Gordon 'can't wait' to race at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Sept. 28, 2010) – NASCAR’s top division first raced here in 2001, and Jeff Gordon led 53 laps en route to the inaugural victory. A year later, he once again visited Victory Lane after leading 116 laps. Overall, Gordon’s six top-five finishes (67 percent), seven top-10s and 8.9 average finishing position in nine starts are tops among all drivers at the Kansas track. “When I look at the 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Kansas is the one that stands out to us,” said Gordon, who is eighth in the championship standings and 83 points behind the leader. “We won the first two races here, and that certainly gives us a lot of confidence each time we come back. “When you start off well at a track like we did, it quickly becomes one of your favorite tracks. Even when we aren’t at our best, Kansas seems to be one of our good tracks where we can post strong finishes. We’ve had three consecutive top-five finishes here, but I think we’re a much better team going into this year’s race.” Last year, Gordon’s bid to capture the victory came up short as he trailed race winner Tony Stewart across the line by less than a second. Earlier this year, Gordon had a strong showing to finish third at Chicagoland Speedway -- a track similar to Kansas. “We ran well at Chicago, and that’s probably the closest track (in terms of layout and banking) to Kansas on the circuit,” Gordon said. “Our intermediate program has been really strong this year, so that has us excited heading into the upcoming races. “Other than Charlotte, we have been good on the mile-and-a-halves and two- mile tracks this year. I’m really looking forward to this stretch of races, and we know we have to get better at Charlotte. But that’s in a couple weeks. Right now, I can’t wait to get to Kansas.”