Gordon prepares for his drive for four-plus-one

LOUDON, N.H. -- Forget the drive for five. Jeff Gordon has a new goal in mind.

Call it the drive for four-plus-one.

The NASCAR star has his sights set on another championship, opening the Chase for the Sprint Cup sixth in points. But should Gordon -- who won all four of his crowns under the previous, season-long system -- finally win his first title under the current 10-race playoff format, he won't necessarily consider himself a five-time champion.

"Because it's such a drastic change, even if we win the championship this year, I don't think you can count it as five. You'd have to count it as one and count the other as four. It's separated," Gordon said at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the Chase begins Sunday.

"The history has changed, how you go about the championship. Who's crowned as the champion is totally different. I think it's more challenging than it's ever been, very competitive, and extremely exciting to see 12 guys going for it over 10 races in a playoff-type system. I think it's where our sport needs to be to compete with the other major sports. ...

"But if I win a Sprint Cup -- which I hope I do, I know I want to really bad -- I'm personally going to count it a little bit different than what the stats and record books are going to show."

Gordon begins his pursuit 30 points behind leader Mark Martin, and without a victory since his triumph April 5 at Texas -- which snapped a 47-race winless skid. But he has six second-place finishes this year, and enters the Chase having notched top-10s in 10 of his past 13 starts. With regular-season leader Tony Stewart and three-time defending Jimmie Johnson getting the bulk of the pre-Chase attention, Gordon finds himself in the unfamiliar role of dark horse.

It's not an altogether unwelcome situation.

"I'm fine with the bull's-eye or the target not being on us, because it allows us to just focus on doing our job. I also know that if we're going to win it, that bull's-eye is going to be on us eventually, and hopefully we'll put ourselves in position to have it layer in the Chase," he said.

"I feel like we're really strong. I think we've got a great team. I think we've shown that throughout the year, and I feel like the last couple of weeks we've really shown just how strong we are. We've led laps, we've competed strong, we've been great on pit road. I think we've communicated well, qualified pretty well. I don't think there's anybody stronger than us at this point, but [being a dark horse] is what everybody is going to say. It's about executing that week in and week out over 10 weeks. That's what's going to prove that."

For Gordon, a Chase title has proven a frustrating quest. He finished the inaugural Chase in third, 16 points behind champion Kurt Busch, although he would have won the title by 47 points had the previous system remained in place. And then there was his blockbuster 2007 season, when he rolled to a massive regular-season lead, tallied six wins and 30 top-10 finishes, and lost the title to Johnson by 77 points. Under the old system, he would have won by 353.

Yet there's no grousing over what might have been. "I don't feel like anything owes me," Gordon said.

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