Jeff Gordon is trying to climb his way back to the top of the Nextel Cup Series -- eventually. Credit: Autostock

Gordon thrilled following top-10 finish at Kansas

Four-time champ knows adjusting to team changes a slow process

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Jeff Gordon is the only two-time Cup Series winner in Kansas Speedway's short history, but never had the four-time series champion savored a 10th place finish as much as he did Sunday.

Gordon, who will finish the season outside the top 10 in the Cup standings for only the second time in his career, is still trying to finish 11th to earn a $1 million bonus and a place on the stage at the Nextel Cup awards ceremony.

Credit: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images

Inside the Numbers Jeff Gordon's top-10 runs in 2005 Date Venue Finish 2/20 Daytona 1st 3/13 Las Vegas 4th 4/10 Martinsville 1st 5/1 Talladega 1st 5/7 Darlington 2nd 6/12 Pocono 9th 7/2 Daytona 7th 8/7 Indianapolis 8th 8/27 Bristol 6th 10/9 Kansas 10th Victory LaneMark Martin celebrates his 35th career win at Kansas On the moveGreg Biffle gains two spots in the point standings Banquet 400Catch all the highlights of the Chase in Kansas Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

And in his fourth race with new crew chief Steve Letarte, Gordon scored his first top-10 finish anywhere since Bristol in August -- and his first top-10 on a superspeedway since three races before that, at the Allstate 400.

In the process, Gordon jumped up two spots in the points, from a season-worst 16th to 14th. He's 81 points behind 11th-place Kevin Harvick.

"It was a real good day for us," Gordon said. "We adjusted on it. I was real happy with all the changes we made and I felt like we made improvements throughout the day."

That was the intent of Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team when they put former crew chief Robbie Loomis -- who announced he would leave the organization after the season -- in a consultant's position and elevated car chief Letarte into the crew chief's spot, to build for the future.

"The biggest thing is just getting me comfortable so I can get aggressive and we can get aggressive with the setups," Gordon said. "I need something to lean on and feel secure and be able to jump back in that throttle and carry that corner speed -- that's what makes fast racecars and eventually it can win races.

"We're working a little bit with the pit crew and communication between Steve and myself (and) everything is going in the right direction. It's a slow process. It's not going to happen overnight. We know that."

Contenders in the Chase for the Nextel Cup dominated Sunday's Banquet 400, taking the first seven positions behind winner Mark Martin, who broke a 52-race winless skein.

Gordon was ecstatic to come back to 10th after he fell nearly to 30th with less than 100 laps to go.

"I hate that we lost track position there one time, but a top-10 -- oh man, I hadn't had a top-10 on a speedway, like a 1.5-mile track in a long, long time," Gordon said. "We weren't good enough for those guys up there in the top four or five, but we were definitely capable of pulling off something a little bit better than where we were."

Gordon was scored in the top 10 for the first 120 laps of the race before he dropped back and was scored in 26th at 180 of 267 laps. From there, the struggle was on.

"Unfortunately we just lost track position and could never get it back," Gordon said. "At the beginning of the race, I was pretty happy to be hanging on to [Matt] Kenseth and some of those guys.

"We had to make some adjustments to be better on the long runs and we fell back but finally came back up to 10th."

Gordon acknowledged Kansas was a big step in the right direction for his team.

"We brought a little bit different car here and thought it was better than what we've had and know what direction we think we want to go in," Gordon said. "And we just hope that over the next several weeks we just gradually start seeing improvements."

Sunday's result has Gordon enthused going to Lowe's Motor Speedway this week, even though he says he has concerns about the adjusted track surface and the resultant high speeds.

"I talked to [someone] who tested there and he told me he thought the track was fine -- it had a lot of grip and it was fast," Gordon said. "You just had to run around the bottom. I think some guys got themselves in trouble.

"I'm more concerned about tires being an issue than anything else. That place is so fast. And to run those speeds lap after lap is definitely a concern for the right-front tire."