Gordon poised to end 43-race drought

Jeff Gordon hasn't won in 43 races, but two strong showings to start the season bode well for No. 24 Harry How/Getty Images

He watched the YouTube clip over and over, analyzing every moment of the horrifying crash. Jeff Gordon viewed the clip with me midway through last season for a piece on NASCAR safety that appeared in SI, and even though a few months had passed since he slammed head-on into an inside retaining wall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that wasn't lined with a SAFER barrier, the accident was still fresh in his mind -- an accident that happened one year ago this week, an accident that was measured to be harder than Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s fatal hit.

"I hit the wall with such force that I could feel my organs move," Gordon said. "But all of the safety features inside the car did their job, and that's why I was able to walk away from the crash."

The crash at Vegas, which occurred late in the race when he collided with Matt Kenseth, was the low-point of the 2008 season for Gordon. For the first time since his rookie season of 1993, Gordon failed to win a race last year. But so far in '09, only Kenseth has been more impressive than Gordon. Gordon led 14 laps and finished 13th at Daytona. Then last week he led 64 laps and came in second at Fontana. Will Gordon snap his winless streak, which is now at 43 races, on Sunday in Las Vegas, the site of the worst crash of his career? I think so.

A popular theory in the garage is that Gordon doesn't like to drive a "loose" car, and that's why he's struggled in the Car of Tomorrow. The rear end of the CoT, much more so than the older generation of car, slides through the corners, a condition known as "loose." Drivers such as Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch relish piloting loose cars because it fits their driving styles. But Gordon, the theory goes, likes his car to have more front and rear downforce, which gives the car better grip on the track and keeps it from sliding through the corner. The older car provided this downforce; the new car doesn't.

I asked Gordon about this late last season. "I think the new car benefits guys like Kyle Busch because he doesn't have old habits to break," Gordon said. "This is all he's known. But I've got to change my old habits and learn new ones. It's taken some time."

But it looks like Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte have finally solved the riddle of the CoT. Gordon's No. 24 Chevy was the fastest car in the field for most of the Fontana race. An adjustment was made during a final pit stop that ended up causing Gordon some handling problems, but even Kenseth admitted afterward that Gordon had the car to beat.

Now the circuit moves to Vegas. Of all the early-season races, this is the most telling because Vegas possesses similar characteristics to several of the 1.5-mile tracks in the Chase -- places like Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway. In fact, four of the last eight winners at Vegas have gone on to win the championship.

Jimmie Johnson struggled here last year and came in 29th, but Johnson and his crew chief were able to overcome their early-season swoon by testing more than any other team in NASCAR. Yet, if you are slow at Vegas on Sunday, it will be much harder to gain speed over the course of the season than it was for the No. 48 team last year, because this season NASCAR has banned test sessions at tracks that the circuit visits. And considering that there aren't any 1.5-mile tracks in the United States that NASCAR doesn't visit that have similar traits to the ones that circuit does hit, it will be an uphill struggle for any team that is slow on Sunday.

Expect the usual suspects to be in contention at Vegas: Johnson, Edwards, Gordon, Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Mark Martin. A Roush or Hendrick car has won every race except one since NASCAR started coming to Las Vegas in 1999, and that trend shouldn't change on Sunday. Gordon has been getting closer and closer to snapping his losing streak, and it finally looks as if Letarte has figured out how to make Gordon feel comfortable in the CoT. Sunday, it says here, will be the start of something special for the No. 24 team.