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
The Roush cars are really, really fast right now.
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 were one of the best cars on the long runs. We just couldn't get track position.
We had a 14th- or 15th- place car at best, and then we lost two laps when we cut that tire. But all the Hendrick cars were off.
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.
We're still not where we need to be on these types of tracks, but it's a learning process. We're learning from everything we're trying with the cars -- whether it works or not. Not every adjustment we make will work, but it gives us more data to make better decisions.
Our 2006 started when the (2005) Chase started. We were able to regroup and make a bunch of changes -- not just personnel changes, but changes with the race cars themselves as well.
Starting up front here is definitely an advantage. It allows you to be patient in dealing with the traffic. And traffic is something you can't get away from here. It always seems like there are 42 cars right behind you and another 42 cars right in front of you.
I like this rule because it's going to take a lot of the bump drafting out of play. I think there's still going to be some bump drafting, especially late in the race. But I think it will make guys have to think a little bit more about how they pass. That goes back to the type of drafting I learned early on. We used the air to push the cars around instead of the bumpers. I like that type of drafting, and I'm curious to see how we'll manage it.
I don't know how you can just pick one guy, there's strong cars out here. I felt like (Sadler) was really strong in that first race. I know that Tony and Junior and Jimmie and those guys who weren't in our race are going to be strong.
I'm pleased. I guess this is what I was expecting of us at this point in the season where we were a better team. We had better race cars. Not necessarily the cars being better, but the setups relating to how I like to drive, the comfort and feel. I think it's given me more confidence. It's building confidence in the team.
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.
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.