Despite his late-race spin and disappointing 30th-place finish last Saturday night in Daytona, Jeff Gordon is beginning to feel confident with where he is at. The four-time series champion is currently sixth in the series standings with only eight races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Heading to a track where he has one win, one pole, four top-fives and five top-10's in seven starts, Gordon looks to break into victory lane for the first time in 2008 and move closer to a secured spot in the Chase.

Gordon has struggled finding his rhythm a bit in 2008. Good weekends at California, Atlanta and Martinsville were offset by disappointments at Daytona, Las Vegas and Texas. Recently though, Gordon and his entire No. 24 team - led by crew chief Steve Letarte - have come together and began to improve.

This week the DuPont team is headed to the Kentucky Speedway for a test session in which they hope to continue that improvement.

"Everybody's pretty tightly matched," Gordon explained of the competition. "Sometimes it might look like you're way off, but it could be something that's small that makes a big difference."

Looking forward to Saturday night's race in Chicago, Gordon admits the team has improved, but still has work to do. "I still don't feel like we've really figured out what we need to be battling for wins and leading laps," Gordon added, "but we're working really hard on that."

As the deadline for the Chase rapidly approaches, Gordon and Letarte are prepared to take a slow and steady approach to their overall performance. "In terms of sheer speed, we still need to gain," Gordon pointed out. "But we feel like we have until September to make all those gains.

"We need to secure a spot in the Chase and then start off solid. We have a strong team - one that's capable of winning races anywhere. One that's capable of winning a championship."

Although not securely in the Chase as of yet, this team needs only one or two more good finishes - not just good runs - before they can seriously focus on winning the championship. Now is the time for solid top-5, top-10 finishes week-in and week-out and by doing that they will once again put themselves in position to make a run at the Cup.