Brickyard win would help Gordon's season

The pressure is on Jeff Gordon, and there might be no better place for him to deal with it than Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Gordon enters Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard as the defending champion and the only four-time winner in the 11 years NASCAR has visited the Mecca of American auto racing.

He's also in the midst of the worst stretch of his illustrious career.

Gordon, who turned 34 Thursday, won three of the first nine races this season and appeared to be solidly in the hunt for a fifth series championship. He finished second at Darlington on May 7 in the 10th race of the season and was second in the Nextel Cup standings, trailing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by only 127 points.

In the 10 races since, Gordon's best finish is seventh and seven other results have been 25th or worse. That leaves the frustrated Gordon 15th in the standings, 541 points behind Johnson, who still leads the way.

To even have a shot at winning another title, Gordon is going to have to qualify for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Only the top 10 drivers and any others within 400 points of the leader after the 26th race, Sept. 10 in Richmond, will be eligible to compete for the title.

To do that, Gordon is going to have to make some serious gains in only six races.

JUNIOR CAN RELATE: Like Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. badly needs a strong run Sunday.

After appearing to right his season with consecutive finishes of third, first and ninth, Earnhardt ran into a 32nd-place finish two weeks ago in Pocono, coming away 14th in the standings. He's 537 points behind Johnson and 110 out of 10th place.

Beyond getting back into the battle for the Chase, though, winning Indy would be big for Junior, matching the victory his late father got there in 1995 - the second year NASCAR raced there.

A SPECIAL PLACE: The race at Indianapolis is one of only 10 that longtime NASCAR star Terry Labonte is entering this year.

As far as he's concerned, it's a very special place.

"I was an IndyCar fan as a kid, racing the quarter midgets and things like that," the two-time NASCAR champion said. "I wanted to run full-size midgets and kind of go up in the direction of IndyCars, but there just weren't those opportunities where we lived (in Corpus Christi, Texas).

"So, we went the stock car route, which I'm glad we did. But I've continued to be an IndyCar fan and I love to follow it.

"I try to watch every IRL race that I can."