Last weekend at Daytona, Jeff Gordon was bounced out of a sure top five finish, and now he heads to the 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway in hopes of doing some bouncing back of his own.

Gordon, currently fifth in NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points needs a strong finish in order to stay in the all important top 12 locking him in to NASCAR's “Chase for the Championship.” Unfortunately, his team has struggled to find a strong set-up on the intermediate length tracks like Chicagoland.

"I still don't feel like we've really figured out what we need to be battling for wins and leading laps, but we're working really hard on that," said Gordon, who tested this week at Kentucky Speedway to try and improve his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. "In terms of sheer speed, we still need to gain. But we feel like we have until September to make all those gains.

September is important, because it is the September 6th race at Richmond that serves as the final “regular season” event of 2008, with the points then altered for the top 12 drivers who will then fight it out for the title over the final 10 races.

"We need to secure a spot in the Chase and then start off solid. We have a strong team, one that's capable of winning races anywhere. One that's capable of winning a championship."

Gordon has had limited success this season on the intermediate tracks, running third at the 2.0mile California Speedway, 35th at the 1.5mile Las Vegas Speedway, 5th at Atlanta Motor Speedway and 43rd at Texas.

"I thought we started out the year well with good runs at California, Las Vegas and Atlanta. Texas, though, was probably the low point of the season for us. We ran terrible, and I lost control of the car. When you go through those types of races, you look back at it and try to figure out how we could have improved and where we are missing something.”

Adding an extra curve to this weekend is a change of Chicagoland from a day race to a Saturday night event. The cooler track temperatures and limited Car of Tomorrow knowledge will further add to the unknowns all the teams will face this weekend in Joliet, Illinois.

Gordon has one win, four top-five's, and five top-10s in seven previous races at Chicagoland Speedway.

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