Gordon: Glen Marks Second Race of ‘Important Month’

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (Aug. 12, 2005) – “We’ve run out of time, the pressure’s on and we have to step up to the plate,” Jeff Gordon said. “August is going to be a very important month for Team DuPont if we’re going to make the Chase.” While the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion did not win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, Gordon twice battled back from deep in the field to post an eighth-place finish. More importantly, he gained 27 points toward a qualifying position into the “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.” Gordon, who has five races to make up the 87-point deficit to 10th, knows he cannot rely on past performances as the series visits Watkins Glen International on Sunday. In 12 career starts at the 2.45-mile road course, Gordon has four victories, two poles, six top-fives and seven top-10s. Combined with his four wins at Infineon Raceway, Gordon’s eight trips to Victory Lane at road course events are two more than his closest competitor. “Watkins Glen has been a good track for us in the past, but that doesn’t guarantee us a good finish,” Gordon said. “We won the pole at Sonoma and led a lot of laps before transmission problems led to a poor result. “I'm not going to count on anything until we get some top-fives and some top-10s on a consistent basis. It doesn’t matter what the past statistics show, and we recognize that.” The two remaining races in August are at Michigan International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway -- two tracks where the No. 24 DuPont team will test within the next two weeks. “This is a critical time for us because of where we are in the points,” Gordon said. “We’ve run well everywhere we’ve tested this year, and hopefully that trend continues. “While we have some good tracks for us coming up, we need to make sure we have good results.”