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 am going to take part blame for that. I think Tony should take part of it as well. ... I think it could have been avoided by both of us. It was an unfortunate incident that hurt us both a lot.
He was one of those guys that right away, you knew he was gonna do a lot more than sweep the floors. I knew five years ago that Steve would be a crew chief. I didn't know if it'd be with me or some other team. But I always hoped that it would be for me.
I think it could have been avoided by both of us and it cost us both a lot.
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.
He's tough here, there's no doubt about it. When I look at guys that run good here, I put him as one of the top guys.
He was one of the most competitive guys out there. There were days when he'd push you and shove you right out of the way and frustrate you, then there were other days where you just saw his talent and you had a blast racing with him. I think certainly the fans miss the excitement that he brought. I don't think there will be anybody to replace Dale. I believe he was the best race-car driver I've ever raced against.
The first thing I did was go to Rick Hendrick and tell him what I'd been approached with, what I would like to do and what my hopes were. We worked it all out, and first thing I know I'm signing a lifetime contract.
I would definitely say right now we're as hungry and fired up as we've ever been. We've got youthfulness, (and) we've got excitement back in the team.
I want to apologize to the fans. That was absolutely uncalled for what happened today. To run that many laps under caution, all the disputes on pit road, I'm embarrassed by it and I want to apologize.
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.
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.
The challenge is getting ourselves ready for next season. We certainly don't want to be in the position we're in right now.
It was a very rewarding race and gratifying. I could get up to third or fourth but couldn't make those passes to get the rest of the way. Once we did get up front, the car was flying. To be able to drive from 15th all the way to third or fourth, I knew we had a good one. Once we got out front, we were awesome. I knew we were in great shape.
That's just good TV. Don't listen to that. When you're inside the car, you've got no idea if you caught the wind or not.