Gordon

We know he's out there. We've seen the rainbow colored No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet running around the tracks at Daytona, Rockingham, Las Vegas and Atlanta.

So how is it that defending and four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon is nowhere to be found in the top-10 of this week's standings heading into this Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway?

For a guy who many predicted would make the 2002 season a runaway from the opening green flag at Daytona, Gordon has quickly slipped from fourth-place two weeks ago to an uncharacteristically low 11th-place.

To put that into a clearer perspective, consider this: Gordon has not been this low in the weekly standings in over a year, since he was 29th following the 2001 Daytona 500, only to rebound to seventh place the following week at Rockingham. From that point on, Gordon was never lower than fourth in the rest of the 2001 campaign, with most weeks finding him either No. 1 or No. 2 on the points ladder.

That's why this Sunday's race couldn't come at a more opportune time for Gordon. Five of his 58 career wins, the most for him at any of the 23 tracks currently on the Winston Cup circuit, have come at the venerable Darlington facility. Gordon's five wins there tie him with Bill Elliott for most wins at Darlington by active drivers, and he has also started three times from the pole at the legendary South Carolina racing complex.

If there's any track on the circuit that can help Gordon turn his season around rather quickly, the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval at the legendary "Track Too Tough To Tame" is the place.

"The competition is so tough these days and we've been just a little off these past few races," Gordon said. "We've had some poor qualifying efforts and that has put us behind from the drop of the green flag.

"We need to focus on a good run in qualifying on Friday before we even begin to think about the race on Sunday."

Gordon's scorecard thus far in 2002 has had him finishing ninth at Daytona, seventh at Rockingham, and then slipping to showings of 17th (Las Vegas) and 16th (Atlanta) in the last two events. Compounding the problem, even though he was last season's Winston Cup champion, Gordon has not cracked the top-5 finishers in his last 12 events, a span that began following his last win in the inaugural Protection One 400 at Kansas last September.

That's why Gordon is so elated to be racing at Darlington Raceway this weekend.

"This has been a good track for us, even the first couple of races," Gordon said. "We ran competitive but I would get caught up in an accident or we would blow a motor. It wasn't until 1995 before everything came together and we won our first race here."

	It hasn't quite been all smiles for Jeff Gordon off the track.

Gordon's five victories at Darlington came in 1995, 1996 (twice), 1997 and 1998, with four of those being the fall race there. On the flip side, the three pole positions he's earned there have all come in the late winter/early spring event such as this weekend's race, starting at the front of the pack in the 1995, 1999 and 2000 events.

What's more, Gordon usually starts strong there, with only three of his 18 career starts at Darlington being outside the top 10. After finishing outside the top-20 in his first three starts there, Gordon has nine top-3 finishes in his last 15 starts there. He's also led 998 laps while racing there.

Ironically, rookie Jimmie Johnson is even ahead of Gordon, who is part-owner of the No. 48 car that Johnson drives. Johnson sits one spot in front of Gordon in 10th-place in the Cup standings.

"Maybe I need to go ask him for some advice," Gordon joked of Johnson. "We did talk about the different lines before his test (at Darlington earlier this year) and we picked each others' brains after the test.

"Before the race, I'll probably remind him that it will be a long race and he needs to save his tires.

"I'll probably also remind him that I'm part-owner of the car and that he doesn't need to tear it up. I don't need any extra headaches."

Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com