Q: On The Jeff Gordon Foundation:
Jeff Gordon: “This is always a special time of year for us. We had an event last night to celebrate our 10-year anniversary, a decade of caring, and I’m really happy to announce that it’s been a great 2009 for us and we’ve had tremendous support from our fans and the community within our sport as well as outside. We announced to key supporters that the foundation is committing $2.5 million to support pediatric cancer research and treatment and programs at the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital for it was a great night for us and it’s been a great year.
“Among those programs that we’re funding are the building of a pediatric pulmonary lab and community outreach program at the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital, the establishment of the Jeff Gordon Foundation Pediatric Cancer Research Fund at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, funds to conduct a Phase I long term follow-up study of pediatric cancer patients through CureSearch and the Children’s Oncology Group, funds to tissue-type 30,000 marrow donors through the Be The Match Registry of the National Marrow Donors Program.
“The foundation was established in 1999 and since that time I’m really proud to say that we have helped tens of thousands of children and granted nearly $10 million to some of the country’s most recognized children’s health organizations. I just want to say thank you to the media and to NASCAR and certainly to all of our fans. It’s been a tremendous ten years. We’re very proud that we’ve accomplished that and I can’t wait for the next ten years. Thank you for the time to be able to make those announcements.”
Q: Talk About Your Plans This Weekend At Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Jeff Gordon: “This was a great track for us in May. Any of the tracks that we go back to for the second time, we’re excited when we know that even though we didn’t have a great result because of the rain, I felt like we had a very strong race car and the team was fantastic. So we’re excited about coming back here this time around in October. We’re optimistic about the weekend and building on the momentum of the last two second-place finishes. To compete for this championship, we’ve got to keep that up and then some. We understand what we’re up against, not only our teammates, but Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Stewart and also the 15th place finish that we had at New Hampshire. So all we can do is to continue to just push forward, work hard and put the best finishes out there that we can and let the rest of the things take care of themselves.”
Q: On The Pga Tour, Some People Say Tiger Woods Has Caused Other Golfers To Raise Their Game. Is That What Jimmie Johnson Is Doing? Causing Other Drivers To Raise Their Game?
Jeff Gordon: “No doubt about it. That whole group of Jimmie, Chad (Knaus) and all the way through the shop have set the benchmark for how you go about preparing your cars and how you go about execution during the race, communication throughout the weekend, and as well as Jimmie’s commitment from a driver’s standpoint; he’s physically fit and how he analyzes the race tracks and the races. I think everybody has a little bit different and unique driving style and way to go about it. But what Jimmie is doing, and that whole group, it takes a team and the total team effort is obviously proving to be the strongest thing out there right now.”
Q: On Having To Compete Against Jimmie Johnson And Mark Martin In Hendrick Equipment On Tony Stewart In Hendrick Engines, How Much Does That Gnaw At You?
Jeff Gordon: “It does a little. We pride ourselves on being the best out there and winning and continuing that tradition, not only for our No. 24 team but also Hendrick Motorsports. It’s a great problem to have that you’re at the best organization out there providing the best equipment and resources and people and that’s exactly what you’re up against each and every weekend. It’s been the philosophy of Rick’s since I first came to Hendrick that you hope that you’re battling against your teammate. It’s a great problem to have for Rick and the organization and it’s something that the organization takes a lot of pride in and what that does is that opens up more opportunities for yourself and every other person and each team every year to only get better. And so we kind of know that going into it and while at times it’s tough, it’s very competitive, and it can be frustrating as well, when you get beat it’s just because of the way that competition is driving one another. NASCAR hasn’t always been similar to, say other forms of racing like Formula I and Indy Car where you’re up against your teammate and your performance is sort of driven by your teammate and there is this internal rivalry, but as competitive as its gotten over the years, it certainly has the making of that and gets stronger every year.”
Q: Have You Ever Seen That Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital Playground At Concord Mills Mall?
Jeff Gordon: “Oh, yeah. I’m very proud of it and of our name being associated with it. You know we have 500 employees at Hendrick Motorsports plus numerous employees in this whole area from the Speedway to the other teams and shops that are out there and there’s not a weekend that goes by that I don’t have a member, whether it be in the media or in the garage area, that says thank you for the hospital and maybe treatment that was done on one of their kids or somebody knew, or, that they had a lot of fun over at Concord Mills Mall in the playground.”
Q: Speaking Of Treatments, How Is Your Back Doing?
Jeff Gordon: “I’m happy to report nothing. Everything is good. I haven’t had any issues. The last little scare was Watkins Glen and I didn’t know how long it was going to take to recover from that and I feel like I’m fully recovered from that and I haven’t had any back issues. I mean it’s still there, but I haven’t had pain or anything that’s been too uncomfortable or any distraction in the car, so I’m happy about that.
“We’ve basically been doing the same things. During the week I would go to a chiropractor and get different types of treatments that they call manipulation, where they just stretch you out as much as they can, literally stretching each spinal cord in the lumbar area to try to just give it some relief; as well as the stem treatment. I mentioned that last week. It is electric-static stuff making the muscles do things which is the best way I can describe it (laughs). It’s supposed to loosen the muscles up. So I do that during the week. I’ve been able to incorporate some of that on the weekends because I like what that does and some adjustments as well.”
Q: We’ve Got Three Guys With Finishing Averages Of 3.5 Or Better In The Top Three In Points. Do You Think Anybody Can Keep Doing That Through 10 Races?
Jeff Gordon: “So, what you really want to know is whether or not I’m hoping that doesn’t happen (laughs). The only chance we have in the championship is for that average obviously to change. Those three guys have been on a tear, they’ve been consistent and very competitive and leading laps and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for that. We’ve been making a strong comeback, but it’s certainly not going to be enough unless we win the next six races or something (laughs) to be able to overcome not only the deficit we had going in because of the wins that they had versus ours, as well as that 15th and 6th place finish that started off the Chase. Realistically, in ‘07 I didn’t think that a 5.0 average would last and I lost with a 5.1. So anything is possible. Do I think that’s going to continue? No, I don’t. I think the averages are going to come into play. Does that mean it’s going to be a 5.0 average or a 7.0 average? It’s going to be low, the way these guys are performing.”
Q: On Going To Martinsville Next Weekend And How The Double-file Shootout Starts Will Out At Martinsville?
Jeff Gordon: “I’m excited about Martinsville. It’s going to be a great weekend, especially because of the double-file restarts. In the past, we’ve always had double-file restarts but you’ve got the lapped cars on the inside and just the challenge that creates in itself is exciting enough. Now you put in lead-lap cars double-file and it’s really going to make things interesting because there certainly is a preferred line there. Anytime you go to a short track where there is a lot of rubbing and banging, what’s going to happen is if the outside lane is not the preferred lane, then those guys in the outside lane are going to be working really hard to get in the inside lane, and vice-versa.
“So it’s going to create a lot of excitement and possibly some real drama. We’ll just wait to see how it plays out. Our job is the same as always: go there, make the car go through the corners as fast as we can, make sure we’re not burning up the brakes, and get the car up off the corner and down the straight-aways the best we possibly can against the competition.”
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