Home again in Indiana …

Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- As a young boy growing up in Pittsboro, Ind., Jeff Gordon never dared to dream of becoming a big-time racer like his heroes A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr.

Now that he has amassed 69 career NASCAR Cup victories, four Cup championships and a record four Brickyard 400 titles, Gordon still refuses to lump himself in with his boyhood idols. So, Gordon's peers took that liberty after his dominating victory Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"He's probably as good a driver as ever has been here," runner-up Dale Jarrett said of Gordon, who on Sunday joined Indy 500 legends Foyt, Mears and Unser as the only drivers to win four races at the historic Brickyard. "He'll win a lot more than four. I think it just shows what a great talent Jeff Gordon is; he's beat the very best here because everybody brings their best stuff.

"Aside from Daytona, we prepare for this race as much as any that we do, and for that guy to come here and win a little over a third of them is pretty incredible."

Gordon said he appreciated Jarrett's comments but deflected the praise to his Hendrick Motorsports team.

"To put myself in that category, I try not to because all I care about is winning races and being behind the wheel of a racecar that allows me to do that and allows me to be with a team that gives me that," Gordon said.

"I've said this for many years: I don't think anyone will ever know who the best is because I just don't think there's any really fair way to figure that out."

Gordon, who led 124 of 160 laps, posted his fifth victory of the season in the first Nextel Cup race to utilize the new "green-white-checkered" finish format due to a late caution period. Jarrett and Elliott Sadler followed Gordon to the finish line. Rookie Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.

Las Vegas natives Kurt Busch and Brendan Gaughan finished 10th and 35th, respectively in a race that was slowed by a race-record 13 caution periods.

Although he clearly had the strongest car in the field, Gordon started to doubt late in the race whether he would capture his fourth Brickyard 400. With 18 laps remaining, Gordon ran over a large piece of debris that tore a hole in the bottom of his front air dam.

Instantly, Gordon's mind flashed back to the race in April at Martinsville Speedway, where he was leading the race until a chuck of concrete that had broken loose from the track took him out of the lead.

"All I could do was envision Martinsville," Gordon said after he hit the unidentified piece of debris Sunday. "Honestly, when it happened, I thought we were done."

Gordon's crew chief, Robbie Loomis, had a similar feeling.

"I was extremely sick to start with and then I just knew our only shot of winning was to stay on the racetrack," Loomis said. "That was the simple part, as long as the tires were up.

"What I didn't know is how the tires were, how much air pressure was in them."

As it turned out, there was enough for Gordon to survive a pair of late restarts and etch his name into Brickyard history.

"I'm blown away with four (Brickyard 400 victories)," Gordon said. "I can't believe it, really. The thought went through my mind a couple times during the race today when we were really strong. I kept having to shake it off, going, 'stop thinking about that, stop thinking about that.'

"Even there towards the end ... I knew that we had three laps to go. I felt how special it was and it was starting to really get to me. I didn't realize how much this really meant to me, to win four. Then I had to shake that off because I had to get it done first."

Mission accomplished.