Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
When the green flag drops on Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway, 10 drivers will be battling for the four remaining spots in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Among that group of drivers is four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who is 12th in points and is 30 points out of 10th place going into the final regular-season race. Only the top 10 in points will be eligible for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
While the other contenders are clamoring to get into the Chase, Gordon wondered this week -- considering how he has performed on the track the past few months -- whether there was any point to him qualifying for the Chase.
"The way we've been this year, honestly if we perform this weekend like we have the last few, we don't belong in the Chase anyway," Gordon said during a national teleconference. "You know, all we're going to do is go out there and finish 10th in the points and go on the stage (at the season-ending banquet)."
For a driver who has won four championships and finished in the top four in points in eight of the past 10 seasons, Gordon clearly is not happy with how the season has gone for him and his Hendrick Motorsports team after a strong start. Gordon opened the season with a victory in the Daytona 500 and had three wins in the first nine races but tumbled from second to 15th in points during the next eight races.
Gordon climbed to 10th in points with a sixth-place finish at Bristol two weeks ago, but a 21st-place effort last weekend at California Speedway dropped him back to 12th in the standings.
"To be honest, with the expectations that are on our race team, it seems like anything less than maybe a top three or four in points is a disappointment for us," Gordon said. "Our team, through our performances over the past, has put (us) in a position to have higher expectations.
"There are certain teams out there that being close to the Chase and not quite making it in may be a huge improvement over the year before; it may be something very positive for them. For us, we had a shot at the championship last year (and) to be anywhere but in that hunt for the championship is going to be a disappointment for us."
Gordon said he already is looking ahead to 2006 and would use the final 11 races of this season to start working toward next season.
"The way I look at it is, starting this weekend through the end of the season, it's all about us getting our issues sorted out on the tracks that we haven't run good at, and then when we do have good runs, we've got to make sure ... if we're competitive, we need to finish competitively," Gordon said. "We just haven't shown that.
"We need to get some spark in things, really, for next year regardless of where we end up this weekend."
RICHMOND WOES: Kurt Busch must have breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that all he needed to do to qualify for the Chase was to start Saturday's race at Richmond.
In nine career starts at the three-quarter-mile oval, Busch has posted only one top-10 finish -- eighth in the May 2003 race -- and has experienced more than his share of bad luck.
"It feels like we've had about anything that can go wrong happen at Richmond," Busch said. "Earlier this year, we were leading here late in the race when we had a lug nut get caught in the brakes and put us a lap down.
"Last year, in the spring, it was an alternator belt that broke when we were leading that took us out of contention and then in the fall last year we were leading at the end before fuel strategy cost us the win."
But that's not to say that Busch does not enjoy racing at Richmond.
"Richmond is a terrific racetrack," he said. "The side-by-side racing action provides a little bit of balance between a speedway attitude and a short-track feel.
"There's no other track on the circuit that's three-quarters of a mile but the way that the Cup cars run here, it feels like it is a mile in speed but it feels like it's a half-mile in handling characteristics."
'LET'S RACE': Now that he has been mathematically eliminated from the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he plans to have some fun and try to win some races in the closing months of the season.
"Let's race; let it hang out," he said. "We've struggled all season and we want to do what we can to win a few here in the last 11 races.
"It's discouraging, it's frustrating (and) it's disappointing but we're not out here to run bad, so we'll do what we can to improve. We owe it to our fans, our sponsors and all of the people who work so hard at (Dale Earnhardt Inc.)."
Earnhardt has two victories and eight top-10 finishes in 12 career Cup starts at Richmond.
STAYING PUT: NHRA Pro Stock driver Warren Johnson, who announced last November that he would retire at the end of the 2005 season, has accepted an offer by his sponsor to drive the GM Performance Parts GTO for at least another two years.
"Even at the age of 62, Warren Johnson is still an extremely effective spokesperson for our product, offering us something we are not ready to give up," said Jim Moloney, general director of marketing for General Motors Service and Parts Operation. "Through good times and bad, this is a relationship that still makes sense."
In what was supposed to be his farewell season, Johnson -- a six-time NHRA Pro Stock champion -- has posted three victories, six No. 1 qualifying positions and is third in the NHRA Pro Stock points with five races remaining in the season.
"Although I realize the end of my driving career is in sight, I believe we have adequately shown throughout 2005 that we can and will continue to contend for the championship," Johnson said. "Both my son Kurt's and my programs have shown tremendous potential and I look forward to returning behind the wheel of the GM Performance Parts GTO in 2006.
"I guess I'm just having too much fun to give it up."
HEARN VICTORIOUS: Jay Howard, making his debut for team owner Richie Hearn of Henderson, gave Hearn Motorsports its first victory in the Star Mazda Series North American Championship last weekend at Mosport International Raceway in Ontario, Canada.
"Mosport's been good for us," Hearn said. "I did fairly well here in Atlantics and last year we got our first pole and our first podium. Now we get our first win. This is the first win for me in anything for a long time so it feels good.
"Jay did an awesome job; he never dropped a wheel wrong all weekend. He had never seen this place, had hardly driven the car, but knew exactly what he wanted in the car. My expectations were a little reserved for this place but obviously he came through."
DESERT RACING: After its highly successful stadium-style race in July at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dirt track, the SCORE Desert Series returns to the open desert Saturday for the 10th annual SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300.
Among the race-record 220 entries are 73 racers who have class wins in the event, including eight Overall victories. Ed and Tim Herbst (SCORE Trophy Truck) and Troy Herbst (Class 1) are the only drivers who have scored multiple Overall victories in Primm with two each.
Overall and Trophy Truck winner Alan Pflueger of Honolulu and Class 1 champion Damen Jefferies of Oak Hills, Calif. are among the 13 class winners back to defend their titles on the 74-mile circuit.
The start/finish line for the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 is located behind the Buffalo Bill's Resort in Primm. Racing will start at 6 a.m. (for open wheel and VW Baja bug classes) and 1 p.m. (for truck classes, including Trophy Truck and Class 1) Saturday. All classes have an 8-hour time limit to finish the race.
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