Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gordon still in Winston Cup title hunt

Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

With his win Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon served notice that he still is a contender for the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship.

By the same token, the four-time champion said he doesn't expect NASCAR to start engraving his name on the 2002 trophy.

"I think (the win) just kind of serves notice to a lot of people that we're not out of it," Gordon said after he snapped a 31-race winless streak. "I'm not saying that now, suddenly, we're just going to run away with it; we've still got a lot of hard work left ahead of us.

"I think this is just such a great step in the right direction. It's going to do so much for team morale and sometimes the whole morale and attitude can take you up several notches performance-wise. I know it's going to do a lot for my confidence. We know we're not out of it at all ... but we just knew that if we were going to be a threat we've got to start performing."

The victory, Gordon's first since last September at Kansas Speedway, moved him from fifth to third in points and he now trails front-running Sterling Marlin by 111 points with 12 races remaining.

Although he averaged eight wins a season from 1995 -- when he won his first championship -- to 2001, Gordon said the winless streak didn't bother him as much as not being able to put himself in position to win.

"I don't think the losing streak was wearing on me as much as just maybe missed opportunities or not being able to capitalize on some good cars that we've had," he said. "I know that if this team is in position at the end of the race, if we're in the top four or five week in and week out, we're going to win races.

"It wasn't so much that we weren't winning -- I think the lack of DNFs and team morale kept the glue together. If these guys started thinking twice about being on our team, and pointing fingers at one another, the whole thing would have fallen apart."

"This is a positive move for our team," McClure said. "We look forward to building a long-term relationship with Pontiac. I think the move to Grand Prix will position the Kodak team with more support and added benefits for the years to come."

Morgan-McClure has been associated with Chevrolet for 12 years.

Spectator gates open at 6:30 p.m. and racing begins at 7:30.