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
I'm going to put the blame on both of us there. I dove underneath and got a little tight, and he didn't want to give it up, either.
I've worked with Steve for more than 10 years and we already communicate extremely well, both on and off the track. The team has a ton of confidence in his abilities, so we're looking forward to the last 10 races of 2005 and getting an early jump on next year.
I am going to take part blame for that. I think Tony should take part of it as well. ... I think it could have been avoided by both of us. It was an unfortunate incident that hurt us both a lot.
I am going to take part blame for that, (and) I think Tony should take part of it, as well. We went into turns one and two and had been real tight. We slid up the race track, left the middle wide open. I thought that I could clear him and just about the time he got to my right rear, my car just took off pushing. It was an unfortunate incident that hurt us both a lot.
I think it could have been avoided by both of us and it cost us both a lot.
I was just telling Steve that I think we're going in the right direction here. I just reminded him not to let any of the outside stuff bother him.
I'm sure I'm not going to be the sweetest and nicest person to work with in that car. Every moment is going to be intense.
I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it. I showed it to him after the race. I like racing with Matt ... that stuff rarely happens with him. But I'm going to give it back what he gives to me.
I know people have asked me, 'Why haven't you done that? Why haven't you done that?' I've never really felt like it was my place to do that. I feel like over the years that I've been here that I've earned more respect, but I don't know if I'll ever have the type of respect that Dale had.
I know where I'm going, but I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to the mountains. I haven't made any plans. I'm just going to play it by ear -- me and my girlfriend. We're also testing at Richmond.
I like Matt. I like racing with him. I didn't like racing him today.
It's still a game of Russian Roulette. There are so many cars fighting for the same piece of real estate that it's easy to get caught up in someone else's accident.
It's not as bad as it used to be in Turn 4, but Turn 2 is pretty extreme. The way you come off the corner, you've got nice banking but then it really flattens off. ...It just makes your car want to drift to the wall. That makes it really difficult to get side-by-side.
That is what happened to us, I think. At the beginning of the year we went more toward them. ... But I've been telling them all year that I can't drive it like that. You put the same thing underneath me (that Johnson had), and I don't like it.