Gallery | Jeff Gordon at Darlington Gallery | Darlington PreviewDARLINGTON — The tidy $10 million spent to resurface Darlington Raceway smoothed old bumps and cracks.
It did not remove any of the aura, which means as much as anything to the man who dominates the track like no other current NASCAR driver.
“The Darlington we all love,” Jeff Gordon said, “is still here.”
That love apparently goes both ways. Gordon owns seven career wins at Darlington, more that any current driver. His total is third on the all-time list behind David Pearson (10) and Dale Earnhardt (nine).
His 2007 win marked the fourth consecutive top-three finish for Gordon at Darlington. Of the 1,104 laps run in the past three races, Gordon has been in the top 15 for all but 13.
There is no reason to believe that win No. 8 is not on the horizon.
“I’m really excited about the race this weekend,” Gordon said. “The track is smooth and super fast, but it’s the same Darlington. They did a fantastic job. The track is unreal, and I had a blast during the test. The bumps aren’t there and you’re going much faster, but you run the same line you always have and the track has the same characteristics.”
It did not take long for Gordon to establish his dominance at Darlington after he entered the circuit in 1993. By 1994, he had his first top-10 finish.
In 1995, he captured his first checkered flag at Darlington. That began a stretch where he won four races over a three-year period at the track.
In 27 career starts at Darlington, Gordon’s seven wins include three poles, 15 top-fives (56 percent) and 18 top-10s (67 percent).
That same level of success can’t be attributed to this season. Gordon, the preseason favorite to win the Sprint Series Cup, enters this weekend 13th in the standings.
Gordon is winless this season and has sat on the pole only twice, at Atlanta and Martinsville, where he finished fifth and second, respectively.
Gordon admits he has not run well this season, but that does not mean he is losing confidence. He believes his Hendrick Motorsports team, led by crew chief Steve Letarte, will have him prepared to win.
“Steve has a tremendous amount of confidence and I think he has one of the best crew chiefs I have ever had,” Gordon said. “He is one of the best crew chiefs that there is in the garage area. When we are running good, last year everything was great, nobody said a word about that. We just haven’t been running good this year. Nobody has been pushing harder to get that better than Steve. I am just thankful that I have a crew chief like him that puts up with me when I am (irritated) like that.”
Sounds like the perfect time to return to a track where success has come so frequently.
Gordon won at Darlington last year when the race was postponed to Mother’s Day because of rain.
Gordon’s mother, stepfather, sister and pregnant wife were in attendance. But they did not stick around until the end of the race, leaving him unable to give Mother’s Day wishes in person from Victory Lane.
“With about 100 laps to go, the water temperature on the DuPont Chevrolet skyrocketed and I thought we were done,” Gordon said. “My crew chief made a great call to stay on the track while others pitted late in the race and that allowed me to run in clean air.
“We were fortunate to pull into Victory Lane with steam pouring out of the overflow vent. I didn’t think we’d make it to end of the race, and I guess neither did my stepfather, John Bickford. John, my mom, sister and nephew were already halfway home.”
So even a somewhat unpleasant memory wound up a happy one for Gordon. That’s his own version of Darlington magic.
Reach Wiseman at (803) 771-8472
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