Gordon Busy Concentrating on Own Racing

Jeff Gordon has been through this kind of championship race before, and he knows just what to do.

The three-time Winston Cup winner is tied with 1999 champion Dale Jarrett for the series lead. Ricky Rudd is right in their wake, hoping for his first series championship.

The three points leaders have been almost inseparable of late.

Last Sunday in New Hampshire, Jarrett won, Gordon was second and Rudd third. Just six weeks ago, in the season’s first race on Pocono’s 2.5-mile tri-oval, Rudd won, with Gordon second and Jarrett third.

Still, heading into Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono International Raceway--the 19th race of a 36-race season -- Gordon is concerned about one team and one car: his own.

“Dale and Ricky have been running great but we can’t be concerned with what they’re doing,” Gordon said. “I’ve learned in the past that you don’t focus on what the other teams are doing. You focus on your own program and your own team.”

Adapting to Pocono was tough at first for Gordon. In his rookie year, he finished 28th and 37th. Since then he has finished outside of the top-10 only twice. Both times he encountered problems after leading.

“Pocono is a difficult track with three very different corners, and it took a couple of races for me to get used to it,” Gordon said. “I worked hard on learning the line and the team worked hard to get better setups.”

In 17 events at speedway in the Pocono Mountains, Gordon has three wins, nine top-5s and 13 top-10s. He has led the most laps four times including last month when he was out front for 86 of the 200 laps.

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NO PROBLEM: Just about every story about the New Hampshire race said Jarrett bumped aside Rudd -- his Robert Yates Racing teammate -- en route to victory.

Jarrett doesn’t look at it that way.

“Everything that I’ve seen said that I bumped him, and I’m telling you I did not hit his race car until we were side by side and he moved over to block me,” Jarrett said.

Apparently, though, neither is upset by the way the race ended.

“Ricky and I have talked,” he said. “We’re going to treat each other as teammates. We’re not going to take each other out, but we also know that we’re hired to go win the race.

“Ricky and I are fine with everything. It looks like everybody else is trying to stir something up, but we’ve talked and the teams are fine. We know that we have to continue to work together and no matter what’s written or said, we’re going to be OK with each other, and that’s what we have to do. Robert doesn’t give us orders other than to go out and try to finish first and second every week.”

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TREADING WATER: Tony Stewart thought he was on his way to making the three-way race for the Winston Cup title a four-way battle after finishing seventh last month in Pocono and following that with a victory on the road course in Sonoma, Calif.

After the first Pocono race, he was fifth in the standings, trailing then-leader Gordon by 239 points. Going into Sunday’s race, he is fourth, but is 274 points behind the co-leaders.

That could have been much different if not for some misfortune.

In Daytona, Stewart was penalized from sixth to 26th and lost 65 points for an illegal pass late in the race. The next race, in Joliet, Ill., he was running ninth with 10 laps to go when he got caught up in a crash and finished 33rd. Stewart did bounce back with a strong fifth last week in New Hampshire.

“This hasn’t been a rut; it’s just bad luck,” he said. “If we were actually 26th at Daytona or 33rd at Chicago, then yeah, we’d be a lot more frustrated. But we’re not. We’re running up front, where we should be.”

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BUSCH MOPAR: Steven Christian will try to qualify for the Sept. 7 Autolite/Fram 250 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in a Dodge, hoping to be the first driver to race one of the new Intrepids in the NASCAR Busch Series.

Dodge returned this year to the Winston Cup Series for the first time in 16 years, and has been involved with the Craftsman Truck Series for the past several years.

Christian tested the car at Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, Ga., on Monday, and plans to run five races this season.