Gordon focused on success at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. – Jeff Gordon is thinking about championships.

But the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion knows better than to look too far ahead.

“I’m excited about our chances; I’ll be honest.," Gordon said. "Right now it’s about what we do this weekend. We’re off to a great start from Chicago. That feels good. We’ve got to follow that up with another good finish this weekend.”

Gordon opened the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a second-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway that leaves him second in the Chase standings.

Now, New Hampshire Motor Speedway is on deck. And it’s a track where Gordon has excelled, pacing drivers in top-five finishes, top-10s and laps led all-time.

The three-time victor at the track came close to another top-five finish in July, but his No. 24 Chevrolet SS ultimately ran out of fuel before a green-white-checkered attempt.

“You have to really look at the performance when you were at the track the time before because now that we get to come back for the second time that season,” Gordon said. “We had a strong performance and I’m hoping we can learn from some of those things that we went through and perform even better this time around.”

Gordon noted that the team has “confidence and momentum” entering Sunday’s race, and he wants to use that to find Victory Lane and turn his focus to the Contender Round.

“If we can get a win, then we can start thinking about the next round. Then your goal is to get a win early in a round so that you can start focusing for the next one,” said Gordon, who will start Sunday's race 13th. “I would love to be into the next round and in a similar position that we’re in right now so we could start thinking about Martinsville.”