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 thought I was going to get a run on Tony down the back straight, but then the caution came out. I wish I could have gotten a little closer to his bumper, it might have gotten a little more exciting. I wish that last caution hadn't come out, because I think I could have gotten a fender under Tony.
When I first came in the sport, it was sort of like his time to be the top guy. I don't think he was expecting a young guy ... to come out as strong as we did and become as popular as we did. He and I kind of had a rivalry starting in 1994 and it carried on for a number of years.
I tried to get a run on the high side of Brian coming to the white, I guess. That just killed me. He blocked me up high and then I tried to go low. I looked in the mirror and here came Jimmie. I got stuck on the inside and I knew I was done.
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.
I thought we might have had something for him. The car just stuck so good through (Turns) One and Two. I thought I was going to get a run on Tony down the back straightaway, but then the caution came out.
They've got to do what they've got to do. I've always done it that way. We led the most laps, but when it came time to get the win, they did everything they could.
We just want to be able to focus on our program, on our people, on what we have to do to be as strong as we can as a team to compete for wins, compete for championships, and build that together without there being too many outside distractions. If we ever say we want to go under the radar, that's what we're trying to do.
The Roush cars are really, really fast right now.
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.
It was a long day. I think we had a shot a top 10 with that tore-up race car.
It was a long day for the Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo. We fought back all we could.
The sport's different today than it was, and I don't know if there's ever going to be one individual in this garage area that feels like they've got the voice.
I've been fortunate where, when I've had bad years, we've usually ended those bad years with something positive to build on in the off-season. And that's what happened to us last year.
The way our season's gone, no matter how good we're running, no matter how bad, you just never know what's going to happen. You know, tonight is one of those nights we wanted and needed to happen.