The 43 Days of Daytona - 11th Place in 2005
Over the 43 days leading up to the Daytona 500, I'll be doing a short review/preview of the Top 43 Drivers of 2005.
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Jeff Gordon
#24 - Dupont / Pepsi / Nicorette
He ran a full season in the Hendrick Motorsports #24. He had 2 poles, 4 wins, 8 Top 5's, and 14 Top 10's. His winnings totaled $6,855,440.
Turmoil in the crew chief position marked his season. They just couldn't seem to get things right...from their perspective. Winning 4 races makes things look pretty dang good from the outside looking in. They threw away a good crew chief in Robbie Loomis. He is going to make the Pettys so much better this year. The bar has risen since the last time Gordon ran for a championship. There are a more good teams who could run for and win it all every year than there were the last time Gordon won a championship. A lot of teams have done a lot of catching up to the premiere teams in NASCAR. Trying to live up to impossible standards and be better than everybody else in the current NASCAR environment is a recipe for disaster. I believe that running Robbie Loomis off like he was the cause of the problem with the #24 team was a mistake. Time will tell how big a mistake.
Considering that Gordon has a lifetime contract with Hendricks...I wonder if lifetime would extend through multiple seasons with no wins and haphazard performance. This is the first "lifetime" contract that I've seen.
Gordon and Superman will again be teaming up for the July Daytona Race just in time for the release of the new Superman Returns movie.
Pepsi has inked as an associate sponsor on the #24 through 2010.
There are currently only four regular NEXTEL Cup tracks that Gordon hasn't won on; Texas, Phoenix, Chicago, and Homestead. Wouldn't surprise me if he knocks one of these off the list this year.
Will sponsorship be big enough to allow the team to field a car every week? Yes. DuPont is another of those Holy Grail sponsorships in NASCAR.
Do I think he could go win a championship? He's always a threat. But I think that with the recent crew chief turmoil and with NASCAR taking a closer look at Hendrick Motorsports in general following the rules violations last year and the problems already this season with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus on the #48, the running for a championship may be overshadowed by trouble within the organization.
Do I think he could win a race or two and have a good season? Yes.
---------------
Jeff Gordon
#24 - Dupont / Pepsi / Nicorette
He ran a full season in the Hendrick Motorsports #24. He had 2 poles, 4 wins, 8 Top 5's, and 14 Top 10's. His winnings totaled $6,855,440.
Turmoil in the crew chief position marked his season. They just couldn't seem to get things right...from their perspective. Winning 4 races makes things look pretty dang good from the outside looking in. They threw away a good crew chief in Robbie Loomis. He is going to make the Pettys so much better this year. The bar has risen since the last time Gordon ran for a championship. There are a more good teams who could run for and win it all every year than there were the last time Gordon won a championship. A lot of teams have done a lot of catching up to the premiere teams in NASCAR. Trying to live up to impossible standards and be better than everybody else in the current NASCAR environment is a recipe for disaster. I believe that running Robbie Loomis off like he was the cause of the problem with the #24 team was a mistake. Time will tell how big a mistake.
Considering that Gordon has a lifetime contract with Hendricks...I wonder if lifetime would extend through multiple seasons with no wins and haphazard performance. This is the first "lifetime" contract that I've seen.
Gordon and Superman will again be teaming up for the July Daytona Race just in time for the release of the new Superman Returns movie.
Pepsi has inked as an associate sponsor on the #24 through 2010.
There are currently only four regular NEXTEL Cup tracks that Gordon hasn't won on; Texas, Phoenix, Chicago, and Homestead. Wouldn't surprise me if he knocks one of these off the list this year.
Will sponsorship be big enough to allow the team to field a car every week? Yes. DuPont is another of those Holy Grail sponsorships in NASCAR.
Do I think he could go win a championship? He's always a threat. But I think that with the recent crew chief turmoil and with NASCAR taking a closer look at Hendrick Motorsports in general following the rules violations last year and the problems already this season with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus on the #48, the running for a championship may be overshadowed by trouble within the organization.
Do I think he could win a race or two and have a good season? Yes.
posted by Mark "Puff" Anderson | 9:17 AM
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