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 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.
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.
We're all trying to win races and we're all out trying to occupy the same amount of real estate. I would expect we're going to see more and more of it.
I don't think even Dale really chose to be the leader. It just kind of happened over time. Just expecting someone else to be the leader, I don't know if that necessarily happened. We do it together as drivers.
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.