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Track Talk and the Hype:
Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, both sidelined by NASCAR for car inspection troubles on Friday, hustled back into the forefront during Saturday's final practices for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Infineon Raceway.

It took Gordon just seven laps to move into first place on the speed chart in the morning practice and he and Johnson remained steady in the mix at the top throughout the two sessions.

The Slingbox Final Practice session showed Johnson ninth and Gordon 10th on the chart. Although they did not comment after the session, it was clear that they had caught up - at least some.

Denny Hamlin led the way in the final practice with a speed of 91.589 mph around the 10-turn, 1.99-mile road circuit, followed by Tony Stewart at 91.567.

Rick Hendrick, owner of the cars driven by Gordon and Johnson, said the one-day sitdown definitely hurt his team. The two will start 41st and 42nd Sunday, a long way back from pole winner Jamie McMurray and front-row starter Robby Gordon.

"It has already slowed the momentum," Hendrick said. "We're just going to suffer through this race because on a road course, starting from the back, you're a quarter of a mile behind. You're not going to make that up. It's going to have to be good strategy. We're going to try to get the best finish we can."

In the 1992 NASCAR feature at Infineon, Ernie Irvan started on the front row, was penalized to the rear after jumping the start, then came back to win.

Tony Glover, now team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing, was Irvan's crew chief that day.

"In my career in racing, that was the most awesome driving display I've ever seen," Glover said. "We ran about 20 laps and were moving back through the field and he got hung up between two gears, so we had to come in and jack it up and physically go under the car and get in the transmission and get it fixed. We had 50 laps to go in the race. He went from last to fifth going into our last pit stop. We came out eighth or 10th about eight seconds out of the lead and in no time, he just drove to the front and passed all of them. We won the race and not a single scratch on the car all day."

David Gilliland captured Saturday's Blue Lizard Suncream 200, presented by Supercuts, for NASCAR Grand National Division West Series cars by 1.246 seconds over road-race specialists P.J. Jones and Boris Said. All three also made the field for Sunday's race.

The win was the third for Gilliland in West series competition and the seventh combined for he and his father, Butch, at Infineon Raceway.