Being a few years removed from his last NASCAR title reduces the pressure on Jeff Gordon.
By BRANT JAMES
Published February 10, 2004
DAYTONA BEACH - Jeff Gordon should not be able to sneak up on anyone. Those four Winston Cup championship trophies tend to clang together when you tiptoe.
But less than a week before he begins his 13th season in the newly named Nextel Cup series, one of the most loved and hated and successful drivers in NASCAR likes how the collective eye of handicappers has turned toward Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and teammate Jimmie Johnson.
That's especially good since Gordon and crew chief Robbie Loomis started feeling a certain deja vu late last season. After suffering through a miserable summer that included five DNFs, Gordon finished with eight top 10s in the final nine races and climbed to fourth in the driver standings. It felt a lot like 2000, when he won just three races - his fewest in six seasons and half as many as the previous year - and finished ninth in points, three places worse than the previous year.
Then Gordon went out in 2001 and won six races and his fourth championship, placing him third on NASCAR's all-time list, three behind Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.
"I like the position I'm in: no pressure," Gordon said. "Or maybe less than normal because maybe people are not even picking us. People don't care about us, and it's just like 2000 and I love that, because now we can just go do our thing and not be talked about and not be mentioned."
Is it a need for instant gratification or a short attention span that has allowed the 32-year-old Gordon to slip from center stage? Most drivers would be ecstatic finishing fourth for two straight seasons as Gordon has, but for someone with such a resume, he became plain.
Talented and instantly successful young drivers like Newman and Johnson have siphoned off some of the attention. So has Earnhardt Jr.'s constant evolution as a threat beyond the restrictor-plate tracks where he and his late father seemed to share some preternatural gift.
And somehow, Gordon's late-season charge through the standings was overshadowed by the disappointing summer his team endured. The problems started in New Hampshire, where Gordon started second, led a race-best 133 laps but finished 24th after a pit road mishap. A late-race accident the next week at Pocono sent him to 36th. Two weeks later at Watkins Glen, he lost a fuel-mileage gambit with Robby Gordon and was rear-ended off the course several hundred yards from the finish when he ran out of gas. An engine problem sent him to 30th at Michigan, and successive accidents at Bristol and Darlington gave him five races unfinished.
After a meeting in which his Hendrick Motorsports team decided - or admitted - that 2003 was going to be live practice for 2004, Gordon began to recover. He produced four consecutive top 5s before winning at Martinsville and Atlanta, then had two top 10s in the last three races of the season.
In 2000, Gordon produced six top 5s and 10 top 10s in the final 11 races to salvage ninth in points and establish his next title run.
Daytona could be a tough place to begin the resurgence, however. Though Gordon is tied with Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett for most wins at Daytona by active drivers (four), he has just two top 10s in his past nine races here.
Loomis is a spiritual man, a believer in fate and destiny, and has said since last summer those trials were leading up to something. At times last year he thought it was leading up to his dismissal, as he was heavily scrutinized for many of the problems. Reassured by his driver he was the man for the job, Loomis literally dreams at night about the prospects of winning a second title with Gordon.
"Sometimes it seemed bad because of the expectations on the race team," he said. "But when we're down, we're not as down and far out as it seems. The confidence in Jeff and how I've heard him talking about our team, when I see that it instills confidence in me and it instills confidence in the team."
But don't let anyone else know that. The 24 team has a secret to protect.
"Let the pressure be on Jimmie and Junior," Gordon said. "And let us sneak in there and get our wins and work on our championship."
