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'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.
Even though we had a great car and great results here in the spring, this team has been working hard to build a new car. We believe it's even better than the car we used here earlier this year, we just hope the results are the same.
While it's still early to tell, 2005 could very well be the vintage of the decade for Washington state. Mother Nature was definitely on our side this year, delivering one of the warmest summers we've had in recent years, cool and constant fall weather and a frost-free harvest. This allowed the fruit to hang on the vine longer and enhance flavor development.
He's always got that positive attitude. He works hard. He doesn't ask to be treated different or given anything special. Everything that he's gotten, he's earned from hard work, and I think he brings the same work ethics into the crew chief job.
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 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. Because Dale had that kind of respect, everybody looked up to him. Whether they enjoyed racing with him or having dinner with him or not, they all respected him tremendously.
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.
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.
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.