Gordon, McMurray vying for $1M in last 400 miles

 

By B. Duane Cross, NASCAR.COM

It was the Drive for Five in '05 for Jeff Gordon. It was supposed to be a 36-race quest for his fifth Cup champion- ship. Instead, the season finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be a drive for five -- as in his fifth win of an otherwise disappointing year.

In addition to challenging for his fifth win, which would tie points leader Tony Stewart and Chase contender Greg Biffle, Gordon also is battling Jamie McMurray for 11th place -- and the $1 million bonus for being the highest points finisher outside the playoffs.

Gordon enters the weekend 10 points ahead of McMurray, who earned his first career pole position at HMS in 2003.

McMurray also finished 11th in points last year, and says Homestead promises to be "an all or nothing weekend for a number of teams including us."

"Even the teams that aren't racing for a position so to speak have something to prove," he said, "so the fans are going to see some very exciting and competitive racing on Sunday.

"We were hoping to go into this race with a firm grip on 11th-place in the standings and make those guys have to race us for the position. Unfortunately we had a tough go of it in Phoenix [18th-place finish] and we find ourselves 10 points out of 11th.

"Jeff Gordon is the guy we have to beat right now and that's going to be a tall order. We're just going to go out there and give it everything we have and we'll see how it all plays out."

In addition to Sunday's Cup race, McMurray also will compete in the Busch Series event Saturday in the No. 09 Dodge.

Despite the $1 million bonus, Gordon said 11th place isn't the team's focus. "If we do what we're supposed to do on the race track, it will work itself out.

"We didn't have the performances and we had some bad luck, which happens, and we didn't make the Chase," Gordon said. "As soon as we missed the Chase, we did a bunch of restructuring and changed how we were setting up race cars. We did drastic things that you can't do when you're in the middle of the season trying to make the Chase or in the Chase. It's so easy to do it when you basically have nothing to lose."

Gordon won three of the first nine races this season, but then hit the skids and careened out of the Chase picture with a 30th-place showing at Richmond in September. That race was the culmination of a 16-race stretch where the four-time champion's average finish was a dismal 22.1 with just four top-10 finishes.

In the wake of Gordon missing the Chase, crew chief Robbie Loomis stepped aside for Steve Letarte, who had served as car chief under Loomis.

"We just made a decision after we missed the Chase that these last 10 races we were just going to start trying things out and experimenting and putting different people in places and getting ourselves ready for 2006.

"The neat thing is that philosophy has been working for us and that gives us some momentum toend the season and that's what we really need so when we go into the off season, the guys in the shop are pumped up and excited about building cars and all the hard work that's going to come getting ready for Daytona and the rest of the season."

In the past six races, Gordon has accumulated 829 points -- sixth-best in the series -- and has a win, three top-five finishes and four top-10s.

"I think we have a little bit of new life in the team, which happens sometimes," Gordon said. "Sometimes you need to get a spark going and get some excitement. Sometimes it takes changes. We've got that right now.

"I like working with Steve Letarte. He's exceeded my expectations. He's been making some great calls. I'm looking forward to next season. We don't like finishing outside the top 10 in points. We want to make sure next year we're battling for the championship."