It doesn't count, but it's still a victory for Gordon

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Gordon sounded like he had just won the Daytona 500.

"I'm driving it to Victory Lane. Vic-TORY Lane, baby!" he whooped over the radio, pointing the nose of his No. 24 car toward a place it hadn't visited in almost 16 months. Up on the stage, crewmen in their new black firesuits traded high-fives and broad smiles. Teammate Jimmie Johnson walked over to offer congratulations. Gordon even hoisted baby daughter, Ella, into his arms for a few photographs. No, the victory in Thursday's first qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway didn't really end a winless streak that stretches back to October 2007. But nobody seemed to care.

Video

• Final Laps: Gordon wins Duel 1
• Victory Lane: Celebration time
• Press Pass: Post-race thoughts

"It feels fantastic," said Gordon, a four-time series champion who last year suffered through his first winless campaign since his rookie season of 1993. "We talked before the race, it doesn't matter if it's a qualifying race or the Daytona 500. Any confidence-builder and momentum we can get is a positive."

And if there's anything Gordon needs entering this season, it's momentum. Last year was one of the biggest professional challenges Gordon has faced since he emerged as a championship contender 13 years ago, one where he struggled to fit his driving style with the looser characteristic of the new Sprint Cup car. He made the year-end playoff, but more on the strengths of his innate talent than anything else. He scored some high finishes, but those were often the product of circumstance and not a vehicle he could wheel to the front. And with every passing week the winless streak stretched on, reaching now-interminable lengths for a driver whose 81 career victories rank sixth all time.

Which is why Thursday, Gordon's first victory of any kind since his last Cup win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the fall of 2007, meant so much. Yes, it was only a glorified heat race. Yes, it was only 60 laps long. Yes, it featured just 28 cars. Sunday's main event will be more grueling, more punishing, more unpredictable at the end. But the way Gordon was able to power up through the field, making a draft-aided move from seventh to first over the final nine laps, combined with the strength he's shown throughout these entire Speedweeks -- his run in the 150-miler preceded by a ninth-place effort in pole qualifying and a fourth-place result in the Budweiser Shootout -- make you think the drought could end as early as Sunday.

Beyond that? It's hard to tell right now if the rejuvenation we've seen from the No. 24 camp this weekend is strictly the product of Daytona and all its unique characteristics, or truly the end of the struggles Gordon faced last season. Kyle Busch won the second qualifier, and seemed to dismiss it as any kind of message. "The statement's more so when we get to California, Vegas, Atlanta," he said. But Gordon's program has seen a degree of substantive change, beginning with the new color of the cars and firesuits, and including a fine-tuning of people, equipment, and engineering support overseen by crew chief Steve Letarte. Thursday proved to be a small validation of those moves, which the No. 24 team hopes will produce results well after the cars leave Daytona. (Continued)