First win at Texas another one of many for Gordon

And then there was one.

As in only one current race track where Jeff Gordon has never won. To understand how remarkable that is in the wake of his victory Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, all you need to know is that even three-time defending points champion Jimmie Johnson is nowhere close to touching him on this one.

Not only that, but the argument could be made that Johnson, exceptional talent though he is, will never reach Gordon's rear bumper in pursuit of this rare feat.

Gordon, who will turn 38 years old this Aug. 4, broke a 47-race winless streak by winning at Texas. But before we get to the most impressive of his numbers, let's take note of a couple of others:

• It was his sixth consecutive finish of sixth or better this season. There have been only seven Sprint Cup races to date, which is why he leads the championship standings by 162 points over -- who else? -- Johnson, who moved into second by finishing second Sunday.

• Sunday's win also was the 82nd of Gordon's illustrious career. Only five drivers in the 60-year history of the sport have won more, and you know all of their names: Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

Soon Gordon will be third. He's only one victory behind Yarborough now and just two behind both Allison and Waltrip (although there is a long-held belief that Allison actually should be credited with 85 career wins and not 84, he's still listed tied with Waltrip at 84 in the NASCAR media guide).

That's right. You know it's inevitable now that Gordon will leave Allison, Waltrip and Yarborough eating his dust -- and probably before this season is out. His fast start this season, his steely determination to break his winless streak and chase down a fifth championship -- it all has the feel to it that the Texas win was the beginning of something as big as the state itself.

Gordon may very well be on the verge of catching and passing the aforementioned trio of legends before America celebrates her next birthday and the Cup guys run at Daytona again. He just seems posed to get on that kind of serious roll.

Homestead is next?

But we digress.

The most impressive number associated with Gordon on this day is one. Of the 22 race tracks on which the current 36 races that make up a grueling Cup season are run, Gordon now has won at least once at all of them but one -- Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the season presently wraps up.

To give you a better idea of just how special that is, Johnson, who is chasing an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship, is six tracks shy of winning at every place. He has yet to win at Bristol, Chicago, Michigan, Sonoma and Watkins Glen in addition to Homestead.

Of course, maybe both Gordon and Johnson would have a better shot at winning the season finale at Homestead if they weren't so often in the mix for the championship, which puts them in one of two positions, neither of which has proved conducive for producing a victory there. Johnson usually enters the race looking to protect his place in the point standings, while Gordon has frequently entered it needing a victory so desperately to earn a fifth championship that the pressure, even for him and probably more so for others on his No. 24 Chevrolet team, has been too enormous.

The win at Homestead, alas, usually goes to someone who is building toward next year and has the freedom to be more liberal in chasing a first-or-burst setup.

That Johnson will eventually win at half of the tracks where he has not yet visited Victory Lane is inevitable. He finally seems to be getting better at Bristol, where in the past he has not had a clue -- and there is nothing about Chicago and Michigan to indicate he won't someday win there, too, and probably soon.

But whereas Gordon has multiple wins at Sonoma and Watkins Glen -- the two current Cup road courses -- Johnson has never won at either and doesn't really enjoy running on those kinds of tracks. So even though Johnson is only 33 and already has 41 career victories in 262 Cup starts -- half Gordon's career total in less than half the number of starts (Gordon has 552) -- the guess is that Johnson will never get as close to his older teammate in accomplishing a complete Victory Lap around the Cup schedule.

Don't forget Tony, and ...

Of course, Gordon may not get to do it, either.

If he keeps on trucking like he has been this season and ultimately heads into Homestead next November as the points leader, he'll be looking to cautiously secure his fifth championship instead of going all-out for the win. Then again, the Chase frequently changes everything over the final 10 races, plus that's an awful long way away and therefore impossible to predict at the present time.

Maybe Gordon will go into the final race needing to win to capture that fifth championship; or maybe (but we doubt it), he'll even be one of those guys who is working toward next year and can afford to gamble on a risky win-or-finish-30th setups.

But Gordon may want to hurry in his pursuit of conquering Homestead and being able to boast that he has won at all the tracks the Cup Series has to offer.

That's because there also is the chance that NASCAR will change the schedule right in the middle of the game. Bruton Smith still is hoping to one day soon get a date for Kentucky Speedway, and there are rumblings that Montreal may eventually replace Watkins Glen as the second road course on the circuit.

That could put two new places on the schedule right about the time Gordon is deciding to call it quits, whether he's won at Homestead by then or not.

But before any of that happens, take note of what Gordon has accomplished. The only other driver anywhere close to doing what he is close to doing is Tony Stewart, who is three race tracks shy of owning at least one victory at each of the current 22 venues.

Stewart, who will turn 38 in May, has 33 career victories and has won everywhere but Fontana, Darlington and Las Vegas. As with Gordon, that is a testament to his ability as a driver to adapt to any challenge.

The greatest drivers can win anywhere. In case any of us had temporarily forgotten, Gordon proved again in Texas just how great a driver he truly is. The proof is in the numbers -- or in this case, more specifically, the number one.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.