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.

"Right now, I think that because of the pressure we felt from being winless last year, it's important for us to gain some momentum and confidence that we're doing the right things, for Steve and the calls he's making, for me and the moves I'm making, just to be successful, in synch as a team," said Gordon, who will start third in the 500. "I think that's what [Thursday] does. It just puts a smile on everybody's face. Everybody is patting one another on the back and really excited about Sunday's race. However you can get that is important, and I think [Thursday] we were able to achieve that. We've got to keep it going, though."

In Letarte's mind, last year the No. 24 team paid for the successes of 2007, when Gordon won six times and nearly won his fifth championship. Nobody wanted to tinker with a program that seemed at the top of its game. Then the new car went full time, and Gordon had difficulty getting comfortable on intermediate tracks, and an outfit that had been one of the best in NASCAR began pedaling backward. If anything, Gordon's winless season gave Letarte license to overhaul.

"It's very hard to evaluate a program when you have a successful program like we had in '07, where last year it was easier to come in and change anything and everything when you really have no success to lean on," Letarte said. "It's no different than we did in '05. We missed the Chase. It was very easy to change anything. Nothing was sacred. There was nothing sacred. I think maybe me, including other people, but I'll take the brunt of it, maybe I got back on my heels and made some things a little too sacred that didn't need to be. We've since changed all those. Anything can change to make the car go fast. We'll change any of the above to make it go fast."

They did it in spite of an offseason devoid of any testing on sanctioned NASCAR tracks. So far, Gordon likes what he sees. And he continues to support his crew chief, a popular target of derision among No. 24 faithful who grew increasingly restless last year.

"You know, he's feeling the pressure, because he knows what's going on in the media, [with] the fans. He knows whether we're winning or we're not winning," Gordon said of Letarte. "I don't need to speak for him. We're doing everything we can to work together as a team. I believe 100 percent in the guy, in the moves he's making. I think 2007 proved it. We got behind last year. We can't get that back. But what we can do is learn from it, grow from it, and use that to motivate us. This reminds me of 2000. In 2000, even though we won three races, I felt like it was one of our worst seasons. We came out of that and won the championship the next year because it motivated us. It showed us what we're capable of, how hard we had to dig down."

Besides, there was enough blame to go around. Gordon willingly takes some of it. "Last year I didn't feel like I was on my best game," the driver said. He cites as example his last start at Daytona, this past July, where he believes he had enough car and track position and still couldn't do anything with it. He wound up 30th. He's trying to take better care of himself, working to improve his strength and flexibility, and nursing a sometimes troublesome back. The ultimate goal: no excuses.

There certainly weren't any Thursday, when he looked like the old Gordon again. As he came off the final corner, other contenders were stacked up behind him, glancing high and low and looking to make a move. They didn't matter. "We got it. We got it," Gordon said confidently over the radio as he approached the checkered flag. "Way to go. That's the way to start 2009, baby!" If there is a common theme running throughout these Speedweeks, it's a subtle one centering around Gordon, who's driving as if the events of last year never happened. Will it carry over to California, and Las Vegas, and Atlanta and beyond? Who knows.

But for one week, at least, Jeff Gordon is back.

"We have a great race car and a great team right here in Daytona," he said. "We've got to capitalize on that, and seize that moment. I don't want to let these guys down."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.