When he started the 2011 Sprint Cup season, Plan A was for Jeff Gordon to take the traditional route to winning his fifth championship. Ie, using fast cars to post good finishes and collect the big points.
Now, however, as the summer season and the hunt for the Chase moves in the middle of the race, Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team can be faced with the possibility of having to implement Plan B. And take advantage of new cars savage rule and win a spot in the Chase.
"We're going out to get W now," said Gordon week.This last week, Gordon will be the Kansas Speedway, where to get one of those W certainly seems possible.
Gordon has been very successful in Kansas, the site of Sunday, STP 400 (01:00 ET, Fox). He won the first two races in the tri-oval 1.5 miles in 2001 and 2002, and is very good from there.
In 10 starts, Gordon has seven five and eight top 10. He led 204 laps session and best average finish of 8.5 is the second best among active drivers in Kansas fellow two-time winner Greg Biffle, whose average is 8.1.
"I love this track, I'm running well on this track," Gordon said. "For some reason, for me, it suits my driving style."
At least in the past. It will be an interesting difference in the race on Sunday in Kansas and all others who have been held there. Kansas is now hosted two World Cup races, and the STP 400 is the beginning of June instead of late September or early October. This can cause problems for sports teams is so weather-sensitive.
Autumn in the Midwest could mean much colder temperatures and low humidity almost always. The forecast for Sunday in Kansas is at temperatures around 90 degrees and high humidity.
Gordon, however, does not seem concerned about how the weather will affect the race.
"We go in June, it's still a mile and a half, it remains a major racetrack, a track that we still want to win," he said. "But now I'm just looking at it, we just have to wait and see the weather. The weather always plays a role, but I think the tires play a major role." Gordon will start the PBS 400 in an unenviable position in points. Kansas is the 13th race in the 26-race regular season and is 16th, 29 points out of 10 the threshold of this year are automatically qualified for the Chase.
Has not had a top-10 since Talladega in mid-April. It also has many drop in podiums (two) and not over-lap led five of 12 races.
If you do not produce better finishes soon as the best chance this weekend of the playoffs is one of the two wildcard slots to go to two drivers to win more races and also in the Top 20 in the ranking.
Gordon has one victory, which came to Phoenix in the second race of the season. Another weekend would be huge.
And although he said he would rather not do it through the "wild card" Gordon also said: "Everything we think is to make our car go faster every weekend, trying to get in position to get good finishes and, luck has suffered. "
Jeff Gordon may win in Kansas If not, there really is no Plan C.
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