While the four-time Cup Series took the checkers in his Gatorade Duel in Daytona, Jeff Gordon clearly understands his winless streak continues on regardless.

"I know that one didn't count with you guys, I got it," Gordon joked one day after winning the Duel. "I went home and was talking to Ingrid (wife) and she was it was so great that you one, I said yeah baby that was fantastic but don't think that that counted. She's like it didn't count, that didn't count" I was like no. While it counted for us and the motivation and the confidence builder and while it was fantastic to be in victory lane we realize that we've got to do it on Sundays."

So far this season, Gordon has shown he is back to business and hungrier than ever. One of the consistent contenders during the season-opening Daytona 500, Gordon was forced to settle with a 13th-place finish after rain hampered his charge back through the field after pitting late.

Last week at California, Gordon and his No. 24 DuPont team contended for the win as well. Leading five times for a total of 64 laps, Gordon battled Matt Kenseth in the final stages of the event only to come up one spot short of number one.

This weekend the Sprint Cup Series heads off to the bright lights of Las Vegas for the Shelby 427. Last year's race at the 1.5-mile track in Sin City was surely one Gordon would like to forget.

After running at the front of the field for most of the event, Gordon and Kenseth tangled coming off Turn 2. Kenseth went sliding directly ahead of the No. 24 DuPont/Nicorette Chevrolet, forcing Gordon to take evasive action. Losing control of his car, Gordon could do little but brace himself as he slammed head-on into the inside retaining wall with no SAFER barrier and ricocheted wildly across the track.

"I heard the track installed a SAFER barrier there," Gordon said. "To be honest, I never noticed that area of the track before last year. The first time I noticed it was when I was about to slam into it."

Despite being a bit shaken up after taking the hit, Gordon made it clear he has no hesitations heading back to the track. After Gordon's scary incident, track officials quickly went to work adding a SAFER barrier to the section of formerly unprotected wall.

"I'm sure at some point during the weekend I'll glance over at the new wall when I'm driving down the backstretch to see what they've done," Gordon admitted. "But I'm sure I'll see enough of it watching practice and qualifying on television."

What Gordon will be focused on instead of that inside wall is capturing his first victory since October 2007. Currently in his longest winless drought, the driver with 81 career victories is eager to get to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and continue his quest back to victory lane, saying, "I can't wait to get to Las Vegas."

In eleven starts at the 1.5-mile track, Gordon has one victory, five top-5s and five top-10s. The last four races at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway have all featured a serious charge by the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, and there is no reason this weekend's event should be any different.

"We ran well here last year, so we have a good baseline," Gordon pointed out. "But we've learned so much since then that we'll head back - I don't want to say with a drastic setup - but with a much different setup. It's a similar setup to what we ran in California over the weekend, and we had a strong car there."

Strong cars week-in and week-out, more confidence than he's had in two seasons and a positive outlook on life has Jeff Gordon looking pretty good going into this weekend's Shelby 427.