Jeff Gordon on 'Cloud 9' after Texas triumph

Jeff Gordon said he couldn't put his finger on why Texas Motor Speedway had long been a stumbling point for him. It was one of two tracks, Homestead-Miami Speedway being the other, where he had not visited Victory Lane.

Until, last Sunday, that is.

Gordon earned the 82d victory of his career by ending a 47-race winless drought with his victory last weekend in the Samsung 500. It was Gordon's first trip to Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway after going 0-fer in 16 previous attempts and enabled the driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet to increase his lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers' points to 112 over Jimmie Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and defending three-time champion, who moved into second place in the points (992).

"It's unbelievable,'' Gordon said yesterday from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he participated along with Roush Fenway Racing driver David Ragan, and Penske Racing driver David Stremme in a Goodyear tire test.

"It's still too early to start thinking about the championship," said Gordon, who this season will be looking for his fifth NASCAR title. "But this team is on a roll. I like the way we've been performing all season and it's exciting to go to the track. And to win at Texas, it was unbelievable. Obviously, I'm still on Cloud 9."

For good reason, too. Gordon always seemed to be trailed by a dark cloud when it came to Texas, where he had recorded 3 DNFs, 6 top 5s, and 2 pole positions in his 16 previous starts. Before last Sunday, his best result had been a runner-up finish last Nov. 2.

"I think there were two things we managed to accomplish with our win at Texas,'' said crew chief Steve Letarte, a native of Portland, Maine, who accompanied Gordon to NHMS. "We were able to get a huge burden off of all of us and we were able to get Jeff his first win at Texas. It feels great to give a guy who's won 81 races something new and a win at Texas was something new for him.''

So why had Texas been such a stumbling point for Gordon?

"I still think it's the toughest mile-and-a-half track we go to,'' he said. "The transitions from the banking in the corner to straights are really rough to me, it comes up fast. It's one of the toughest tracks."

What made it even tougher to solve, Gordon said, was that it completely puzzled him when it came time to give his crew any feedback. He struggled with that even as late as last Saturday's final practice.

"I'll tell ya, we were in the hauler doing a debrief and I said to the guys, 'I'll be honest, I don't have anything to add, because I don't have any idea.' When you go to a track and you're scratching your head, you don't know what to expect, but it felt good to go out Sunday and to win it."