Notes: Danica re-ups with IndyCar for three years

If Danica Patrick intends to try her hand at NASCAR any time soon, it won't be a full-time proposition. Patrick reportedly has re-signed with her current IndyCar Series team, Andretti Green Racing, having agreed to a three-year contract.

The relatively short 17-race IndyCar season still gives plenty Patrick plenty of time to dabble in the stock-car arena, if she so chooses. John Andretti, driver of the No. 34 Chevrolet and cousin of Andretti Green owner Michael Andretti, thinks Patrick needs to accumulate stock-car racing experience before contemplating a full-time move to NASCAR.

"I think we'd all welcome her, but I'm really happy for Michael and for his team," John Andretti said. "That is great for them, and maybe Danica can still try some of this stuff, too, and see what she thinks."

Gordon's mission clear going into Dover

Trailing teammate Mark Martin by 102 points in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Jeff Gordon didn't mince words when asked about his goals for Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, the second race in the Chase.

"We need to be in the top 10," said Gordon, who finished 15th last Sunday at New Hampshire and dropped to 10th in the standings. "That's really the bottom line. Everybody is going to have a 15th-or-worse-place finish, I believe, somewhere along the way. It could possibly be worse than that when you get to Talladega and Martinsville -- those places where the unknown is there.

"Obviously, we've got some ground to make up, but we're not sitting here going, 'OK, we've got to make it all up right here at Dover -- we're in a do-or-die situation.' We're not. We're looking at it as nine races. We've got nine races to get our consistency up, our performance up. We've got to lead some laps. When we're in position to battle for a win, we've got to pull off the win."

Gordon has one victory this year, at Texas in April, but his fortunes already have improved at Dover. At the last race at the Monster Mile, in May, Gordon crashed during qualifying, started 42nd and finished 26th. In Friday's qualifying session, Gordon earned the seventh starting position for Sunday's race.

Fans to decide Fontana start time in 2010

NASCAR fans will get to decide when gentlemen can start their engines for next February's Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway.

For the first time at the track, fans will decide what time the green flag will drop for the Feb. 21, 2010 race. The choices are 3 p.m. ET (noon PT) or 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m PT).

Fans can vote through the track's Web site, Facebook or MySpace pages, its Twitter account and e-mail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.