell everyone out there that doesn’t believe it, the toughest critic in that garage area of me is me.

“There’s no one more disappointed with our performance last year than I am, and there’s no one in this building or in this complex [at Hendrick] that’s going to work harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again than I will.”

During the offseason, the No. 24 team has made some changes to its structure and added a second engineer to bring to the track on race weekends, Letarte said, in an effort to boost performance.

Gordon, who finished seventh in last year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup after a second-place, six-win campaign in 2007, hasn’t snared a title since 2001 – an eternity by his standards. He’s eager to find out what 2009 has in store.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen our team, the engineers, everybody sitting down and just really being able to go through some data and analyze things,” he said. “You get this group of individuals that are as sharp as they are and you give them time to rethink things or try to improve on what we’ve already had, and I think that can be a pretty dangerous combination, so I’m extremely excited. I think Daytona’s not going to change a whole lot.

“We had a great package there already. I know the guys in the engine shop have been doing some great things with power, so I’m excited to see that, but from a chassis and handling standpoint, an aero package, I’m really looking forward to getting to some of the other race tracks and seeing what we have.”

As far as Letarte is concerned, even if Gordon doesn’t come out and quickly put his winless streak to bed, there’s no reason to hit the panic button.

“In my opinion, I don’t think any situation becomes desperate until you make it desperate. I think as soon as you become desperate and you go into a prevent defense, usually that’s when they score the most points,” Letarte said. “So we’re going to make sure we stick to our facts. Last year, we didn’t win a race and by all means I’m embarrassed to think that that’s the performance we put up but … this sport’s always going to have roller coasters, and I think if we let it become a desperate situation, and we get off our game, then we’ll be failures.

“But if we stick to the facts on what this company was built on and the details that other teammates and other drivers and crew chief combinations have found success [with], then we’re going to be successful.”