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 Judging by the first five races of the 2009 season it is clear Jeff Gordon is back on the top of his game. After a winless and somewhat disappointing season in 2008, the seventeen-year veteran has shown he’s ready to contend for a title once again.
Leading the points coming into this weekend’s event at the Martinsville Speedway, Gordon is still searching for his first victory since Lowe’s in October of 2007. Although the four-time Cup Series champion went to victory lane earlier this year in the Gatorade Duel 150 at Daytona, his winless streak continues when it comes to points races. Starting on the pole for today’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500, Gordon is optimistic he can finally seal the deal and put all of this behind him.
“We’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time,” Gordon said after rain cancelled qualifying and put him on the pole. “It’s always been a great track for us and I feel that as strong as the team is this year and as well as things are going that we’re probably even more anxious to get here and probably even more excited than usual.” If Gordon and his team are anxious to get Sunday’s race started, the competition better look out. In thirty-two starts at the paperclip-shaped track, Gordon has seven wins, twenty top-5s and twenty-six top-10s. His average starting position is 6.7, while his average finishing spot is a strong 6.9. Since 2003, Gordon has finished in the top-10 each time he has visited the track, including four wins. 
“I don’t know what exactly it is that has made us that strong. The 24 team has been strong here for a long time,” Gordon said of Martinsville. “I’ve told the story many times, but it started with the test with Ray [Evernham] somewhere in the early-to mid-nineties when we ran so many laps and I found some things. We were making so many changes to the car to try to fix something that I was fighting. Finally, I got frustrated and said that I was going to try some things and all of the sudden the rhythm, the pace and the times started to come to me. After that I could go to them and say ‘hey, alright I do need this and this and this in the car.’ So over the years we’ve just adapted all those scenarios and through success on the track and even with cars and tires and all those things changing, my style of how I drive the track really hasn’t changed. It’s just that we adapt the setups to stay up with whatever’s current, whether it’s the car, tire or track conditions changing.” One of the best to climb behind the wheel of a stock car, Gordon is clearly hungry to put his winless streak behind him. While leading the series standings may overshadow the fact he has yet to visit victory lane in a points paying race in forty-six races, it must still linger in the back of his mind. It is clear however, the four-time champ has his eyes set on his eighth grandfather clock. “It is extremely special because it’s unique,” Gordon explained. “There’s no other trophy like it. The history of this track goes back so far, and the history of the grandfather clocks as well, so it’s something that you’re very proud to achieve. They’re the hardest trophy to get back to the shop, for sure, and to duplicate.” Gordon will get his chance at another grandfather clock when he leads the field to the green to start the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500. With three top-5s and four top-10s thus far in 2009, the driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet hopes to add a notch in the win column at the end of the day. 
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