Gordon driven by wins, not $

He enters Saturday's race in eighth place in the Chase for the Cup standings.
By MIKE HARRIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's true Jeff Gordon hasn't won races in bunches lately, but it still was a little surprising to see the four-time NASCAR champion get so emotional after his latest win Sunday on the road course in Sonoma, Calif.
Gordon said he became choked up while driving toward Victory Lane after stopping to pick up the checkered flag.
This wasn't just another victory, though. There were a lot of dynamics at play.
Gordon, divorced very publicly and expensively in 2003, finally told family and friends Saturday night about his month-old secret engagement to Ingrid Vandebosch, the Belgian model and actress he has been dating for nearly two years.
He could even laugh and joke when asked if she was going to sign a prenuptial agreement, saying: "Well, you'll have to talk to her about that."
Then there was the fact that Infineon Raceway is just 20 miles or so from Vallejo, the California town in which Gordon spent his early years, and the Sonoma track is where he hears the fewest boos and where he is surrounded by loved ones and pals.
Finally, Gordon had not been to Victory Lane since winning last October on the short track at Martinsville, Va. He had gone as far as the 16th race of a season without a victory in NASCAR's top stock car series only twice before -- his winless rookie year of 1993 and in 2002, when he finally won in the 24th race of the year at Bristol and wound up with three victories.
Winning first
For those who thought that nearly $100 million in earnings, 73 previous wins in NASCAR's top series and the multiple championships might have dulled his desire for victory, think again.
Gordon acknowledged this latest winless string bothered him enough that he tried to avoid references to it.
"Well, one way I cope with it is I try not to read the paper or go to NASCAR.com or any other Web site that might show, 'Gordon had trouble again,' 'Gordon doesn't win again,' 'When is it going to happen?' I just stayed away from all that stuff as much as I could.
"Winning is what drives me," he added. "There's not enough money in the world that you can give to buy that feeling."
Team owner and friend Rick Hendrick saw how tough this last year has been on Gordon.
"Winning means a lot to him," Hendrick said. "When he doesn't win races, he needs to know why it's not happening. Sometimes, there's just no good answer and that's difficult to deal with."
The Rainbow Warrior was masterful in this latest win, patiently working his way from an 11th-place start to the lead just before the halfway point, then just as patiently hunting down and passing sometime-teammate Terry Labonte, whose fuel strategy had put him ahead in the late stages.
Rare slump
Gordon has had slumps before, but this one hurt more because the man generally considered the stock car sport's biggest star failed to make it into NASCAR's showcase last year, falling short of qualifying for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.
He and new crew chief Steve Letarte, who took over from Robbie Loomis with 10 races to go last year, felt like they were building some momentum as 2005 ended. But this season got off on the wrong foot with a crash and a 26th-place finish in the Daytona 500.
Since then, it seemed like every good performance was offset with a bad one.
Now, for only the second time in 2006, and the first time since March, Gordon has two straight top-10 finishes. He finished eighth two weeks ago at Michigan.
More important, this latest surge has thrust him squarely back into the race for the Chase. Gordon heads to Daytona for Saturday night's Pepsi 400 eighth in the standings and feeling good about his prospects for the rest of the season -- and for making some more appearances in Victory Lane.
Gordon, who won his first race in a go-kart when he was about 6, said he still gets the same burst of energy and feeling of satisfaction from winning.
"There's no greater feeling," he said. "That's all I've ever raced for is to get that trophy, get to Victory Lane."
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