Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Dale Earnhardt Jr. may be doing okay, but Hendrick teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson aren’t..
Richmond Saturday night: Denny Hamlin (11) sails by, while Jeff Gordon gets pit work from crew chief Steve Letarte
(Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
CHARLOTTE
Jeff Gordon seems to be getting a bit testy these days.
Of course he’s not alone.
This new stock car has been, well, a bit awkward to drive. And now teams are heading to Darlington, just repaved, with its stunning 200 mph speeds, and then back here to Lowe’s Motor Speedway for a couple of weeks of work.
Gordon was one of three men doing the Goodyear tire test at Darlington, along with Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman.
“They did a fantastic job with the repave,” Gordon says. “The track is smooth and obviously very fast.
“Because it was a repave, it was very important for the three teams that went there to test to go back (for a second test) and make sure we were on the tire we are going to race and really get a good test on them. I thought we did.
“Still, I think it is going to be a little bit too fast this first race. But each race you are going to see the pace drop a little bit and the racing get better and better.”
Gordon can only hope for a good weekend; he’s had so few lately.
Before Saturday’s Richmond race Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte were despondent about their chances. And for much of the night they were right. They had to start dead last because of an engine starter issue. But they managed to wind up ninth.
Those pre-race worries sometimes pan out just as badly as expected, Gordon says, and then again sometimes things turn out much better.
“Sometimes it’s like Vegas, where we came out and were fantastic…and sometimes it’s like Texas, where we were right (in pre-race worries),” Gordon said.
“I don’t believe we would have gone a lap down (at Richmond) if we hadn’t had to start in the rear. That really killed us. Honestly the first 10 laps of the race I couldn’t pass a single car.
“When you are that far back, it is almost impossible to make your way up through there.
“So actually the best thing that happened to us was that we went a lap down—Because then we got to go to the front (on the inside row, for the restarts).
“When you are in the back of the field, I don’t care what adjustments you make to the car, you aren’t going to be able to fix it (because of bad track position). You aren’t going to be able to really tell what the car is doing.
“By getting up to the front, we found out ‘Hey, we aren’t that bad.’
“I hung with the top-five (though still waiting the yellow to get that lap back). Then we got our lap back.”
Still Gordon had nothing for Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch or Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Despite his troubles, Jeff Gordon plays a good Richard Petty for his fans
(Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Gordon’s thoughts on Hamlin stopping on the track late in Saturday’s Richmond 400 bringing out a caution that allowed teammate Busch a shot at the win….and wound up taking away his own teammate’s shot?
“Just from an outsider looking in, it looked very obvious to me Denny was frustrated, overly frustrated—he had just led 300-some laps and was pretty much going to win that race,” Gordon said. “He was extremely upset and frustrated.
“Obviously he didn’t do what most people would do—which was come to pit road long before the tire blows.
“It was obvious when I went by him that he had a real issue.”
And what about that bump between Earnhardt and Busch?
“I would say it was hard racing, that is what it looked to me like,” Gordon said. “Everybody knows at Richmond when you are racing for the lead—you can go back to me and Rusty Wallace—the guy on the outside is going to race hard and make it very difficult for the guy on the inside to make the pass.
“The guy on the inside has to be a little more bold and aggressive.
“At the same time you know going into turn three, you can’t get in deep. The guy on the outside of you just takes the air away, and your car gets real loose.
“So it looked to me like Kyle drove in there just a little bit too hard, a little bit too close to Junior, and it just took the air off (Busch’s car) and got him loose.”
Gordon apologizes for some of his bad language on the radio, saying “I have been terrible on the radio this year.”
Why?
“Because we have run like crap!” Gordon said with a rueful laugh. “If we are running up front, you don’t hear a word out of me. If we are running terrible, then you are going to hear me.
“It goes back to frustration. It is just frustrating.
“I know what we are capable of doing, I know how good we can be.
“But this year we are so outside-the-box with what we are trying to do to make this (new winged) car have downforce and get grip out of it that it just drives really, really bad.
“The crazy thing is it seems like the worse we make the car drive, the faster it goes.
“But to drive 400 laps or 500 miles like that is not fun.
Jeff Gordon needs to get his act together if Charlotte promoter Humpy Wheeler is fill all these grandstands
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
“I have apologized to Steve big-time this year, because I can’t help it. I get out there, I get frustrated.”
Nevertheless Gordon insists he’s not losing confidence.
“Oh, no, no,” Gordon says. “I have seen this so many times: People want to judge very quickly….and they listen to the radio and they think they know more about what is going on than we do.
“I love that fans are able to listen and really be inside of what is happening. But – remember—that is a small window of what is happening.
“They aren’t at the shop; they aren’t on the phone; they aren’t behind the scenes in the trailer when we are having conversations.
“Steve has a tremendous amount of confidence, and he is one of the best crew chiefs I have ever had, he is one of the best crew chiefs in the garage.
“Now when we are running good—like last year everything was great—nobody said a word about that. We just haven’t been running good this year.
“Nobody has been pushing harder to get better than Steve.
“I am just thankful I have a crew chief like him who puts up with me when I am like that.”
All those flame decals on Jeff Gordon’s car....is that smoke coming out of his ears?
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
So this Charlotte test has been critical for Gordon and many other drivers.
“I am pretty glad we are here, because when we started Monday I couldn’t make two laps,” Gordon fretted. “
“We are using this test as much for here as we are for other tracks too. We struggled big-time at Texas; so we’ve wanted to go to a track like Kentucky…but they have had too much rain.
“So this for us comes at a good time.
“We went to Nashville the last two weeks in a row, working very, very hard.
“Saturday night’s race proved we aren’t going to be giving up. We are going to fight hard and get ourselves back in contention.
“This test is important, and crucial, for that for us.
“With the old car we were faster through the corners, and sometimes that created single-file racing. So we’ve slowed the cars down in the corners with this (boxier) car…but we are punching a bigger hole in the air.
“There are some things that are really, really good about this car, beyond the safety aspects.
“But the one issue I have with the car is it just does not drive good.
“If a car doesn’t drive good, the drivers aren’t going to have as much confidence to blast down in there underneath a guy and run side-by-side….or dive up into the outside lane.
“Are there some things that could be done (rules tweaks by NASCAR to help the crews)? Yes. And there are a lot of things being thrown around right now.
“The fact we are here testing says we are searching.
“As long as NASCAR is open to ideas, then there can be some adjustments made.
“Now I don’t think we are in desperate times here, or anything like that. But I just think you can always make things better.
“We are learning with this car. This is the first time we have had it a whole season. Let’s see what we can learn, and possibly do some things that make the racing better.”
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions, on this story, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR:
Jeff Gordon (right) doesn’t seem very happy with what he’s hearing from crew chief Steve Letarte
(Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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