Team DuPont Hopes ‘Magic Mile’ is Magical

LOUDON, N.H. (July 16, 2005) – With three wins and sitting second in the standings after the first 10 races of the 2005 season, the No. 24 DuPont team and Jeff Gordon were poised to make a run at their fifth NASCAR Cup championship. Six finishes of 30th or worse in the last eight races have dropped them to 15th in the standings -- 502 behind the leader, teammate Jimmie Johnson -- and have them looking for some "magic" at New Hampshire International Speedway in this Sunday's New England 300. Gordon, who has three wins at the 1.058-mile speedway nicknamed "The Magic Mile," is currently outside the parameters set by NASCAR to make the "Chase for NEXTEL Cup." To make the Chase, the four-time champion will need to be in the top 10 in the standings or within 400 points of the leader after race No. 26 at Richmond on Sept. 10. "We have eight races to make up the deficit, but that's not on our minds right now," Gordon said. "We are struggling and we need to turn things around before we can worry about the points situation. "This team is capable of racing for the win each and every weekend. At times, we are, but we're not doing it on a consistent basis. We need to find that consistency again before we even think about the points standings." Along with three wins at NHIS, Gordon has three poles, nine top-fives and 12 top-10s in 20 career starts. He has led 1,067 laps at the speedway, more than any other driver. "A win would be nice, but we are just hoping to lead some laps and post a good finish this weekend," Gordon said. "We had two strong runs here last year, including a second-place finish in this race, and we need to duplicate that. "Things can turn around in an instant. Nothing is going right for us currently, but we've been in situations where nothing could go wrong." No better place to regain that magic than at "The Magic Mile."