A season that started as the Drive for Five in 2005 for Jeff Gordon made a U-turn toward 2000 some time during the late spring.

That’s when “it” happened. Gordon still doesn’t know what caused it, but he knew what it meant. Previous experience five years ago told Gordon that his team, which suddenly started to struggle, wasn’t capable of winning the Nextel Cup.

That feeling turned to fact in September at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, where the four-time series champion was eliminated from the Chase for the Cup. He said it was a blessing in disguise.

Missing the Chase, Gordon said last week at Texas Motor Speedway during a test session for Sunday’s Dickies 500, reaffirmed to team members that the No. 1 goal is winning championships and drastic improvements need to be made to get Gordon back in the Cup title hunt in 2006.

“We’re heading in the right direction to get us success for next year, and that’s what I’m excited about,” Gordon said. “These 10 races not being in the Chase are all experiences that happen for a reason, and I hope the reason is to get us in position to win for next year and for years to come.”

Gordon became the first driver to reach three victories and was third in points after the Aaron’s 499 on May 1 at Talladega Superspeedway. What ensued was one of the worst stretches of Gordon’s career.

Jeff Gordon celebrates his victory in the 2005 Subway 500 at Martinsville International Speedway.

He had only five top-10 finishes and finished 30th or worse seven times in the next 17 races to miss the Chase. He became the casualty of a car that wouldn’t allow him to attack the racetrack.

“That’s something that we’ve been missing on this year for whatever reason,” he said. “We can’t really put our finger on it.”

The No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo has particularly struggled on 1.5-mile tracks, where drivers make gains by carrying speed into the corners.

Gordon said test sessions like the one at the 1.5-mile quad-oval in Fort Worth, Texas, are helping his team learn from its mistakes and try to eliminate them.

That would have been difficult to do had he made the Chase. With a points title on the line, drastic changes could have led to disastrous finishes. Now that points don’t matter, the 10 Chase races have become pseudo-test sessions.

“We’ve got to get in there and be proactive to make sure that we make our program better, make our race cars feel more comfortable and get me the feel that I need,” Gordon said. “By missing the Chase, it gives us an opportunity to make big changes, not worry about points and really try things.”

Things clicked Oct. 23 during the Subway 500 at Martinsville (Va.) International Speedway. Gordon snapped a five-month winless streak on the series’ shortest track, one where he has always had success. But he said just being competitive at the two remaining races on 1.5-mile tracks could do as much for team confidence as his seventh career Martinsville triumph.

“A win at Martinsville is definitely going to help that confidence building in the off-season,” said Gordon, who is breaking in new crew chief Steve Letarte. “If we can come out of these mile and a half tracks with a top five or a top 10 or even leading laps with a shot to win, that’s going to do more for us than even that win at Martinsville.”

He did that Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing as the runner-up to Carl Edwards in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. That effort and the Martinsville win helped wipe out a summer-long hangover that Gordon hadn’t felt since 2000, when he struggled early

and finished a distant sixth to Bobby Labonte in the points race.

Gordon hopes to experience the same results in 2006 as he did in 2001.

After the off year in 2000, Gordon won his most recent Cup title the next season, and he said the ’05 campaign has a similar feel to 2000.

He finished 25th at Texas Motor Speedway that year. TMS remains one of only four facilities – Phoenix International Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway and Homestead-Miami Raceway are the others – where he hasn’t won a Cup race.

And he doesn’t need the local media to remind him of the missing hardware in his trophy case.

“Oh, yeah, I’m aware of it,” he said. “I’m aware of it because there are only four tracks we haven’t won at. When you go to a track you haven’t won at, it means something. We’ve been close here. This one would mean a lot, and I know we’re capable of doing it.”

Sunday was proof that Gordon might be back, for the remainder of this season and beyond.