NASCAR Raceday: All eyes on Jeff Gordon

THREE THINGS TO WATCH 1. All eyes – or at least a lot of them – will be on Jeff Gordon. After multiple run-ins with competitors on the track last weekend at Sonoma, Calif., and a couple promises of payback, it will be interesting to see if Gordon makes it through the race – or the first lap – unscathed.

2. Juan Pablo Montoya has yet to win on an oval track in NASCAR but his performance so far this weekend puts him in good position to change that. He was fastest in Friday’s practice and qualified on the pole at this track for the second consecutive race.

3. After Marcos Ambrose’s mistake last week one thing is certain: It’s unlikely any Cup drivers will be cutting off their engines on purpose under caution and stopping on the track.

OBSERVATIONS So, New Hampshire Motor Speedway officials touted their gift of a $1,000 pair of 4-inch stilettos to Danica Patrick on Friday during her media availability. Very nice but it also begs a question: If NHMS has extra cash to throw around for dress shoes for drivers, why all the fuss about paying for local police protection during race weekends?

I don’t know if anything in particular has changed but Mark Martin this weekend sure looks more like the driver from last season. He has been fast in all practices and qualified well. If something is being done differently on the No. 5 team this week, somebody package it up for the rest of the year.

More than any other time since I started covering NASCAR in the 1998 season, I am looking forward to seeing the cars next weekend at Daytona. Nationwide is running the first of its four races this season with newly-designed entries from the manufacturers, including “pony car” models from Ford and Dodge.

JUST THE FACTS Lenox Tools 301 Where: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.

Track type: 1.058-mive paved, flat oval.

Race distance: 301 laps, 318.5 miles.

When: Green flag is 1:16 p.m.

Weather: Partly cloudy with a high in the upper 70s.

TV: Coverage begins at noon on TNT.

Radio: Performance Racing Network

PICKS JIM UTTER This sounds predictable – and it is – but look out Denny Hamlin, somebody is waiting to catch back up in the win total. Winner: Jimmie Johnson.

NOTES Montoya better but not in Chase Juan Pablo Montoya said his No. 42 Ganassi-Earnhardt Racing team is “miles head” over his performance last season but it having a more difficult time working his way into the Top 12 to make the Chase.

“We have more top-10s, more top-fives. We have a much faster race car than what we had last year at this point,” Montoya said. “But we had a blown engine. We got together with our teammate. We’ve been involved in I don’t know how many wrecks from other people.

“It sucks, because we have been right behind the wrecks. We have been a row or two rows behind where they wreck and they block the whole track and right there you are just a passenger.”

With 10 races remaining before the 12-driver Chase field is set, Montoya is 20th in the series standings, 161 behind the 12th position.

“If we miss it, I don’t think we can say we missed it for lack of speed in the car or mistakes we’ve done as a team,” Montoya said.

Almirola takes practice laps Aric Almirola took some laps in Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet during practice on Saturday to help get adjusted in case he needs to step in for Johnson in the coming weeks.

Almirola is the planned relief driver should Johnson need to leave the track if is wife, Chandra, goes into labor for the birth of the couple’s first child.

Schrader back in Trucks

NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader will drive the No. 2 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc. again this season in the July 11 Truck series race at Iowa Speedway.