Jiffy Lube 300
Gordon shooting for repeat win at Loudon
Posted: Friday July 10, 1998 11:04 AM
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Gordon, who hasn't had a hot streak this season, wants to win consecutive races for the first time in 1998 (AP) |
LOUDON, New Hamshire (AP) -- Jeff Gordon, who has had his share of highs and lows in the brief history of New Hampshire International Speedway, hopes to become the first repeat winner since Winston Cup racing came to New England five years ago.
He already is the only two-time winner on the 1.058-mile oval, a driver who enjoys transforming failure into success. He admits that prospect excited him last year, when he won the CMT 300.
"After the way we ran in the first race here last year, winning in the fall was a big thrill," Gordon said on the eve of qualifying for what the 26-year-old driver hopes will be his fifth victory this year and 34th of his mercurial career.
Last year, the Jiffy Lube 300 -- a race he won in 1995 en route to the first of his two series titles -- didn't go well from the start.
"We qualified 29th in the first race, then we had a flat tire and were just never able to make up for any of it," he said of his 23rd-place finish. "The whole team was disappointed, and I think when we came back we had something to prove to ourselves."
The DuPont team, led by crew chief Ray Evernham, did just that did, and Gordon hopes a similar effort will help him widen his 40-point lead in the Winston Cup standings.
"Ray Evernham made a great call in the pits when he decided not to take on tires on the last pit stop, which put us back out on the track in the lead," Gordon said in recalling the CMT 300. "That's what won the race for us."
Gordon, who hasn't had a hot streak this season, wants to win consecutively for the first time in 1998. He is well equipped for the task, driving a Chevrolet that was one of the dominant cars last month at Richmond, Virginia, when a late-race tangle with Rusty Wallace took him from the race.
The principal competition figures to be defending race champion Jeff Burton, flat-track ace Bobby Hamilton, and -- as usual -- Jeremy Mayfield, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett and Wallace.
Martin is winless despite two poles and four top-five finishes in six NHIS starts. The track is one of only four current venues on which he has not won.
"I really like the track, and we've had some good runs here," he said, noting that victories in Las Vegas, Texas and California also came on tracks where he was winless. "So maybe New Hampshire owes me one now."
Like Gordon, Wallace will be in one of his favorite cars, a Ford that has carried him to three victories, nine top-five finishes and 12 top-10s in just 16 outings. He likes flat tracks and thinks has also has a great chance at NHIS.
"I'm confident that we can qualify up front and run there all day come Sunday," he said.
Like Wallace, Burton has an affection for the track.
"It's the environment, the facility, the people, the way they treat you," he said. "I ran here before we came with the Winston Cup cars, and I just took a liking to the place.
"If I had to list my favorite tracks, it would be right there."
Not so for Hamilton, despite an impressive record on low-banked tracks, where he has two of his three career victories.
"I don't like flat tracks, but I seem to do real well on them," he said. "That's strange."
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