Jeff Gordon seeks a recharge at Kansas

By Jim Pedley

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

When the Sprint Cup season began, Plan A for Jeff Gordon was to take the traditional route to winning his fifth championship. That is, use fast cars to post good finishes and pile up big points.

Now, however, as the chase to the Chase moves to the halfway point, Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team may be faced with the possibility of having to implement Plan B — take advantage of the new wild-car rule and win their way into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“We’re going for broke to get the W’s now,” Gordon said.

Sunday, Gordon will be at Kansas Speedway, where getting one of those W’s would seem possible.

Gordon has had a lot of success at Kansas, site of Sunday’s STP 400. He won the first two races held at the 1.5-mile tri-oval in 2001 and 2002, and he has been very good there since.

In 10 starts, Gordon has seven top-five finishes and eight top 10s. He has led 204 laps — fourth best — and his average finish of 8.5 is second best among active drivers to fellow two-time Kansas winner, Greg Biffle (8.1).

“I like that track, I run well at that track,” Gordon said. “For whatever reason, to me, it suits my driving style.”

At least it has in the past. There will be an interesting difference between Sunday’s race at Kansas and all the others that have been held there. Kansas now hosts two Cup races, and the STP 400 is in early June instead of late September or early October. That could cause problems for teams in a sport that is so weather sensitive.

“It’s still a mile-and-a-half, it’s still an important racetrack, still a track we want to win at,” he said. “Weather conditions always play a role, but I think tires play a bigger role.”