FORT WORTH, Texas — Jeff Gordon has never won at Texas Motor Speedway and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 struggled again on Sunday, finishing 43rd after crashing with a bad-handling race car.
“At this track, if the car isn’t pretty close at this race track, I am terrible. I can’t get around this race track, I don’t know what it is,” the four-time series champion explained. “Today, to be off like we were and as slow as we were, the harder it was to drive. It was a challenge. We will see if we can’t get it better.”
Gordon’s confidence at Texas is clearly hurting.
“I just don’t think I have ever been very good at Texas; that is why we have never won here,” he continued. “But we have had our moments when the car has been really good. But you know what? When the car off, I am lost here. I mean, I haven’t felt this lost since my rookie year at a race track. We have been struggling here. I know what Jimmie (Johnson, teammate) and some of these guys have gone through some weeks. It is frustrating. We just have to try and figure it out.”

• One of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing’s most successful teams has landed a new sponsor and will have a fourth entry in the series next year, but as a result, the sport’s most famous team is left without sponsorship for the 2009 campaign.
General Mills and its Cheerios/Hamburger Helper brands will be leaving Petty Enterprises at the end of the season and will join Richard Childress Racing. General Mills will support the No. 33 Chevrolet with a driver — heavily rumored to be Petty Enterprises’ lead man Bobby Labonte — to be named later.
The 2009 season will mark General Mills’ 13th year of sponsorship involvement in NASCAR as well as Richard Childress’s 40th anniversary in the sport.
Petty Enterprises officials are putting a positive spin on the situation, promoting the fact that sponsorship of the No. 43, made famous by Richard Petty, is available for only the second time since 1972.
“We value our relationships with all of our sponsors,” said Robbie Loomis, executive vice president, operations. “We appreciate everything that General Mills has helped us accomplish over the past nine seasons, both on and off of the track, and we wish them well in their future plans.”  
Meanwhile, Labonte is trying to downplay rumors that he, too, will be leaving the team.
“I’m going to work hard each week to win races,” Labonte said. “I want to do the best I can for Petty Enterprises and everyone who puts great cars under me each week. That’s our focus, and that’s what I feel is the right thing to do for all our partners. At this time, I have no intention to talk about my plans after 2008 because of the immediate tasks at hand. I respectively ask for everyone’s patience in this matter and, again, am humbled by everyone’s interest.”

• Max Helton, who founded Motor Racing outreach, an organization that continues to minister to the NASCAR community, died March 30 following a seven-month battle with brain cancer. Helton was 67.

• Mike Skinner has made every race since taking over the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota from A.J. Allmendinger. He qualified ninth at Texas.
“I’ve had some pretty good runs here in the Cup Series over the years,” Skinner said. “I’m just really proud of this Red Bull team and this Toyota Camry. We just keep building and building. I’m trying to build a house for my buddy A.J. (Allmendinger) so when he gets back in this car, he has something to drive. Ricky (Viers, crew chief) and the guys are doing a really good job getting this car better.”

• Two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson understands why some fans would root against his team.
“I watched the Patriots last year and the negativity surrounding them and the Super Bowl and everybody wanted the underdog to win, so I can see how that can take place,” he said. “I haven’t really experienced much of it.  It’s pretty early in the season. If people don’t want to see us succeed and if it makes fans mad, not fans of the 48 mad, I want to make them mad. That’s my job. I need to go out there win races, win championships, and I hope we get back to our ways and have a bunch of people mad at us.”

• Jeff Burton left Martinsville Speedway angry with rookie Michael McDowell. McDowell sought out the veteran and the two finally talked on Tuesday following the race.
“We had a great conversation,” Burton said. “I told him — and I mean this — I should have called him Monday morning rather than expressing my opinion after the race. I probably did that wrong. I think he understands now a little more about etiquette in a Cup race late in the race. We had a great conversation. I was real impressed with him.”

• The switch from Dodge to Toyota proved a difficult task for Bam Racing and the team skipped this weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway and will also sit out the race at Phoenix Int’l Raceway to get its changeover completed before returning to action at Talladega Superspeedway.

• Apparently, Kyle Petty was unhappy with the decision to remove him from the No. 45 for the race at Texas and even said if he would not be welcome at his family-owned team that he would drive for another team.
It is not clear if the decision to bench Petty in favor of rookie Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify at Texas, was made by Team Manager Robbie Loomis or Petty’s father, seven-time series champion Richard Petty.

• DLP HDTV has extended its sponsorship of the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota driven by J.J. Yeley in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
DLP HDTV, which has been the primary sponsor on the No. 96 car since its inception in 2006, will remain in that role through the 2009 season.

• Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced that LifeLock, the nation’s leading identity theft protection service, will sponsor the No. 10 Dodge with driver Patrick Carpentier in eight races in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.