Fin :-}
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Numbers: Darlington
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/features/05/08/cup.by.the.numbers.darlington/index.html
Lady in Black could help Gordon get into top 12
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
May 8, 2008
11:12 AM EDT
-He’s ranked 13th in points, 339 behind leader Kyle Busch but just six back of 12th-place Kasey Kahne. He’s on pace to lead fewer laps this season than any other since 2000. And he’s still searching for his first win of the season — providing a glaring zero in the W column that hasn’t appeared since his rookie year in 1993.
Yet Jeff Gordon has got to feel good about this weekend.
He’s the defending winner, beating Denny Hamlin last year on pit strategy and opting to stay out during the final round of pit stops to lead the final 22 laps — his only time up front in last year’s race. He pulled into Victory Lane with steam spewing like a geyser out of his No. 24 car for his seventh victory at the Track Too Tough to Tame, inching him closer to former tamers David Pearson with 10 wins and Dale Earnhardt with nine.
Quite frankly, Gordon has been the master of Darlington. In 27 starts there, he’s led laps in all but five races. He even led one lap in his debut, a 22nd-place finish in a 39-car field.
Following a three-race stinger in 2003 and 2004 when he finished 33rd, 32nd and 41st, Gordon has made podium appearances since: third in the 2004 fall race, second in 2005 and 2006, first in 2007.
So if it’s victories Gordon is in search of, Darlington has been the medicine in the past. If it’s points, the Lady in Black has provided for both Gordon and his stable mates.
1,401Points scored by Jimmie Johnson in the last 10 Darlington races, ranking him second behind Jeff Gordon’s 1,404. Johnson, however, has only started nine of those races.
JJ and Menard wrecked two cars in practice. Crash gordon also had an incident today.
Still checking for more.
Hamlin just lost his chance to qualify in the NW race by driving too hard.
And doing a d*mn fine job of it!
Hopefully Flash will do better than the Stars did!