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
Typically, Michigan has been a good track for us. In June, though, we stunk.
Yeah, it tears our confidence down a little bit and it makes us scratch our heads, and sometimes we don't always go in the right direction. But we never stop searching for what we've got to do to turn it back around. Sometimes, you've got to take big steps to turn it around and, sometimes, it's just right there and you're just missing one little ingredient.
You know, we really are going to have to be as on top of our game this weekend as we've ever been. You know, certainly we're capable of that, I know that we are. We haven't shown that this year, so I'm hoping that when it is all on the line that we do step it up. I know the team is capable of doing that.
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 fought back all we could. Unfortunately, we got caught up in that last deal with Kurt Busch. That really got us behind. I think we had a shot at a top-10 with that tore-up race car.
We had a top five that would have been a great finish and it was taken away from us. I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it.
We have to keep our fans watching not just at home on TV but here at the racetrack too. This is where you sell people on the speed and excitement of racing.
Usually when you make up 52 points it's easy. It's not difficult. It's because something happens. You don't make it up because a guy ran bad and you went out there and led every lap and won the race.
We know that after Richmond (the 26th race) comes, we've got to be in the top-10 and when we are, we'd better be set on 'kill' to go out there and lead laps and win races.
We'll go to Richmond and see what we can do. It doesn't matter right now (where we race). Everywhere we go, we either stink or we're good. Apparently what we've done in the past doesn't mean anything right now.
You learn from your mistakes. I think (Johnson) made a couple of mistakes then I think he was over-criticized for some things that really weren't his doing. I think he's always been a smart race-car driver, and that's what it takes to win races at this type of track.
We didn't see a whole lot of bump-drafting throughout the day until right there at the end. We didn't end up under caution or red, so that was a good thing.
Years like that make you hungrier, make you humble. You have no idea how disappointing it was.
Years like that make you hungrier, make you humble. The criticism has come a little bit stronger, come more often. I understand why. We've won four championships, a lot of races. We've prided ourselves on being competitive every year. When we're not, we recognize as well as everybody we're having an off year.