Jeff Gordon eager to find road to success again

Reporting from Sonoma, Calif. — If there’s one track where Jeff Gordon would seem poised to break his frustrating winless streak in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, it would be Infineon Raceway.

With a record five wins at Infineon, Gordon is the top Cup driver at the 10-turn, 1.99-mile track nestled in the wine country not far from Gordon’s hometown of Vallejo.

Gordon will try for a sixth victory Sunday when the series returns for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, one of the series’ two races on snake-like road courses. The other is in Watkins Glen, N.Y., in August. Qualifying to set the 43-car field is Friday.

Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing rolls into Sonoma with a series-high five wins this season, including the last two races at Michigan and Pocono. Hamlin also is third in the point standings and his teammate Kyle Busch — the 2008 winner at Infineon — is second.

Leading the Cup standings is Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick, who has never won a Cup race at Infineon in nine starts for Richard Childress Racing.

Infineon is appealing to some Cup drivers who have road-racing prowess, such as Gordon and two-time Infineon winner Tony Stewart, although “every team in the garage loves to come here and enjoys the wine country,” driver Clint Bowyer, a Harvick teammate, said Thursday.

Stewart said Infineon demands a well-handling car and “it’s really a driver’s track. You have to do the work behind the steering wheel.”

A four-time Cup champion, Gordon is hungry to end a 44-race winless spell. And his last victory, at Texas in April, 2009, has been the only win in the last 92 races for Gordon, who turns 39 on Aug. 4. Gordon also hasn’t won a championship since the introduction of NASCAR’s Chase playoff format in 2004.

He’s nearly reached Victory Lane more than once this year and has six top-five finishes through the first 15 races of the 36-race Cup season. But Gordon and his No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet haven’t been able to close the deal.

The resultant frustration — or, as some see it, Gordon’s renewed aggressiveness this season — contributed to a brief feud this spring between Gordon and teammate and friend Jimmie Johnson, who has won the Cup title the last four consecutive years and whose No. 48 Chevys are built in the same building as Gordon’s.

After the two had close calls in consecutive races at Texas and Talladega, Ala., Gordon publicly griped about Johnson’s driving, but Johnson gave it right back, saying he was “disappointed” with Gordon’s driving as well.

Their dispute soon dissipated but Gordon’s winless streak has not. Still, “with the success we’ve had there [at Infineon], this is an event we always look forward to,” Gordon said. “And it’s always a fun weekend because I have so many family and friends in the area.”

Johnson, by the way, is among the drivers who have never won a Cup race at Infineon. Neither has veteran Jeff Burton, who will make his 500th consecutive start Sunday, the 10th-longest streak in NASCAR history.

But thanks to Gordon’s five victories, Rick Hendrick is the track’s most successful NASCAR team owner and will be inducted into Infineon’s “Walk of Fame” on Friday.

james.peltz@latimes.com