Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Back at Daytona, Gordon has designs on shaking slump

Friday, July 1, 2005 | 9:58 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.

In the past six weeks, Jeff Gordon had plummeted from second to 14th in NASCAR Nextel Cup points. So, naturally, he's looking forward Saturday night's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway -- where Gordon has won the past two races.

Then again, he was looking forward to breaking his slump the past two weekends when he finished 32nd at Michigan International Speedway and 33rd at Infineon Raceway.

"I was looking forward to Michigan and we stunk there," Gordon said. "(I) was looking forward to Sonoma (and) we broke there so I'm definitely looking forward to Daytona and hoping that one of these weekends it's going to get turned around."

Not that Gordon, a four-time Cup champion, is panicking -- even though there are only 10 races remaining in NASCAR's "regular season."

"This has definitely been a tough time for us," Gordon said. "We've been through tough times before -- even though we don't experience it very often. I think this team is really good at focusing on the next race and putting those other races behind us.

"We haven't really lost confidence; that's still there. The attitude of the (team) is as good as it can be under the circumstances, so I don't think we're panicked or have lost control. We're just trying to put those behind us and learn from them and go to the next one. This is a good weekend for us."

Gordon is optimistic despite the fact he won't have the use of the No. 24 Chevy that carried him to victory in the season-opening Daytona 500. As is the custom, that car was seized by NASCAR immediately after the race and placed -- for one year -- in the Daytona USA attraction adjacent to the speedway.

"I wish I had that car sitting at Daytona USA because that's a great car for Daytona," Gordon, who has six career victories at Daytona, said. "Even though we won the race at Talladega (in May), Talladega is not a handling racetrack. I think we actually did a little bit of work to our car since then to make sure we got a good handling racecar as well as a fast racecar this weekend.

"I'm looking forward to it but there's always that risk or chance getting caught up in the big one and we hope that we can get through that and put a solid effort out there."

FERNANDEZ BACK IN BUSCH: Veteran open-wheel racer Adrian Fernandez will drive the No. 5 Lowe's Chevrolet in four additional NASCAR Busch Series races this season, Hendrick Motorsports announced this week.

Fernandez, who piloted the car to a 10th-place finish in Mexico City in March, will compete in races at California Speedway (Sept. 3), Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 5), Phoenix International Raceway (Nov. 12) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 19).

"I am honored by this opportunity to be part of Lowe's, Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR," Fernandez said. "I had such a good time with (crew chief) Jim Long and the Hendrick team in Mexico that I wanted to do this again.

"I am really excited about getting a chance to race on an oval in NASCAR. I understand I have a huge learning curve ahead of me but I think we can run respectably and have a lot of fun."

VALVOLINE MOVING ON: Valvoline announced this week that it would end its sponsorship of and partnership with the No. 10 MB2 Motorsports Chevrolet, driven by Scott Riggs, after the conclusion of the 2005 Nextel Cup season.

Valvoline will sell its 50-percent share in the team to principals Nelson Bowers and Jay Frye, the company said.

It is believed Valvoline will move its sponsorship to a third Evernham Motorsports Dodge, which was to be announced today in Daytona.

ANDRETTI ON BOARD: John Andretti is scheduled to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.

Andretti will drive the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevy. He is the sixth driver to pilot the truck this season.

"I'm anxious to get to Kansas Speedway," Andretti said. "This will be my first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and it couldn't happen in better equipment than Billy Ballew's. They're proven winners, so I know the No. 15 Chevy Silverado will be prepared when it rolls off the trailer.

"I've raced at Kansas before in the Cup car and had pretty decent finishes so I'm hoping the experience will carry over to the truck and we'll be contenders for the win on Saturday."

Kyle Busch drove the truck to two victories this season (at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway) and the No. 15 is ranked fifth in owners points after 11 races.

TV RATINGS: In the afterglow of his Indianapolis 500 victory, Dan Wheldon predicted that, "In a year or two we'll be putting out numbers as big, if not bigger, than NASCAR," in reference to the 500's narrow ratings win over NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

The IRL had better get going if it's going to match or surpass NASCAR's television ratings anytime soon. Saturday night's Indy Racing League event from Richmond International Raceway on ESPN2 garnered a cable rating of .4 (approximately 394,000 households); Sunday's Nextel Cup race from Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., drew a 5.7 rating and an estimated 8.8 million viewers.

NIGHT OF FIRE: All military personnel with valid identification (and a guest) will be admitted free to Sunday's "Night of Fire" racing card at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In addition to racing in six classes (Super Late Models, Chargers, IMCA Modifieds, Legends Cars, Thunder Roadsters and Bullring Bombers), the evening will include an on-track autograph session, jet-car burn and fireworks display. Spectator gates open at 5 p.m., qualifying begins at 5:30 and racing begins at 7.