David Graham / AP

Jeff Gordon went winless in 2008.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - He has driven sprint cars, midgets, modifieds, go-karts and IROC cars during his racing career — not to mention piloting a stock car to four Sprint Cup championships — all with equal aplomb.

That's why it's so confounding when Jeff Gordon looks back at 2008 and all the trouble he had adapting to NASCAR's new-style car, otherwise known as the Car of Tomorrow.

"The new car is a whole different animal," Gordon said. "The biggest challenge is just figuring that out."

Gordon once joked that he could probably drive a forklift if he had to, yet he just couldn't quite seem to get the hang of the COT in its first full season of use in NASCAR:

• He went winless in 2008, the first time he has failed to win two races, let alone one, in a season since 1993, his rookie year in Sprint Cup.
• Sure, he made the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but unlike the way he finished runner-up in 2007, he was a non-entity in the way the Chase played out last season. He finished a dismal seventh, the fifth-worst season finish in his 16-year Cup career.
• Critics increasingly said Gordon was over the hill at 38, that he might not ever win another Cup race again. Others said his second marriage and the birth of his first child might have taken away some of Gordon's fine edge, making him too tentative and less willing to take chances.

Gordon dismisses that kind of talk. He adamantly decrees that the only person to blame is himself. To fix the situation, he has taken that blame, accepted it and is doing all he can to change his fortune and fate with the new car, even if it's one step at a time rather than by big leaps and bounds.

"When you've been in the sport as long as I have, it's harder to adapt to changes," Gordon said. "The longer you're in it the harder it is to adapt to changes, so some of it is me adjusting my driving. I can't change how I drive, but I can make some small adjustments."

Will continuing to make small adjustments lead to a big rebound for Gordon in 2009? We'll start to learn the answer to that in next Sunday's 51st running of the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

"Nothing is driving me more than the desire to win and the fact that we didn't win last year," Gordon said.

It's been tough with all the self-doubt for Gordon, all the criticism he faced and the frustration he endured over 36 races, but Gordon has put 2008 behind him and is looking forward to this season with a new energy and spirit. He dismisses talk that retirement is in his near future or that he has lost some of his sharpness.

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"This has only fired me up even more. I may stick around for another five, maybe 10 years — OK, maybe not 10," he said, laughing.

Gordon believes that he has gotten much closer to mastering the new car and that the proof of that will be improved results by the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet Impala in the COT's second season.

"Last year was a big deal, it's behind us and we learned from it," Gordon said. "We grow from it and make ourselves better and try to make sure it doesn't happen this year."