MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Jeff Gordon had mixed feelings about qualifying being washed out by rain for the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway this Sunday.

He felt like he could win the pole. But then, as the Sprint Cup Series points leader, he knew he already had it if the skies did open up.

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We need wins. That's something we're working really hard on right now -- to get to Victory Lane ...

”

JEFF GORDON

The showers did eventually come, so he ended up where he had hoped to be all along (watch video). Now it is a question of what he does with it, as he continues to seek an end to a winless streak that has stretched to 46 races. His last victory came on Oct. 13, 2007, at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"There are only maybe two or three decent [pit] stalls here," Gordon said of Martinsville. "But there's only one really good one -- and that's the No. 1 pit stall. So that's what everybody really shoots for.

"Certainly at this point in the season, leading the points doesn't mean a whole lot other than you're having a pretty good year and you've been consistent. And if it rains, you get that No. 1 stall."

Some of his fellow competitors were wary of Gordon being awarded the pole. Prior to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson wresting the unofficial title of Mr. Martinsville from him by winning four of the last five races at the .526-mile short track, Gordon registered seven victories at the joint. They came over a stretch from 1996 through 2005, when Gordon swept both Martinsville races that season.

"I think any time you're in a Hendrick car here, you're definitely going to have a good shot at dominating the day and going into Victory Lane just based on past history," said Kurt Busch, who is second in points and will start alongside Gordon on the front row Sunday. "Jeff Gordon is very strong. ... [Gordon getting] the first pit box is just icing on the cake."

Gordon said he thought he had a good shot at earning the pole had qualifying been held, and the laps he turned during the one Cup practice prior to rain washing out everything else confirmed that. He spent much of the practice on top of the speed chart, and his top lap speed of 95.985 mph ended up third behind only Denny Hamlin (96.176 mph) and Kevin Harvick (96.058 mph).

Much of the pre-race chatter has involved the hyping of some sort of Mr. Martinsville rivalry between Hendrick's two favorite sons -- Gordon and Johnson. But Gordon downplayed that notion, saying his No. 24 Chevrolet team tries hard not to get caught up in personal rivalries with Johnson or anyone else.

"The mind game thing is not for me. It's just not me," Gordon said. "That car and our team and our performance speaks for itself. If that happens to distract guys because they look at the times and look at how good we are, then great. If we go out there and we win races and we're leading the points and that distracts them, that's great. But that's certainly not our goal or our intention.

"Because of that, we don't do it. On the flip side, certainly we pay attention to who's fast and what we're capable of doing and who we're trying to beat each and every weekend, but it's never one guy. ... And even at this point in the season, one thing I've learned about the Chase is that it's all about the final 10 races."

With the current season only five races old and the start of the 10-race Chase still roughly six months away, it is difficult to fathom who might be where in the points when the Chase finally arrives. But Gordon knows one thing.

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Race Lineup

Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
2.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
3.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
4.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
5.	Carl Edwards	Ford
6.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
7.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
8.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
9.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
10.	Matt Kenseth	Ford

• Lineup | Practice 1 | Photos

"We need wins," he said. "The points system nowadays, you've got to have wins going into that Chase for bonus points as well as momentum. And then you've got to tear it up in those final 10 races.

"That's something we're working really hard on right now -- to get to Victory Lane and get ourselves in a position where we can really focus on being better than we've been in the past in those final 10 races."

So it's really not about the small picture of beating Johnson and everyone else this Sunday at Martinsville, although, in the final analysis, it's all part of the bigger picture of finding a way, any way, to finish ahead of the three-time defending champion Johnson in the all-important Chase.

"We gave Jimmie about as good a run as anybody in 2007," Gordon said. "But there were just tracks where I felt like we -- me personally and us as a team -- are not quite as good as those guys were. And that's where we lost the championship. ... We just got beat at tracks that we were less competitive on."

One of those tracks, at least since 2005, has been Martinsville. No matter how good Gordon has been, Johnson has been a little better.

Gordon would like to change that this Sunday. But he said he is taking nothing for granted, even though he will be starting out front.

"I've never come to Martinsville thinking that I'm the guy to beat," he said. "I've never come here thinking that Jimmie is the only guy to beat. I come here thinking about how to make our car as good as we can possibly make it, so that we don't have to worry about anybody else or think about anybody else once the race starts.

"Then again, this race is not always won by the fastest car. Jimmie really proved that the year that we did battle [in 2007] and bumped and banged, because they did a different pit strategy. We were the fastest car that week and they still won the race. So to me, the fastest guy and the best guys at Martinsville are not always the guys that are going to win the race."

But it helps to be starting from the first pit box. Last fall, Johnson inherited it when rain washed out qualifying and he went on to win after leading 339 laps, dominating the race.

"When you're in that first pit box," Busch said, "it continues to add up to an advantage throughout the day. It's only going to make Jeff Gordon stronger. Those guys will be tough to beat on Sunday because of the fact he's been running strong this year and you add in a track that he's won seven times on. He's probably going to lead 339 laps just like Jimmie Johnson did."

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.