Gordon expects to rebound at Sonoma

The four-time Sprint Cup champion has the best record among active drivers at the track, with five wins, three of them from pole position.

Gordon says that even after struggling to be a contender for victory recently, he believes the Sonoma track will provide him his first chance of winning a race this season, although he doesn't expect that to translate in a sudden upturn in his form at other tracks.

"I do feel like Sonoma is a track that we can be competitive at," Gordon said. "It seems like typically in the past, Sonoma is one of those tracks where no matter what kind of season we're having, we can go out there and be competitive enough to win the race.

"Doesn't guarantee you are going to win the race, but at least you're going to be competitive. And I feel confident that we are going to be competitive this time as well.

"But that didn't change what's happening at the mile-and-a-half tracks that we are struggling with. That doesn't turn that around. It just gives us an opportunity to hopefully pull off a great finish."

The Hendrick driver believes that, despite having a new car to deal with at Sonoma since last year, they are able to rely on information from the past to be competitive, as he believes he and Tony Stewart proved last year.

"I think not as many things have changed for the road course with this new car as they have for the other tracks," Gordon added. "So, I think that we are able to apply a lot of what we have had in the past to the new car and still be pretty close.

"I will say that I felt like Tony Stewart was the best car on the road course this last year, and I felt like we were the second best. Even though Juan Pablo (Montoya) won the Sonoma race, I felt like Tony and myself were the best cars as far as speed.

"So just you've got to hit the strategy right and you've got to make sure you maintain that speed, and you always have to improve them."

Gordon holds a number of records at Infineon Raceway, including the qualifying track record, the most laps led, the most races led, plus being the youngest winner and the youngest pole-sitter at the venue.