Gordon excited ahead of Atlanta

Gordon is only six points away from Mark Martin in the points standing, following his second place finish at Vegas last weekend.

The Hendrick driver has enjoyed a very good start to the season, finishing tenth at Daytona and then starting from pole position to finish second at Fontana. At Vegas he led the most laps to finish behind his teammate Jimmie Johnson.

"It is a great start to the season." Gordon said. "I feel like we are a much different team than we were last year at this time and even the team we had in 2005. I am excited about what we have in store for ourselves."

Gordon enjoys a great record at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he has won four times and has twelve top-five finishes and one pole position. He also led 44 laps in his last race at the 1.5-mile oval.

He looks forward to enjoying the weekend at Atlanta after being one of the drivers to voice his displeasure over the tyre and fuel-cell changes implemented by NASCAR for last weekend's race.

"At Atlanta, we'll get to go back to the way you wish we could be every weekend, where you have a worn out surface. You have a tyre that wears but doesn't seem to blow out.

"You have long runs, the regular fuel cell in the current car, everything I love about this sport is what is going to happen this weekend."

Gordon could be about to achieve a major milestone is his career this weekend. If he wins at Atlanta on Sunday, he would tie Dale Earnhardt for sixth place in the NASCAR Nextel Cup all-time win list with 76 victories.