Jeff Gordon
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael "Jeff" Gordonis an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and currently an announcer for Fox NASCAR. He formerly drove the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in 23 full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series seasons between 1993 and 2015, and currently serves as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth4 August 1971
CityVallejo, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Obviously, with what Roush (Racing) accomplished last year, it's doable. We're one of the organizations that can pull that off.
Only time will tell as to what we're really going to be capable of this year. But right now I feel like we're as good as anybody out there.
I wish they would have fixed the race track at the same time they fixed the curb. There are some things in the race track, some really big bumps and roughness, that would have been nice to have gotten through that area a little better.
I would definitely say right now we're as hungry and fired up as we've ever been. We've got youthfulness, (and) we've got excitement back in the team.
I am real happy with a top-10. We were way off. I just can't say enough for the DuPont Chevrolet team. If it weren't for the effort of the team and never giving up, we would have been way way back. We got lucky that one time racing Jeff Burton so Mark Martin wasn't able to lap us. We stayed on the lead lap and fought for everything we could and got a top-10. I don't know how we didn't because we certainly didn't have the car to do it tonight.
I'm all for it. I think bump-drafting has just gotten out of control.
My goal every year is to win the championship and when you don't do it ? or even make the Chase, as was the case last year ? it leaves you feeling a little empty. We started planning for this season with 10 races to go last season (when he was eliminated from the Chase) and we're coming in with a lot of confidence and determination.
Obviously, anything in the tri-oval or the corners is completely out of line and shouldn't happen. You've got a ton more momentum than the guy in front of you and you don't even check up, you just run straight, square into the back of him and you start to see the guy get out of control.
Last year was a very humbling experience. I don't want to ever go through that again.
When you put him in that position, how does he go from being one of the guys to all of a sudden being the boss? How is he going to deal with the guys? That's the part I've been impressed with. He came right in there and took control and got the guys that support him to support him more and the guys that didn't to either support him or they were out the door.
We needed a long run. We didn't need that last caution. That last caution hurt us a bit.
We won the 150, and we're on the front row and we won the Daytona 500 last year and the Talladega race. I think that's enough for guys to know we're on the radar screen. I would hope that people would think we're one of the guys to beat.
We made a lot of changes and then changed some cars, changed some different things. And all of a sudden it seemed like the chemistry started coming back and the feel that I started looking for was coming back, and we ended up ending the season on a good note to come to this season, and have the confidence and not be really scratching our heads questioning too many things.
We have a pretty good handle on this place.