| | DARLINGTON, S.C. -- A new car and a new crew chief this season have left Jeff Gordon with a different feeling -- one he's not happy with right now.
Gordon, winless through the first three Winston Cup races for the first time since 1994, is struggling to find the early groove that has won him three NASCAR driver's championships.
Part of the reason for the slow start is Gordon's redesigned Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Another is new crew chief Robbie Loomis, who replaced Gordon's longtime chief, Ray Evernham, this season.
Dale Jarrett, defending Winston Cup champion, also signed several of Gordon's Rainbow Warriors in an off-season raid.
Loomis is a star-in-the-making, Gordon said, "but as competitive as it is in NASCAR, you can't afford to have any little glitch, any little change in your program and expect to go out there and just win races."
So far he hasn't.
An oil leak early in the Daytona 500 dropped him four laps down and he finished 34th. A week later at Rockingham, Gordon lost two laps early and finished 10th. At Las Vegas this past Sunday, Gordon lost a lap when he made a long pit stop for an adjustment early in the race.
Gordon has gone eight races without a top five finish, the longest drought of his career.
This isn't what Gordon, the one-time Wonderboy who's now 28, expected of himself, owner Rick Hendrick's retooled machine and the revamped Rainbow Warriors.
"No doubt, I had higher hopes than this," Gordon said Tuesday at Darlington Raceway. "But I'm very pleased with all the people we've brought in. It's going to take some time and we expected it."
Gordon was on hand to help Rick Hendrick's son, Ricky, with Busch Grand National testing at "The Track Too Tough To Tame."
Gordon said NASCAR helped him and other Chevy teams this week when they let Monte Carlos lower their front air dam by two inches. The result, Gordon said, should be a more aerodynamically stable -- and competitive -- machine.
Gordon said he didn't think Chevrolet and its race teams did a good job designing the car. The rear downforce problem makes it harder to keep it balanced through turns.
"Hopefully, this takes us a step closer to" the Fords and Pontiacs that have dominated this year, Gordon said.
Loomis, Gordon said, has come under incredible pressure to step right in and produce Evernham-like results. But everyone in the Hendrick shop and the No. 24 pits has to re-establish relationships and duties.
"Sometimes, I'm not sure if I should step in where I used to before," the racer said.
Gordon also has his fingers crossed as he comes to some of his favorite NASCAR tracks. He's won two of the past three races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the Cracker Barrel 500 takes place on Sunday.
The Mall.com 400 will be run the following week at Darlington, where Gordon has won five of the past nine events.
The way he sees it, there's plenty of time for he and his team to return to their dominating ways.
"You can't panic after three races," he said. "We want to run better, but we realize it's not going to happen overnight. It would be nice to get a good run in, get that confidence and then try and progress at a good level."
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