Jeff Gordon's Coca-Cola 600 drought

Jeff Gordon hasn't won a 600-mile race at Lowe's Motor Speedway since 1998. But he has seen his driver and teammate Jimmie Johnson win three of the past four Coca-Cola 600s.
Gordon, who leads the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings, has won four races at Lowe's Motor Speedway in his career, his last coming in 1999.
“We definitely struggled here for a few years, but we started to see improvement last season,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. “We ran strong in this event last year but got caught up in an accident late in the race. In the fall event, we were running second or third when we had engine problems. And last Saturday night, I thought we had a shot at battling for the win until the flat tire.”
Gordon's team wasn't planning on racing the same car in the All Star Challenge and the Coca-Cola 600. Both races are at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
But Gordon's car was running so good in the All Star race, crew chief Steve Letarte decided to bring it back for the Coca-Cola 600.
“The guys in the shop – who never get enough credit – worked really hard to get this car turned around," Letarte said. “We had some crew members come into the shop Sunday to assess the damage. On Monday morning, we had a crew in here at 5 a.m. pulling the motor and suspension, and a little after lunch they were prepping it to be painted.”