Q. What caused you to look at him to begin with, to notice him?
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I like a guy that makes more out of his equipment than I think it’s capable of. You know, I feel like he took a mediocre team, and this is what I feel like we’re really missing right now in the Nationwide Series, if you’re not on the Childress team, Roush team or Hendrick team, nobody’s even looking at you. I guess I look at David Gilliland as the last guy that really did something in a not-so-well-known team. Look what people did, people flocked to him, picked him up. Man, this guy has beat them all with a team that’s not known.
That’s kind of what it was like in a different sense. The big teams weren’t dominating the sport like that at that time. So he stood out. You know, he stood out. He wasn’t in the best equipment. He was in the top 10 in points.
Q. Herzog team?
JEFF GORDON: Herzog. He hadn’t won yet when we looked at him, but he was solid. And then, you know, I raced with him. You know, he drove the wheels off the thing. You know, he was hanging it out there. He was doing what he needed to do.
You know, you can sense a guy - or a girl - what they’re capable of when you’re out there with them. You can tell when the car’s like doing the work and when the driver’s doing the work. He’s doing a lot of the work.
Q. You know what it’s like to be in championship mode, but how do you keep it up as long as you do? Yesterday Rick said he’s never seen two drivers, Mark and Jimmie, work as hard as they do just concentrating on being the guy that gets behind the wheel? How long can you maintain that kind of intensity with this kind of pressure?
JEFF GORDON: It just depends on what you build with those opportunities. You know, the downside is the more championships you win, the more you want to capitalize on opportunities that come your way, you know, from a marketing standpoint, from a business standpoint. Whether or not you get bored with it, you know.
Jimmie’s a very focused and driven, you know, person. He works really hard at it. If he continues that, then I think he can continue on with the success, as well as the team.
Chad is as driven as Jimmie or anybody else out there. So it takes a whole combination, and they’ve got it. It just really comes down to them, how long they want to continue working at it as hard as they do.
Q. Is there anybody you would rather beat on Sunday than Jimmie Johnson?
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, a Roush car. Because this weekend I think the Roush teams seem to be the cars to beat at Homestead.
Are you talking about any Sunday?
Q. Any given Sunday.
JEFF GORDON: If you beat those guys, you’re doing something special. They’re very, very strong. Look what they did last week. They got down at Texas, came right back and just dominated. They’re definitely the team to beat. But not necessarily at Homestead.
Q. Have things changed out on the track over the last two years in any way, incidents being down?
JEFF GORDON: You know, the double-file restarts I would have thought would have increased that. And they might still. You have a whole season with it next year. We’ll see.
But, no. I mean, we’re all out there racing hard, doing the same things we always do.
Q. Car of Tomorrow make any difference over the last two years in terms of fewer incidents?
JEFF GORDON: You know, maybe. I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I mean, it’s still a racecar. It still has fenders on it.
Q. People haven’t changed their style in any way in the last couple years?
JEFF GORDON: I think the aerodynamic package you have right now is affecting a little bit of that. We’re not able to really get side-by-side as much as maybe in the past. That could have something to do with it. But that’s just racing in general it’s happening with that. That’s hard to say if it’s the Car of Tomorrow.
Q. (Question regarding celebrating the championship.)
JEFF GORDON: I don’t want to say that it’s wrapped up with Jimmie. But Mark is not known for going out and having a big party after a win. If he wins the championship, I would be absolutely thrilled, you know, would love to spend some time with him enjoying that win.
If Jimmie wins it, you know, he’s gotten it down, you know, on how to enjoy the evening. So we’ll certainly be involved with those festivities, yes.
Q. You were at Montoya’s event last night. What kind of difference do you see in terms of Hispanic recognition in this sport?
JEFF GORDON: I see media that’s here almost every weekend. I see increasing fan base. Plus, you know, just seeing people like this week, for instance, I’m staying with a friend, and there’s a woman that works for him that’s from Colombia. The only driver she knows is Juan Pablo Montoya. She wouldn’t have ever known anything about NASCAR racing if it weren’t for him.
So I’m sure that happens a lot. The flipside is they wouldn’t know Jeff Gordon or a bunch of other drivers here in NASCAR if it weren’t for Juan coming in.
I think there’s a lot of race fans in South America. I don’t know how much they’ve been following NASCAR.
They’ve been following Formula One. Now I think you get a little bit more South American influence with Nelson and Juan. I don’t know, there’s a few more. That will only increase the awareness in the Hispanic market.
Q. What do you like best about doing TV interviews and TV shows?
JEFF GORDON: What do I like the best? I don’t know. I mean, I love doing live, just the interaction with the fans, having something unique to talk about than the same old springs and shocks and that type of thing. I mean, I’m comfortable in front of the camera. I’ve been in front of them for a long time. I guess that’s just my personality. I like that interaction.
Q. Did you ever have to work at it?
JEFF GORDON: Yes, definitely. I mean, I still see flaws every time I do an interview, things that I say, you know, just little habits that I have. But, yeah, absolutely I had to work at it. None of that comes natural.
Q. Rick said yesterday when Ray left in ‘99 that was when he drew the line in the sand and said, You guys are all going to share everything, be equal, we’re not going to have one front-running car and everybody chasing after him, having secrets. Did that take away some of the advantage the 24 had over the rest of the team or did it work out to everybody’s advantage?
JEFF GORDON: It may have. I mean, we were still under the same guidelines as sharing information. But the whole organization was not put together the way it is now. We didn’t have a network, we didn’t have the shops the way they are now. And also I think that one of the big influences was when the 48 came on and the 24 shared everything with them seamlessly in that way, that’s what really changed things.
You know, we won the championship in ‘01 with Robby. That was two years later, a season later anyway from when Ray left. You know, to me it was just the direction that the organization was heading in.
Yeah, it may have taken a little bit of an advantage away. But I think it gave a bigger advantage to Hendrick Motorsports as a whole.
Q. Is it hard to share at all?
JEFF GORDON: I don’t think it is. I think if you’re confident in what you do and you put the right people in place, your team is still going to prevail. And the information you can get from your teammates can be very valuable to you.
The key is, in order to be successful, like the 48 has been, is that, one, you’ve got to bring your own to the table. You’ve got to be strong enough where you can stand on your own. But then there’s those weekends where you miss, you’re off a little bit, and your teammates have what it takes. You know how to pull from them and make your car a winning car. That’s where they’re so strong and where we can get better.
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