WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Jeff Gordon is racing down a familiar road that could lead to a fifth NASCAR championship.

His titles were built largely on victories at tracks where they were expected. This year, four of his five Nextel Cup wins have come where he leads all active drivers — California, Daytona, Sonoma and Indianapolis.

Now, Gordon — fresh from winning Indy’s Brickyard 400 — is at the Watkins Glen International road course, where his four victories are the all-time standard. Two months ago, he won for the fourth time at Sonoma in California, the other NASCAR road course.

“Our track record at the road courses speaks for itself,” Gordon said.

His eight victories on the serpentine layouts also are a NASCAR record. He is bidding for his fourth victory in seven races and could move closer to teammate Jimmie Johnson for the series lead. Gordon is 97 points behind Johnson with five events remaining before the top-10 drivers fight for the title over the last 10 races.

Gordon is making no assumptions about Sunday’s Sirius at The Glen. Twice he has lost on the 2.45-mile track after contact with other drivers took him from contention.

“I feel like we had the best car in 2003,” Gordon said.

He set a qualifying record of 124.580 mph, but fell to the end of the field when Greg Biffle spun him out on the first turn of the race.

The last lap was even worse. After racing all the way back to third, Gordon ran out of gas on the 11th and final turn. He was hit first by Dale Earnhardt Jr., then clobbered by Kevin Harvick and wound up facing the wrong way against the fence just 200 feet from the finish line.

Until the car sputtered, he made it look easy. But neither that performance nor his road-course excellence threatens to push Gordon across the line.