Gordon still works to catch Earnhardt

When Jeff Gordon won last July at Chicagoland Speedway, the excitement began to build.

With 75 NASCAR victories, Gordon found himself one win behind the late Dale Earnhardt, and the expected questions began:

What’s it going to feel like to match one of the all-time greats?

Well, 25 races later, Gordon still doesn’t know.

The four-time series champion, who leads the Cup points standings, is seeking victory No. 76 in tonight’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. He’s had five top-five finishes and six top-10s in the first seven races this season – but no wins.

The 1-mile oval at Phoenix is one of three active NASCAR tracks where Gordon, who will start from the pole today, has yet to win.

“I’ve been on the pole here. We’ve been fast here. We’ve been consistent here. We’ve been everything but in Victory Lane here,” Gordon said.

“We’re just going to work just as hard as we can – the same as we do everywhere. And I’m going to try not to make the mistake we made last week because I felt like we had a good shot at winning last week in Texas, and I blew that one.”

At Texas, another track where he has yet to win, Gordon led with 21 laps to go when he scraped the wall and damaged his car’s handling. He wound up fourth.

“I don’t like giving up any win,” Gordon said. “That one really hurt because I felt like we had a winning car.

“But, as long as this team continues to give me the race cars that they’re giving me right now and the effort they’re giving me, then we’re going to win races.”

Busch Series

Clint Bowyer won a stirring duel with Matt Kenseth, taking the lead with 14 laps to go and holding on in the race at Phoenix International Raceway at Avondale, Ariz.

Kenseth, who won the Busch race last weekend in Texas, appeared on the way to another victory when he made a strong pass on the outside to take away the lead from Bowyer 31 laps from the end of the 200-lap Bashas’ Supermarkets 200.

The former Nextel Cup champion started to pull away, but Bowyer didn’t give up. He moved his Chevrolet back to the rear bumper of Kenseth’s Ford by lap 180 and pulled off the same outside pass as Kenseth to regain the lead for good on lap 187.

Champ Car

Sebastien Bourdais won the provisional pole for the Grand Prix of Houston, circling the 1.69-mile course in 58.376 seconds.

The defending champion hit 103.789 mph on his fastest lap in his Panoz DP01 to clinch a front-row start Sunday and prove again that his dismal season-opening weekend in Las Vegas was a fluke.

Two weeks ago, Bourdais had three flat tires, then hit the wall and finished 13th in what he called the worst performance he could remember. He and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan team regrouped last week in Long Beach, taking the pole and winning the race.

Points leader Will Power finished second with a speed of 102.852 mph.

IndyCar

Defending champion Helio Castroneves took pole position for today’s Indy Japan 300 with the fastest time in qualifying. Castroneves, driving a Honda-powered Dallara, had the quickest lap of 26.6416 seconds while reaching a top speed of 205.393 mph on the 1.5-mile Motegi oval.