Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon hit the big 5-0 at Pocono. It has been 50 races since his last Sprint Cup victory. He was in great position to triumph at Pocono before making a pivotal four-tire stop on lap 171, when several drivers only took two tires or didn't take any. Gordon restarted 11th but only managed to fight his way back to sixth. "I'm bummed out that we just can't catch a break," Gordon said. "It just seems like when we get ourselves in position to win the race, it just seems like we can't catch that break.

Welcome to NASCAR's wild-card weekend. It's Talladega, baby, where wreckin' and racin' are part of the lore of one of NASCAR's famed superspeedways. For the handful of guys still in the hunt for a Cup title, it means a conservative approach for much of the race and hoping to crawl up to the front to make a charge at the end. The key is to avoid traffic jams and the potential for the "big one. " But another element now comes into play: NASCAR has made some rule changes since the last go-round, changing the restrictor plate in the hopes of discouraging tandem — or "love bug" — racing.

It's going to be hard not to root for Jeff Gordon once the Chase starts. He has been almost too good through the first 25 races of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. After tonight's race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, Gordon will be one of the favorites to win the Chase. At worst, he will be 20 points behind the leader in the Cup standings. At best, he will be tied for the lead. He deserves better. This season, Gordon has been by far the best driver in the Nextel Cup Series.

NASCAR has heard the cries of racing fans who hate tandem — or love-bug — racing. The official memo was released last week: Squash all love bugs. There will be no Talladega Tandems. NASCAR is moving to a larger restrictor plate for next month's race at Talladega Superspeedway. Although it will provide an additional 7 to 10 horsepower and speeds likely will be pushed over 200 mph, the changes won't allow cars to stay packed in groups of two because the cars will overheat very quickly under the new setup.

DOVER, Del. -- Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon has just changed out of his driver's suit and begun lacing up his tennis shoes when the freshman engineering class at Princeton is mentioned.Only two days before, Gordon, an Indiana high school graduate, had found himself in front of that class along with crew chief Ray Evernham, lecturing on automotive engineering and communications necessary for a race team's success.Now, the shoestrings lay forgotten in his lap as Gordon looks up from beneath his baseball cap."

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Inside the elegant mobile home parked in the drivers' parking lot at Daytona International Speedway, Jeff Gordon sits in front of an electronic chess board, a gift from his wife, Brooke. Behind him, beautiful crystal and cut glass trophies line the shelves of a glass curio cabinet, an indication of his success.This slim driver who looks barely old enough to grow whiskers is the Winston Cup champion, and he is tanned and relaxed as he contemplates life at the top.This week, in between qualifying and preparing for tomorrow's Daytona 500, he and Brooke flew to New York on their private plane to attend the ESPY Awards.

RICHMOND, Va. - As he dined on sirloin medallions and crab at an upscale Richmond steakhouse Thursday night, Nextel Cup driver Jeff Gordon was in an open, light-hearted mood. He laughed when told a Jeff Foxworthy joke: "The real reason they boo Jeff Gordon is because he can enunciate." He grinned at the rumors he'd stirred by attending the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. "I told you all years ago I wasn't going to F-1, but it was a lot of fun to see those cars," he said. And he entertained his guests with tales of his vacation with fellow driver and friend Jimmie Johnson and Johnson's fiancee, Chandra Janway.

Jeff Gordon is so hoarse he sounds like a defective CD, as his voice cracks and skips. He has done so many interviews, talked about the possibility of winning the Winston Million bonus so much he can't imagine anyone wanting him to say more.But outside his team's truck, his public relations people are carrying clipboards filled with a seemingly endless list of interviews still promised."The way I feel, the good thing about it is that my daily activities can't get any more busy than they've been, and I feel like that's a plus," says Gordon, who has seen the stress other drivers have gone through while going for the million.

LONG POND, Pa. -- More than half a dozen children from the Make A Wish Foundation assembled beside Jeff Gordon's team truck yesterday morning, waiting for the three-time Winston Cup Champion to make their dreams come true.Gordon, 27, emerged and signed their autographs, patted their backs, gave a few hugs. The smile never left his face as he brought smiles to theirs.A little while later, back in the truck, Gordon, who will start 17th at Pocono Raceway this afternoon in the Pocono 500, was asked to put this season in perspective, and he didn't answer immediately.

The February after Jeff Gordon won his second Winston Cup championship, he sat in his motor home at Daytona International Speedway talking about all the things he still could do to be a better race car driver. He was 25 then, and chief on his list was learning more about what his race car was telling him during practice and races. It was his honesty in talking about what he didn't know and being generous in the praise of his team, as much as the success he had under the guidance of his then-crew chief Ray Evernham, that caused several misconceptions.

Well, hello there, Tony Stewart. Where have you been? The dynamics of the Chase for the Sprint Cup certainly got shuffled in a hurry Monday at Chicagoland Speedway, where one of the favorites, Jeff Gordon, ran out of gas, and Stewart, one of the guys who latched onto one of the last spots in the 12-driver field, bolted into championship-contending form. Stewart is now second in points behind Kevin Harvick, most certainly a boost to the NASCAR marketing plan. Not bad for a guy who was only one of two Chase drivers without a victory heading into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Stewart is also one of the best guys on pit road when it comes to the media.

Johnson proven winner Shawn Courchesne Hartford Courant Kyle Busch? Brad Keselowski? Jeff Gordon? Kevin Harvick? No, no, no and no. Sure, it has become the fashionable thing to pick against Jimmie Johnson when it comes to the NASCAR Chase for the Championship. Here's a tip: Don't do it. Until Johnson and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team don't win the championship, it's impossible not to predict them to win it all. After five consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles, the Hendrick team has proved its has mastered the 10-race NASCAR playoff format.

The Hendrick Motorsports empire will celebrate its sixth consecutive Sprint Cup title in November. One person will be conspicuously absent: Jimmie Johnson. The five-time champion will finally be dethroned, not by any of his archrivals named Busch or anybody else. His good friend and teammate Jeff Gordon is going to bring him down. And so it is written. In his own words, Gordon is "rejuvenated" after three regular-season victories, including a thrilling run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in which he held off a furious charge from Johnson in the last 10 laps.

HAMPTON, Ga. — Shortly after the 200th lap in Tuesday's AdvoCare 500, a heavy mist started falling on Atlanta Motor Speedway, forcing officials to call for a caution. After pit stops by the usual suspects, it was time to meet the new drivers atop the leaderboard: J.J. Yeley and Landon Cassill. No disrespect to those guys, but they aren't exactly title contenders in the Chase for the Championship. Imagine the howls if a deluge had come, and those guys had been declared the top two finishers.

Although there has been an occasional push from a driver to include a road course in the Chase — I recall Ryan Newman suggesting that Daytona's road course could be a viable venue — don't expect any changes in the current format. The road racing question popped up at Watkins Glen last weekend. "There's nothing on the table," NASCAR President Mike Helton said. "We wouldn't stack races up in the Chase for the benefit of the Chase. The Chase is the last 10 races of the season.

When it comes to polarizing athletes, Danica Patrick is probably ranked with Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow in a category all their own. So it's not surprising that not everyone in NASCAR is smitten by the news Patrick is expected to run a full 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series and partial Cup Series schedule next season. She would run a full-time Nationwide Series schedule with JR Motorsports and a handful of Sprint Cup races with the team owned by Tony Stewart. "She is not ready for Cup," Speed analyst Kyle Petty said.

Johnson proven winner Shawn Courchesne Hartford Courant Kyle Busch? Brad Keselowski? Jeff Gordon? Kevin Harvick? No, no, no and no. Sure, it has become the fashionable thing to pick against Jimmie Johnson when it comes to the NASCAR Chase for the Championship. Here's a tip: Don't do it. Until Johnson and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team don't win the championship, it's impossible not to predict them to win it all. After five consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series titles, the Hendrick team has proved its has mastered the 10-race NASCAR playoff format.

Calendar NASCAR NEXTEL CUP DIRECTV 500 Site -- Martinsville, Va. When -- Sunday, 2 p.m. TV -- Ch. 45 (1:30 p.m.) Track -- Martinsville Speedway (.526-mile oval) Distance -- 500 laps, 263 miles 2005 champion -- Jeff Gordon 2005 pole-sitter -- Scott Riggs Last year -- Jeff Gordon, who was four laps down early on, came from fourth with 46 laps to go to beat Kasey Kahne (second) and Mark Martin (third). Drivers to watch -- Gordon, who swept both races there last year, has won four of the past six races at Martinsville and has seven wins at the track.

Strap on your HANS device, everybody. It's going to be a wild ride with six races to go before the 12-driver field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. The top seven guys are safe. But once you get below Jeff Gordon , now seventh, there's a lot of jockeying for the last five slots, especially since the last two will place a premium on victories. That could eliminate Tony Stewart (ninth), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th), Clint Bowyer (12th) and Greg Biffle (13th)

Congratulations to Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman, Richie Evans and Glen Wood. They are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2012 that was announced Tuesday at the Hall in Charlotte. Yarborough was the first driver to win three consecutive NASCAR premier series championships, and Waltrip has 84 series victories, tying him for third in the history of the sport. Inman was a top crew chief who won 193 races, Evans was a star on the modified cars circuit and Wood is the patriarch of the famous Wood Brothers team.