Now I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that that the fix to Jeff Gordon's #24 Chevrolet is probably so simple that everyone is overlooking it. It's like when you get a hair on your nose and it's interfering with your vision. You can see the dern thing, but try as you may, you just can't quite grab it. Then finally you cross your eyes a wee bit and voila! Got it!

I watched all of the Hendrick cars over the past few races and especially this weekend, before the big wreck (Gordon's). All of the noses of all of tthe Hendrick cars were glued to the track save one...the 24 car. Darrell Waltrip and company have been pinging on it for weeks, now and still that 24 car's nose surfs down the straightaways like Kelly Slater in Hawaii. No downforce. This would explain why the 24 is great when its leading, but fades terribly when its in traffic.

Now, like I said, I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that if you ran a less-pressurized shock absorber package and/ or softer springs up front, that problem would go away. If you listen to the scan-traffic, all you keep hearing is, "air pressure adjustment, air pressure adjustment". But, there is a fine line that you cannot cross, or you won't be able to finish the race without blowing out a tire, first. If the front end isn't down far enough to begin with, all the air pressure adjustments in the world won't make a difference, at least until the front tires are flat and the car won't go anywhere, anyway, anyhow.

I don't know if this would fix the problem for the 24 team, but I can tell you this...they are in serious deep doo-doo, right now, and they better dream up something fast before its too late. I've been saying that Jeff hasn't been focused and hasn't concentrated on the car enough and that Steve Letarte, Jeff's crew chief, hasn't been forceful enough with Jeff in telling him to "shut up and drive the car". I do believe Jeff's right about one thing; I do believe they're close to hitting on it and when they do, the rest of the field better watch out, but until they do, it's going to be an uphill battle. And the answer is so simple, it's probably right on the tip of their nose...

P.S. (for the 24 team) - as an side, I don't know what your weight distribution normally has been for the middle of that car, but in case nobody has adjusted it lately, Jeff has gained a few pounds over the years, since his real winning days of yore. If you haven't changed that distribution in a long while, you might want to check it out, as well.