| | Like the swallows that perennially invade San Juan Capistrano, Jeff Gordon returned to California to begin his migration back to the top of the Winston Cup heap.
|  | | As usual, Jeff Gordon was able to celebrate at Sears Point. |
And -- in typical swallow fashion -- everyone there when Gordon decided to begin his flight got a windshield full of him before the event was over. It's not surprising that Gordon won the SaveMart/Kragen 300. Road racing has become his way of psychologically torturing his peers.
"You hardly ever see Jeff out of control on a road course," second-place finisher Sterling Marlin said. "The only hope I had was that he'd run out of gas. I knew we were in pretty good shape. He (Gordon) really runs well, and he's really good on slick tracks. He knows how to mash the accelerator and not get the tires lit up and burn the tires off, and 10 laps later you're going back. You hardly ever see him out of shape. He's tough to beat on these things."
Down, but not out, the real Jeff Gordon stepped up on the cranky little road course that is Sears Point Raceway and walloped his way back into the winner's circle.
Some drivers -- like Dale Earnhardt -- look forward to high-banked super-speedways like Daytona or Talladega where they annually prove they still have a team capable of winning Winston Cup races.
Gordon counts down the days to Sears Point. He doesn't just win, he holds his counterparts captive inside a small world with right- and left-hand turns where he is oblivious to the hairpins.
After such a dominating performance Sunday, surely the boo-birds at the water cooler -- those who once crowed weekly about the object of their affections -- were again onto Gordon after Sears Point was in the history books. They had otherwise been quieted in the realm of NASCAR 2000 as Gordon limped aimlessly from one subpar showing to the next.
Aside from a win at Talladega earlier this year, Gordon has been an afterthought in the championship talk. It is highly unlikely that the win at Sears Point will vault him back into position to win a championship. But on his proving grounds, Gordon proved he can still win races.
"It's the midway part of the season, and I think today showed a lot about this race team and their character," Gordon said. "I think there was a lot of pressure on them coming into this event. I think everybody said if they don't win at the road course there must be something wrong with them. We were able to pull that off.
"That reminds me of what this team has done time and time again over the years. It's awesome. (Crew chief) Robbie (Loomis) did a great job all weekend long tuning the car up for me and made the right calls. The pit crew was phenomenal. It was just a total team effort. If you don't have that kind of performance these days and do it in all different areas, then you're not going to win. It certainly wasn't a gimme win. We had to work hard for it. It's nice to be able to do it.
"It's nice to come out here to what I call home -- or definitely where I was born -- and to come out here with all the fans and the family and to do it out here is really special."
Even though Gordon won just his second race of the season at a place where he seems like a man amongst boys, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet proved at Sears Point that he can still win. He's still the same Jeff Gordon -- the one who has collected 52 wins since 1992.
And, as the season winds down to a close, he'll get his act together everywhere else and give those boo-birds some more ammunition.
"It is a pretty fickle bunch in that Winston Cup garage," Marlin said. "You win that first race, and everybody loves you, and they're so happy for you, and they've been pulling for you all their lives, and Daddy must be so proud. Win that second one, and they start thinking differently about you, and you hear the grumbling behind your back and 'How come those guys are so good all of the sudden?' and that kind of stuff. Everybody was a Jeff Gordon fan when he won that first race.
"I guess it's human nature to pull for the underdogs and pull against whoever is winning. In this sport, everybody loves a loser. I believe I'd rather they not love me quite so much. It's a lot more fun winning."
Phil Furr, a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C., writes a weekly auto-racing column for ESPN.com.
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