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FORT WORTH, Texas -- A win today at Texas Motor Speedway just might be the biggest of Jeff Gordon's career.

Is that a stretch for someone with 81 career victories and four Sprint Cup championships?

Perhaps, until you consider that it would end a 47-race winless streak, the longest of his career, and leave just one active track where Gordon hasn't driven to victory lane.

It would also be a win at a track that seems to grow in stature annually.

"I want to win here bad," said Gordon, who leads the points standings through six races. "This team deserves to win here. They've put ourselves in position to win here a couple of times."

The best chance was the spring race in 2007, when Gordon had the fastest car and the lead with 21 laps to go. Running alone, he inexplicably brushed the wall coming out of Turn 4. His lead was gone five laps later, and he settled for fourth.

The frustration was entirely different a year ago, when Gordon wrecked a third of the way into the race and had just the second last-place finish of his career.

"I don't know if that's harder or leading and brushing the wall or having an electrical problem inside 50 laps to go, if that's more disappointing," Gordon said. "Looking back on it, those are pretty disappointing because we could have gotten that off our back."

Last spring's Texas finish was part of Gordon's first winless season since his rookie year in 1993. But he did get better, putting together three straight top-five finishes not long after that disastrous weekend. Gordon also bounced back in the fall Texas race, winning the pole and finishing second.

"We fought back really hard," Gordon said. "We did not want to show up at the race track like that again, and I think it's only made us better as a team."

It took Gordon five years to finish higher than 25th at Texas, but he answered that with four straight top-five finishes from 2001-04.

He's starting on the outside of the front row today. If he gets his 82nd checkered flag, Miami will be the only track left to conquer.

"I really think we can win this thing this weekend," Gordon said.

JUNIOR'S TONIC? Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s average starting and finishing positions are among the worst of his career. He's been needled over the fact that the driver he replaced, Kyle Busch, has been much better this season.

If Earnhardt could pick a place to turn the tide, Texas would be among the candidates. This is, after all, the site of his first victories in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series. His late father joining the Sprint Cup celebration is among the track's enduring images.

Earnhardt has seven top-10 finishes in Texas, although he's gone four races without one. He qualified 20th in the 43-car field.

"I really enjoy coming here and hope we are able to come here for a very long time because this is a great race track and it could have an amazing history," Earnhardt said.

NUTS AND BOLTS: Bruton Smith, the owner of Texas and seven other NASCAR tracks, sat in the stands with the fans during the Nationwide Series race Saturday. ... Kurt Busch didn't do TV executives any favors with his assessment of what kind of race to expect today: "To be honest with you, I anticipate a boring race,'' he said.