King of the Road
Jeff Gordon has had a challenger to his throne over the last couple of years as king of NASCAR road course racing. His challenger? Prince Stewart.
Tony Stewart has shown that he has what it takes to win on any track, and over the last year and a half, he has been the man to beat on the tracks that require drivers to turn right as well as left. Who knows, however, if Stewart’s 1 ½ year win streak on the two road courses would have happened if Hendrick Motorsports had not chosen to go with an unproven transmission last year at Infineon. Jeff Gordon had a very strong car that day and looked to be cruising to another win, until that tranny malfunction.
Gordon proved once again on Sunday that, if his car is right, he is one that has to be contended with for the win. “This has been just an awesome weekend,” said Gordon, who led a race-high 44 laps.
This is only the third time in Gordon’s career that he has gone this deep into the season before reaching Victory Lane. “Man, I didn’t know if we were ever going to win another one of these races. I knew this team was something special, we just haven’t had a chance to really show it,” he added. “They gave me such an awesome race car this weekend that I had to get them this win. If we didn’t win with this car, we can’t ever win.”
Once again, the road course ‘ringers”, brought in to give their respective teams a boost, came away empty handed. Boris Said, driving a car that he is part owner of, qualified the best of the lot and finished 9th. You have to go all the way down the finishing order to 30th before you find the next road course ace, Scott Pruett, who drove Chip Ganassi’s #40 car for rookie David Stremme. Pruett, a winner for Ganassi in the Rolex Sports Car Series, found rough going on Sunday, having several spins and crashing on the last lap. Ron Fellow’s looked to be headed for success in a road race car built specifically for him by PPI Motorsports. Owner Cal Wells allocated a huge sum of money for the project. The result was a disappointing 37th place finish. P.J. Jones ran well early in the Morgan McClure #4, but in the end only could manage a 36th place finish after contact with Jamie McMurray.
Sunday’s race proved that, above all, there are only a handful of current drivers who are capable of winning at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Having won his ninth race on this type of track Sunday at Infineon, Jeff Gordon is once again seated on his throne as king of the road courses.