Jeff Gordon earned a berth in the Championship Round of this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and according to team owner Rick Hendrick, it couldn't have come at a better time or taken place at a better track.
Gordon, 44 and closing out one of the most impressive careers in the history of NASCAR, scored his 93rd career victory Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, automatically earning a chance to race for a fifth, and final, title three weeks from now at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"I won my first race (as an owner) there," with driver Geoff Bodine, Hendrick told NASCAR.com on Tuesday. It was a victory that "kept us alive," he said.
This most recent win "puts Jeff in the Chase in his final year. … He's been such a big asset to our company and to me personally as a friend. It's pretty darn special."
Hendrick said there were several things that made Sunday's victory in the Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 more meaningful than most. Which is pretty strong when one considers that Hendrick teams have won 238 points races, including the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600. Legendary races at legendary facilities.
"We were so close last year with Jeff," Hendrick said. "We go to Texas leading the points (and) he gets taken out. We go to Phoenix, he runs second. He goes to Homestead and leads the better part of that race and you think what could have been. Because the race was actually over in Texas and they threw that damn caution. That was kind of bitter.
"You start this year and we didn't run as good this year as we did a year ago. Then you go to Martinsville, a place that's been so good to us, the 22 or so wins, and it's been a place where we've had tragedy. …
"To see him on his 'farewell tour,' his last race, go to Homestead and be one of four cars that have a shot to win the championship, I think that's a storybook (finish) all in itself, no matter how he ends up. That's a great deal. It's going to be special for a lot of his fans and the sport itself. I just think Martinsville was a super, unbelievable win. It's got to go in there, probably ranks as one of the most important and special wins in our career."
Gordon won championships for Hendrick in 1995, '97-98 and '01. He has not won a title since the Chase format was adopted in 2004, but has finished as high as second (2007).
As of now, he's the only driver guaranteed to be racing for the championship. Stops at Texas, up this weekend, and Phoenix in two weeks, will trim the eight-driver field down to its final four.
"I think by winning early for Jeff, he won't be as nervous at Phoenix and he won't be as nervous at Texas and there will be a whole lot of guys around you racing awfully nervous," Hendrick said, "… a mistake's going to cost them.
"There are a lot of good guys and it's going to be really interesting to see who the final four are going to be, when you've got some guys at the bottom that are on the outside looking in. Somebody's going to be disappointed in the next two weeks."
Gordon has driven for no other team owner in the Sprint Cup Series since making his debut with HMS at the end of the 1992 season. Hendrick has seen the driver thoroughly dominate the competition – he won 47 races in a five-year span between '95 and '99 – and he's seen him struggle, going winless in '08 and '10.
Although Sunday's victory was Gordon's first of the season, Hendrick says he knows the No. 24 team has the talent and ability to win the title.
"Just knowing Jeff Gordon and how he can step it up when it's time," he said. "He's not going to go back there and turn over people to run 15th or 11th.
"You haven't seen him in a situation where it's all the marbles for a championship. Usually you work all year long and it's every single week. Now it's a one-race championship really, that's what it's come down to. At a place where he won the race the year before last, led a lot of laps last year. Different rules, but he likes the track, just like Martinsville."
Hendrick would like nothing better than to see his driver go out on top, a fitting end to an amazing career. The stakes won't be any higher but the owner says he has no trouble keeping things in perspective.
"It ain't life-threatening, that's what I always say," Hendrick said. "I've learned if you let it eat you alive, you never get better. When we lose, it motivates us to go back and work harder.
"We're just going to do the best we can; we'll go down there with the best stuff we have and try to beat the rest of them.
"We made it this far; we made it to the final round and right now we're the only ones that can say that."