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 If
you had to pick a favorite for this weekend’s Carolina Dodge
Dealer’s 400 at Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon would be a good bet.
A six time winner at Darlington, Gordon
leads all active drivers in victories at the track, including five
victories in the Southern 500, tying him with Cale Yarborough for
first all-time in the Labor Day classic.
Gordon's stats at Darlington are
impressive.
Along with his six victories, Gordon also has 11 top-five's, 14
top-10's and has led at least one lap in all but three of his 20
career starts. He has led 1,299 laps, the most among all active
drivers.
In September on 1997, Gordon became only the second driver to win
the Winston Million, winning at Daytona and Charlotte before
clinching the award at Darlington.
It wasn’t always that easy for Gordon at Darlington. In his first
five starts at the track, he managed only one top 10 finish.
“We didn’t have the finishes we would have liked in our first few
races here, but I’ve always enjoyed racing here,” Gordon said. “We
ran well but either had mechanical problems or I knocked the fenders
off the car.”
Darlington has a reputation for reeking havoc on drivers, rookies
and veterans alike. The tracks egg-shape design and tight turns sent
many drivers scraping the turn four wall, putting a famous
“Darlington Stripe” on the right rear quarter panel, earning
Darlington the nickname the track “Too Tough To Tame.”
“It’s still to tough to tame,” Gordon said. “You have to respect the
track every lap and take what it gives you. If you try and take more
than it will allow, you can count on a black stripe on the side of
your car at the very least.
“It is a track that you have to have the utmost respect for. You
have to race the racetrack. No matter how good your car is it's
never going to be perfect in both ends of the racetrack because of
the shape of the track.”
Gordon’s first top 10 finish of the 2003 season, last week at
Atlanta Motor Speedway, moved the four-time NASCAR Winston Cup
Champion up 12 positions in the points standings; entering Sunday’s
race in eighth place, 141 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.
“Our first two races weren't spectacular, but they weren't
catastrophic.” Gordon said, “Vegas was definitely one that it will
take us a while to make up for. We're glad that we had a strong run
at Atlanta. In some ways, we needed that run to get us on track and
to gain some points.”
“Darlington is a track that can just reach out and bite you at any
time, but it's certainly been a good one for us. I'm excited that
we've come off of a strong finish at Atlanta (2nd) and can carry
some momentum to a track that has such good stats for us.”
The next six races will be Gordon’s best chance to move up further
in the standings, as the Winston Cup series pays visits to some of
Gordon’s most successful tracks.
Of the six races coming up in the next few weeks, Gordon has two or
more victories at four of them, including five victories at Bristol
Motor Speedway alone.
“It's nice being in the top 10 in points now - knowing that we're
going to some tracks like Darlington and Bristol and even Texas that
were good tracks for us last year.” Gordon said, “We feel like we
can really make some gains on them at some of these tracks coming
up.
“I look at this point in the season last year, where we came into
some tracks where we coulda, woulda, shoulda capitalized on but
unfortunately weren't able to do that. I hope that this time we can
make those things different and come out with some great finishes
and hopefully a win.”
Darlington’s spring race date has been mentioned as one of the dates
that could be moved to another facility in 2004 under a revamped
schedule.
Given his past success at the track, Gordon would hate to see that
happen, but he says he understands the sport needs to move to other
venues in order to reach a bigger audience.
“I've always been a big supporter of seeing the sport grow and going
to the next level.” Gordon said, “You look at the crowd at
Rockingham - and we'll see what it's like this weekend at Darlington
- but there are a couple of tracks in the southeast that the sport
is starting to grow to a point that it would be beneficial to
everyone involved, including the fans, if it went to a venue in
another part of the country in a bigger market.”
“I really don't think that any new track should get more than one
date. There are a few more cities out there that we can build some
racetracks at that would be great for the sport and pick up new
fans. I'd like to see us move into some of those areas. New York
City, or near there, would be one of them.”
While Gordon’s fifth place qualifying effort makes him a perennial
favorite, he has a long way to go before he can lay claim to the
best record at Darlington. Although he leads all active drivers with
sixth victories at the track, he ranks third on the all-time list,
behind the late Dale Earnhardt with nine victories, and the great
“Silver Fox”, David Pearson, with 10 Darlington victories.
The author can be contacted nascar@autoracing1.com
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