Not lately.
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After posting a series record 30 top-10 finishes in 2007 and finishing second to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the Chase for the championship, Gordon's No. 24 team has struggled this season despite his sixth-place spot in the standings.
On the road course at Infineon Raceway in June, where Gordon has won five times, he finished third behind winner and series points leader Kyle Busch, but only out of pure luck. Timely caution flags, pit strategy, and a chain-reaction crash that took out contenders Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick with less than six laps remaining allowed Gordon to sneak past.
"I know what it should feel like to go fast," said Gordon, who has finishes of 10th, fifth, and 11th since Infineon. "We're working way, way too hard for these types of finishes."
NASCAR's top series runs two races on road courses each season and the events always lure top road racers from outside the circuit hoping for that elusive victory. An outsider hasn't won in Cup competition since Mark Donohue drove Roger Penske's No. 16 AMC Matador to victory in the 1973 Winston Western 500 at Riverside.
Included in the field of 45 cars who will try to qualify on Friday is Canadian road race star Ron Fellows, who has come the closest to duplicating Donohue's feat. Fellows, who won last week's Nationwide race in the rain in Montreal, was runner-up at Watkins Glen to Gordon in 1999 and Stewart in 2004.
Joining Fellows will be road race standouts Boris Said, P.J. Jones, Brian Simo, Marcos Ambrose, and Max Papis. That is, if it doesn't rain. Qualifying has been rained out three times in the past four years and there's a 30 percent chance of showers on Friday afternoon. Based on owner points, only Said and Simo would not make the 43-car field if qualifying is canceled.
Sunday's race also could have big implications for the Chase. Only five races remain in the so-called regular season, and the top 12 drivers in points after the first 26 events compete for the Cup title over the season's final 10 races. Denny Hamlin sits in 10th, but is only 46 points ahead of Matt Kenseth in 13th, with Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer in between.
