Gordon's emphasis still keeping track at Kansas

You can choose to believe or not believe Jeff Gordon when he said this week he is happy with the way his team is performing these days and he still has a decent shot at winning this season's Sprint Cup championship.

But you had better believe Gordon when he says Sunday's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway is the key to everything for him and his team.

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Short term and, perhaps, long term.

"All we can do is just go try to turn things around this weekend in Kansas," Gordon said. "And we know that if those guys continue the way that they are, we have got to win to gain points on them."

"Those guys" would be the seven drivers -- four in particular -- who will arrive at Kansas Speedway this weekend ahead of him in the Chase.

The best of those guys, Mark Martin, is 122 points ahead of Gordon. Second-place Jimmie Johnson is a sizable 112 points ahead of Gordon. Third- and fourth-place drivers Juan Montoya and Kurt Busch are 57 and 47 points ahead of him.

With Kansas and then seven more races to go in the Chase, yes, Gordon absolutely had better win Sunday to keep hopes for a fifth series championship in tact.

Can he get that victory?

That very question, in fact, was asked of him by a fan right off the bat during a teleconference this week.

Gordon thanked the fan for his question -- The Question -- and then said, "We haven't had the best start [to the Chase] especially compared to our teammates [Martin and Johnson]. But this last week in Dover was certainly a good performance. We didn't get the finish we were hoping for, but I feel in Kansas, we are capable, very capable, of getting that win that we need to really move ourselves up to where we need to be to battle for this championship. So hopefully we can pull that off."

Gordon has history to serve as a foundation of his hopes. He is the only driver to win more than once at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, winning the first two races, in 2001 and '02.

But those victories came when the Cup Series ran the cars of yesterday. It was before the Chase format was introduced, and it was when Gordon was at least decent when it came to racing on intermediate tracks.

Gordon has not won a championship since the Chase was introduced in 2004. Of his 82 career victories, only seven have come in the new race car. And at 1.5-mile tracks, Gordon has won just three times in the Chase era -- at Chicagoland in 2006, at Lowe's in 2007 and at Texas in April.

"I think our chances are really good," he said of Kansas. "I've been really excited about the mile-and-a-halfs in the final 10 races in the Chase. I feel like that's something that we have really done a great job with improving from last season, and I feel like that's where this championship can really get turned around for us."

FIVE TO WATCH

Tony Stewart, No. 14: Stewart is fifth in points and the first driver who is more than 100 points behind Martin. Kansas could well determine whether the 2009 Stewart Story still has a chance to have a great ending or merely a good one. He has one victory at Kansas.

Matt Kenseth, No. 17: Kenseth is out of the Chase, but it could be dang interesting to watch him this weekend to see if the great ride he had last week at Dover was a fluke or a sign of good things to come. He finished third at Dover. He has never won at Kansas but has driven well there, leading laps in four races.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33: Bowyer is the home-state guy at Kansas. He wants to win Daytona first and then Kansas. He does well at home. Some say he won the 2007 race at Kansas when he crossed the finish line ahead of the declared winner, Greg Biffle, under caution. He would like to win for real this year and is driving well enough to do it.

Juan Montoya, No. 42: The guy is a threat everywhere these days. He not only would like to win at Kansas for what it will do to his Chase hopes, but also because it would give him his first career victory on an oval. And you better believe that means a lot to him.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48: This could be the weekend the other drivers in the Chase dread. It could be the weekend when Johnson moves to the points lead. History shows that once there, he is tough to unseat. He won at Kansas last year.

TRACK CHATTER

Greg Erwin, crew chief for Greg Biffle: "We're taking a brand-new car to Kansas this weekend. It was built with Kansas in mind, and it worked out that it was finished in time to take this weekend."

Lance McGrew, crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Places like Charlotte, Texas, Chicago -- I think each one of those offers something you can take to Kansas. The good thing about Kansas, as well as Chicago over the years, is it went from being really a one-groove racetrack to one that has widened out to where you can get two- or three-wide. As a driver, it allows you to hunt around and find a place on the racetrack where your car works. We'll probably look at Chicago first and go from something like that."

Joey Logano, whose car flipped seven times last weekend at Dover: "I'm ready to get back to the track and put last week behind us." (Video)