I have not seen Jeff Gordon more excited
after a victory than he was last Sunday at Sonoma, CA in quite some time. You may have to go all
the way back to May of 1994. You know Gordon’s first career win at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, or August of that
same year that comes to mind that would be after he won the inaugural Brickyard 400.
That says a lot for a driver who has
won pretty much everything there is to win in NASCAR. He has four Cup Championships, more than anyone except "The King" Richard
Petty and "The Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt. He has 74 wins (73 before Sunday), the most of any active driver, and 7th on the
all-time list and just two shy of the late Earnhardt.
So why would an accomplished driver
such as Gordon be choked up after winning a race (especially when the race is not the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, or any other
of NASCAR’s crown jewel events)?
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Is it because this put him back in
contention for the Chase for the Championship (8th in the points)? Going
into Sunday's race, Gordon was outside of the top 10 looking in, where he had been since his horrendous crash at Pocono.
Another possible reason for Gordon’s
excitement could be that before Sunday’s win it had been 19 races since his last win (October, 2005 at Martinsville).
That Martinsville win also broke another lengthy winless streak, of 23 races,
stretching back to May of 2005.
What about the
fact that it was announced that he's now engaged, could that have made this win more meaningful? All of these could be reasons
for Gordon’s excitement after winning at Infineon.
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The biggest reason though may be that
the series is headed back to Daytona where Gordon is always tough to beat, and a win would tie him with Earnhardt for most
wins on a restrictor plate track (11).
Now that the team seems to be back
on track, well this could be bad news for those seven teams that sit in front of him in the points.
Because if you remember we all saw
back in 1998 what happens when Jeff Gordon and his No. 24 team start to get a little momentum on their side.
This is a team that takes things week
to week and takes everything in stride. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if last Sunday's win is just a sign of things
to come for Gordon and company, but then again, anything's possible.
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2006 StockCar Review.
