Gordon Leading Rebounder in Winston Cup Series

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - After a rare poor finish at Rockingham Sunday, the odds are that Jeff Gordon will bounce back as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 this weekend.

Before finishing 25th at Rockingham, Gordon had finished outside of the top 20 six times in 2001. In the races following those finishes he has posted top fives in all but one. His best rebound performance came after finishing 27th at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May. The next race at Dover, Gordon led 381 of 400 laps en route to winning his second race of the season.

"One of the characteristics of a championship team is that they bounce back from a bad finish," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet. "We've been able to do it all year and I don't expect it to be any different this weekend.

"You do some soul searching after a bad finish like that," said Robbie Loomis, crew chief of the No. 24 team. "We're really looking forward to redeeming ourselves at Homestead.

"We did a two-team test there with the new Jimmy Johnson team. It's a unique race track and the car tends to be tight off turn two but loose coming off turn four. We worked hard on balancing that out and I think it will show on Sunday."

Gordon, who won the Busch Series race at Homestead-Miami last year, has yet to visit victory lane there in a Winston Cup event. In the two Winston Cup events held there he has two top-10 finishes.

After 33 of 36 events in 2001, Gordon leads the Winston Cup Series in wins (6), poles (6), top-fives (18), top-10's (23), races led (23), laps led (2,032), average finish (10.5) and average start (9.3).

After Rockingham, Gordon's lead in the Winston Cup standings dropped 54 points to 324. He can clinch his fourth Winston Cup championship if he has a 370-point lead after Sunday's race. But, it all starts with another rebound performance, and if this season is any indication that shouldn't be a problem.