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
We're just happy to we have some things that have been positive and going our way. We haven't looked like we've had the best performance out there but we have had some good situations.
We're focused on our program, making our stuff as good as we can make it and then we'll find out how we stack up against the competition.
We have a pretty good handle on this place.
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.
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.
To pay somebody back means you're probably going to get paid back again somewhere down the road.
There are some people that maybe have gotten caught up thinking I'm just a guy that lets things go. I feel like it takes a lot to make me mad, but I still get mad. Lately I haven't been afraid to show it.
When you put him in that position, how does he go from being one of the guys to all of a sudden being the boss? How is he going to deal with the guys? That's the part I've been impressed with. He came right in there and took control and got the guys that support him to support him more and the guys that didn't to either support him or they were out the door.
We needed a long run. We didn't need that last caution. That last caution hurt us a bit.
We won the 150, and we're on the front row and we won the Daytona 500 last year and the Talladega race. I think that's enough for guys to know we're on the radar screen. I would hope that people would think we're one of the guys to beat.
We're still not where we need to be on these types of tracks, but it's a learning process. We're learning from everything we're trying with the cars -- whether it works or not. Not every adjustment we make will work, but it gives us more data to make better decisions.
We've got a points system that's built on consistency, and then we change how it's structured to make this exciting 10-race stretch, but then it's still about consistency. The guy could finish top-five every weekend in those last 10 races and still win that championship. It's very possible that it could happen.
I think with our track record here at Daytona, with the performance that we've got going for us already this week, I'd like to think that we're one of the favorites. But whether we're the guy to beat or not, we'll find out in the closing laps of the 500.