Will to win

July 23, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Gordon aches for another title

By WILL GRAVES

Associated Press

Don’t let the flecks of gray framing his still-boyish face fool you, Jeff Gordon still wants to win. Badly.

Though his balky back appears to be holding up this season, the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion is well aware he’s closer to the end of his brilliant career than the beginning. Gordon turns 39 next month, and Sunday’s race at Indianapolis will be his 601st Cup start.

While still considered one of the cleanest racers in the series, there’s an urgency to his driving these days as he tries to end a 49-race winless streak, the longest of his career.

He angered seemingly half the field at Sonoma last month, Martin Truex Jr. in particular, while attempting to bull his way to the front. He called the move to dump Truex “a mistake” without exactly apologizing for it.

“We’re not out there to be all buddy-buddy,” he said. “We’re out there to race hard, win races. If that puts on a great show for the fans, I think it’s a win-win for everybody. But it’s also going to make some enemies for you out there that you’re going to have to deal with going forward.”

It’s a scenario Gordon didn’t have to deal with much a decade ago, partly because the rest of the field had trouble catching him.

Things are different now. It’s been nine long years since Gordon has won a championship. In the interim he’s ceded the stage as the face of Hendrick Motorsports to teammate and former protege Jimmie Johnson. The two friends raised eyebrows earlier this year following a couple of highly publicized run-ins on the track.

They have since patched things up and find themselves side-by-side in the standings behind points leader Kevin Harvick. Gordon is in second, trailing Harvick by 103 points, with Johnson third, another 85 points back.

Yet even though he’s arguably the hottest driver in the series at the moment after posting five straight top-five finishes, Gordon isn’t exactly satisfied. He knows barring a massive collapse he’s a lock to make NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship for the seventh straight year.

He also knows that until he finds a way to win, he’s going to be on the periphery of the title discussion.

“We know we’re capable of winning,” he said. “It’s definitely getting down to crunch time for us getting in the Chase. ... We need those bonus points [from winning a race] to really prove to ourselves and everyone else that we can compete for this championship.”

Indy would be a good place to start.