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
Sometimes it takes some beatings before you really get things turned around. It puts you in a position to make changed and get humble. I would say we're as hungry and fired up as we've ever been.
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.
I don't feel like I've really changed. Maybe I have let people see more of me than in the past.
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.
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.
The retirement package that was available for my almost 32 years of employment will vanish before many others and myself are eligible to receive it, if this new plan is implemented.
This is a very competitive sport, and things aren't going to go your way every year. But we are capable of so much more, and we'll use these next 10 races to try to get back to that level.