Gordon rides streak of top-10 finishes into Lowe's

CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 15, 2009) – After beginning the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a 15th-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon has posted the best average finish in the last three races (3.33) on the heels of two consecutive runner-up finishes. “The last couple of weeks have gone well,” said Gordon, who will drive a specially-painted No. 24 DuPont/TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the Fallen Chevrolet in Saturday's Cup event at Lowe's Motor Speedway. “Even though we have consecutive second-place finishes, at different times during each race it didn’t appear that we’d finish that strong. But we battled hard to get those finishes. And this DuPont team will continue to battle hard through the final six races.” Three of those final six races occur on ovals 1.5-to-two miles in length -- a strong point for the No. 24 team. In the last 16 events on those types of tracks, Gordon has finished in the top-two nine times (56 percent). During that span, the 82-time race winner has 15 top-10s with the lone exception being the 600-miler here in May. Or, more accurately, the 340.5-miler. The rain-shortened event was a battle for the No. 24 team. After starting the race from the third position, Gordon fell to 29th by lap 115 – more than half of the laps completed that day. But crew chief Steve Letarte made some timely chassis adjustments and Gordon actually raced his way back into the top 10 before a pit stop – and then rain – resulted in a 14th-place finish. “I’m looking forward to this weekend because of how strong we’ve been on the intermediate tracks,” said Gordon, who ranks fifth in the standings and has five wins, seven pole positions, 15 top-five finishes and 18 top-10s in 33 career starts at the North Carolina track. “And the new double-file restart rule should make it exciting for the drivers and the fans. We’ve used the double-file restarts at Lowe’s in the All-Star events in the past, and I expect it’ll be the same this weekend -- intense and crazy.”