Storylines: Gordon goes for No. 2

FORT WORTH, Texas – When asked if he was surprised Jeff Gordon has only won one race this season, Jimmie Johnson replied: “He’s only won one race this year? Heck, I would have never guessed that.”

That’s probably because Gordon has finished second eight times this season. Unfortunately for the four-time champion, that’s hardly a consolation. When Gordon won at Texas Motor Speedway way back in early April, breaking a personal 47-race winless streak, he expected it to be a harbinger of things to come.

In one way, it has. Gordon’s shown marked improvement on the 1.5-mile tracks, where prior to this season he’d struggle to keep up with the likes of Johnson. Ironically, he snapped his winless streak at what was then one of only two tracks on NASCAR’s Cup schedule where he hadn’t won.

The problem, however, is that he’s yet to find his way back to victory lane.

“I’m a little disappointed in that,” Gordon said Friday. “We’ve had a bunch of second-place finishes this year, so we’ve been close. But it is disappointing we haven’t been able to get more victories. It gives us something to work on for next season.”

Now, back in Texas for Sunday’s Dickies 500, Gordon is primed to break another winless streak – one that’s up to 26 and counting. He’ll start from the pole, his first of the season, which extends his streak to 17 straight seasons in which he’s won at least one pole.

“We’ve got three races left and we want poles; we want wins,” Gordon said. “We want to get a lot of points and get ourselves as high up in the points as we possibly can for the championship and also build something for next year.”

Here are five storylines to watch for in Sunday’s race:

1. Will Jimmie Johnson play the strategy game?

The three-time defending champion holds a 184-point lead, so there is no reason for Johnson to press the issue. That said, Johnson insists playing a conservative strategy won’t happen this weekend or next weekend in Phoenix.

“I feel if we start focusing on an average position where we need to finish, do some things that are different than what the 48 car does, we will set ourselves up for a problem,” Johnson explained. “I’m certainly not going to do stupid things on the track, take a lot of unneeded risk. But I’ve always been a believer of playing offense. Whenever we have played defense, we’ve done a miserable job.”

Johnson needs only to average a 10th-place finish in the final three races to clinch his fourth straight title, and he needs to average that high only if Mark Martin were to win out from here. He would clinch the title if he were to leave Texas with a 323-point lead or leave Phoenix leading by 162 points.

“If we can go out and outrun the 24 [Jeff Gordon] and the 5 [Mark Martin] the next two weeks, we’ll let that into our minds then,” Johnson explained. “Right now, I’m just trying to keep the blinders on and stay focused on maximum points.”

2. How will Brad Keselowski fare in his Penske Racing debut?

More importantly, will Keselowski make any more enemies?

Keselowski steps out from under the JR Motorsports umbrella Sunday in what will be his first race for his new employer, Roger Penske. Keselowski will race full time for Penske next season, but rather than wait until then, the team opted to put the 25-year-old into the No. 12 now to get a jumpstart on 2010.

It’s a smart move strategically. There was no reason to keep David Stremme in the No. 12 for the final three races of 2009. And considering the possibility that Keselowski is using Penske as a stopover until a seat opens up at Hendrick Motorsports, the sooner Penske can get Keselowski up to full speed the better chance the organization will have to keep him for the long run.

Keselowski has only made a dozen Cup starts this season, yet despite the limited action he’s already earned a reputation around the Cup garage as an overly aggressive driver. Denny Hamlin’s been critical – as was Kurt Busch, his new Penske teammate, after Keselowski sparked a last-lap wreck at Talladega.

On Friday, Busch said he and his new teammate have patched things up – “He flew with me on my own plane down to Daytona [on Monday],” Busch said. “I joked with him, I said, ‘We’ve got five people on this plane, we’ve got four parachutes. Where’s yours?’ ” – but Busch has to make nice. The rest of the garage doesn’t.

“Certainly I’ve been very aggressive lately, but the circumstances, I thought, have dictated that,” Keselowski said Friday. “It’s not like it’s been the last two years. I think over the last two years, I haven’t wrecked anyone, and now over the last few weeks I’ve wrecked three or four people. I think some of it is coincidence more than anything else. I feel bad about that, for sure, but I don’t feel like it fits my style.”

When asked if he’s worried about gaining a reputation around the Cup garage, Keselowski responded: “You have to worry about that in some regards, but I wouldn’t say I’m losing sleep over it.”

3. Will Kyle Busch pull off the triple?

Busch won the Truck race Friday night, the Nationwide race Saturday, and Sunday will go for the weekend sweep. For the record, no driver has ever won all three races – Truck, Nationwide and Cup – in the same weekend.

“We’re going to make it three tomorrow,” Busch said after the Nationwide win, his fourth straight at Texas.

Busch will start fifth in Sunday’s Cup race.

4. Is it finally time for Carl Edwards to win?

At this time last year, Edwards had seven wins and he wasn’t done. He’d win two more races, including the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

One year later, he comes to Texas winless.

“I’ve kind of tried to think of it differently – it’s not that we haven’t had no wins this season, it’s just that we’ve had nine wins over the last two,” Edwards joked. “That sounds a lot better. But I’d like to have 10 or 12 wins over the last two seasons by the end of this year; but it is frustrating.”

Edwards is out of the championship hunt but should be a factor in Sunday’s race. He’s the only three-time winner at Texas and was second fastest in Saturday’s final practice … behind only Jimmie Johnson.

“We’re good,” said Edwards, who will start sixth. “This is the best we’ve been in a long time and I’m happy.”

5. Heavy hearts in Texas:

Prior to Sunday’s race there will be a moment of silence for the fallen soldiers in Thursday’s deadly shooting at Ford Hood, located 178 miles south of Texas Motor Speedway.

“To be here this week, in the big picture,” Ryan Newman said, “think about everybody down in Fort Hood with the U.S. Army and their families that are going through some very difficult times. Big picture here: We’re racing in Texas but our thoughts and prayers go out to other places as well.”

Newman carries the U.S. Army as one of his sponsors.

A remembrance has been painted on the frontstretch grass: “God bless our Fort Hood troops.”