On the surface, everything seemed fine. Jeff Gordon sat in the media interview room at Infineon Raceway after a third-place finish that moved him up three places to sixth in points. It seemed like another strong run at the Northern California road course, until somebody asked runner-up David Gilliland whether he was worried having the four-time NASCAR champion right behind him in the closing laps.

Gordon interjected. "You didn't have anything to worry about," he said, "trust me."

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We're working way, way too hard for these types of finishes. When the car is right, our team is unbelievable. We are just not getting the handling on the car. I know what it should feel like to go fast ... I feel like we are not very close.

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JEFF GORDON

He knew the real reasons why he was there, sitting at a table surrounded by reporters after tying his second-best finish of the year. He was there because caution flags and pit strategy had played to their favor. He was there because accidents -- most notably one sliding, three-car fiasco involving Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick -- had taken out many top contenders. He was there because the circumstances had worked in his favor. He was there even though he had been furious over the radio, even though his crew chief had seemed helpless, even though his car had no business being anywhere near the lead.

Nobody knew this better than Gordon himself, who seemed like a man accepting a gift that he didn't feel he truly deserved. No, he hasn't won yet -- in fact, he hasn't gone this deep into a season without a victory since 2002-- but it's gone beyond not winning. Fifteen years and 81 career victories on NASCAR's premier circuit have taught Gordon what a racecar is supposed to feel like. He hasn't had that feeling in a long time.

"We're trying to just continue to go faster and faster, and we know we have to keep up and we have to try new things, and we keep pushing the limits, but it doesn't really feel like we're going in the right direction," he said. "So I feel very fortunate that we finished third [at Sonoma]. Things really went our way to get that third. You know, when we've won out here in the past, we didn't need things to go our way. We were good enough to make up for some of that. [Sunday], we weren't."

Sonoma, a place where Gordon has won a record five times, was the year in microcosm. Plenty of testing in preparation, solid practice, a good qualifying spot, and then backward from the green flag. Radio problems didn't help. Gordon was clearly frustrated, expressing his dissatisfaction with the car through choice four-letter words. Crew chief Steve Letarte exhausted all his options. While they'll gladly take the final result, they seemed almost embarrassed that attrition and chance had conspired to place them among the leaders at the end. Gordon's tired of being lucky. He wants to be good again.

"It's been an up-and-down year, and we've been able to pull these top-fives out like this and not have great cars. We're working way, way too hard for these types of finishes," he said. "When the car is right, our team is unbelievable. We are just not getting the handling on the car. I know what it should feel like to go fast, especially if it's anywhere, it's here. Other than California Speedway at the beginning of the year and Martinsville, I feel like we are not very close. Yet you look at where we are in the points, and it shows what kind of team we are. I'm frustrated with that, and we've got some work to do."

Gordon sticks resolutely by Letarte, his crew chief the last two seasons, and engineer of the six-victory campaign the No. 24 squad enjoyed last season. But it has to be galling to see Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. knock out top-10s with regularity. It had to be galling to see stablemate Jimmie Johnson, whose cars and parts and crewmen come from the same facility that Gordon's do, run at the front with such ease Sunday while Gordon was scrapping and clawing to get there. Yes, the competition is better. Yes, the new car has proven a much trickier foil than they had anticipated. But he sees it clicking for so many others, and wonders when it's going to click for him.

"You have to work through it, and I'm just wondering if we're working in the right direction," Gordon said. "Because I don't feel like we are. I don't feel like we're getting better, and I want to, and [Letarte] wants to, and nobody is working harder. I believe in our team and our organization 100 percent. We know what our teammates have. We know what we're dealing with. I feel like as a whole, we're getting beat. I'm just talking about the speed of the cars, because the effort we are putting out and the communication and the teamwork and the pit stops, those are all phenomenal. But we've got to go faster."

So it's off to Kentucky Speedway this week for more testing, and it's likely off to another far-flung racetrack for more testing the week after that, all in an effort to try and squeeze a little more speed and a little better handling out of the car. He believes the people around him are the right ones. He sees the final results. He knows he's in championship contention. But he just doesn't like the path he's taking to get there.

"There's the effort that the team puts in when the race begins, of fighting through every hurdle that comes your way, in dealing with adjustments and pit strategy, working together to get the best finish. In that sense, I think we are one of the best out there," Gordon said. "But it is very frustrating that the cars were so good last year, and this year we're just not where we need to be."

"I know that Hendrick Motorsports has the resources, and I still feel like I have what it takes, and I know my team does. It's been frustrating at times because when you don't have the cars running the way you want them to, everybody starts to lose their confidence. The team does, you do. But it only takes a few little things to click, and all of the sudden you're right back there, and that's what we constantly have to remind ourselves. That's why we're working so hard and that's why we're testing. It's not fun and it's not what I want to do and not what the team wants to do, but it's necessary and what we have to do to stay competitive."