Q. We are going to start off today with a quick fan question, came across NASCAR’s Twitter account. A fan named Max in Arizona, he wants to know: What are your chances of winning one of the upcoming Chase races starting with week at Kansas where you won a couple of times?
JEFF GORDON: Well, thank you Max for the question. I think our chances are really good. I’ve been really excited about the mile and a halfs in the final ten races in the Chase. I feel like that’s something that we have really done a great job with improving from last season, and I feel like that’s where this championship can really get turned around for us in the DuPont Chevrolet. We haven’t had the best start especially compared to our teammates. But this last week in Dover was certainly a good performance. Didn’t get the finish we were hoping for but I feel in Kansas, we are cable, very capable of getting that win that we need to really move ourselves up to where we need to be to battle for this championship so hopefully we can pull that off.
Q. You said last week that you’re every bit as hungry for a championship as you’ve ever been, still don’t like to finish second or worse. How does it wear on you like at Dover being up in possible position to win and slipping back, and then having those two teammates out of the same stable who are able to stay up there and win races and finish second? How does that, what kind of emotional or mental wear and tear is that on you?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I mean, doesn’t really matter if it’s your teammate or not, when you’ve had the kind of year that we’ve had with the DuPont Chevrolet and we’ve been competitive and we’ve been consistent and it all comes down to those final ten races in the Chase as to whether you’re going to win the championship or not, and the first two don’t go the way you’d like them to and you could get beat by anybody, and then your teammates are up there winning the first two races; it’s very frustrating. It’s frustrating that we are not living up to our full potential, but at the same time, we are only two races in. It’s not something that we are really overthinking or spending too much time on, we certainly are working hard and we have had some things that haven’t gone our way.
But at the same time, we could have been a lot worse in New Hampshire and we could have been a lot worse in Dover. We are still in this thing in our mind, and eight races, a lot is left to happen. And all we can do is just go try to turn things around this weekend in Kansas, and we know that if those guys continue the way that they are, we have got to win to gain points on them. And that’s certainly a lot to ask for. But in my opinion, it’s still doable. The nice thing is when your teammates are running that good, you have all the data and information at your fingertips to be able to pull from.
Q. Last week you said you had to have a Top 10, and you got a Top 10, but you probably didn’t move up as far as you wanted to. What do you got to have this week?
JEFF GORDON: Well, we have got to live up to our full potential. We were second, third place car last week at Dover. We didn’t finish there, so Jimmie and the 48 team, by far, they had the best car, the best team, and they won the race. So you have got to get your absolute best, and we haven’t done that the first two races.
You know, ten races is a lot of laps. It’s a lot of points that can be lost and gained. There’s going to be a lot more drama over these next eight, and all we can do is go and get our absolute best. I just hope that this weekend in Kansas, our absolute best is a car and a team that’s capable of winning, and we pull that off. If not we are still shooting for Top 5s, and if we are 14th and we finish 10th, then that’s a gain. If we are fifth and we finish second or third, that’s a gain. But you really have to be in the Top 3, I believe, to be able to be a winning car, and that’s where we have got to put ourselves in position for.
Q. After winning four championships in seven years, did you ever think it would take this long to win another one, and why do you think it has taken this long? Has it been mostly just a matter of competition getting better? Has it been something more to do with your team?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I never thought I would win four championships or three, two, or one. I mean, I just never thought I could come into this level of competition and you know, I remember when I signed with Hendrick, I had people doubting that decision and they had never won a championship.
So, you know, I have exceeded all of my expectations, but at the same time, as you win championships and you win races, it raises your goals up to another level, and sort of creates new expectations.
So you know, I really thought that we have had some years in it to pull off the championship, and you know, one or two things here or there, didn’t go our way, we didn’t win it, but we have been competitive many, many years since 2001.
But the Chase has changed things. This format I think doesn’t suit my style quite as well as the old one but I’m as hungry and as eager as I’ve ever been to get the championship, because it’s something I feel like I’ve never accomplished and this team has never accomplished and it’s something that we desperately want to do. We know because our teammates won the last three, and this year, two of our teammates are right in it, that we have got as much of a shot at it as anybody else, as well.
So we are excited about that opportunity and hungry for it, and it’s not about what you did in the last race and not about what you did last year; it’s about what you do in the next one coming up and the next season and these next eight races. So that’s what we are focused on.
Q. If you don’t mind me looking ahead to Martinsville, a track you’ve had a lot of success on, can you tell us what it takes to run well and win there?
JEFF GORDON: Lately it’s been kind of like the championship again; Jimmie Johnson Martinsville has been a great track for me since ‘94, ‘95, maybe even ‘96. It’s just been a track that we clicked on with the setup. I learned a lot about being patient at that track. And that’s really what it takes. It takes being patient and not overdriving the entry to the corner, really waiting to pick up the throttle through the center part of the corner and letting the car roll through the center. And then what you have to focus on as far as information, giving the team, is getting the car off the corner really strong to get down to the straightaways.
Every race we go there, we are run of the fastest cars or one of the cars with a shot at winning. And we love to get back into victory lane, but our teammate has been really strong, Denny Hamlin has been really strong and I don’t feel we have had quite the edge we have had. So we are working hard to go back to Martinsville this next race and get that victory. I think that’s a race we definitely have highlighted on the schedule in the final ten that we can gain some points.
We just have to get the car to do a couple more things that we haven’t had it do as well as the guys that we’ve been getting beat by, and that’s what we are focused on doing when we get back there.
Q. Which you talk about?
Q. Can you talk about Rick Hendrick and his role and how vital he is to the success this year?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I mean, Rick I think brings a lot of business savvy. He’s really a great boss and he doesn’t put any kind of unusual pressure on the team. He just really tries to gather the best people, he listens to the people, what they need to make every aspect of the race team better, whether it be in the injury department, the chassis department or each team with the crew chief, or every person.
And so it really has grown over the years with all of the wins and all of the championships, that has only gotten stronger. But I’ve got to tell you, not a day goes by that we don’t have concerns about this being a very volatile business, especially with this economy and sponsors. We are at the mercy of that, and it’s a big organization with a lot of people with a lot of overhead and it certainly has it’s challenges and I think that those challenges are what keeps you pushing hard to make it all work. But we have just been very fortunate with Rick’s guidance and all of the other great people that we have here, that we have been able to make it work very, very well. We have hit on the right things and gone in the right direction, whether it be from an engineering standpoint or just a leadership and teamwork angle. We just try to really pay attention to all of the little details that we possibly can, and that’s all led from the top down with Rick and his business sense and experience and transfer that into the race teams.
Q. You’re just such a great guy, you come into victory lane and I saw you there the other night and you’re congratulating Jimmie, and a lot of drivers, Mark Martin was a little flustered when he was asked about what Jimmie has got going on, but everyone is asking it, seemingly everyone. And then you were mentioning a few minutes ago about how you have all of the information from Jimmie Johnson’s team so that’s really helpful. You above anyone would know what they got. What is it that they have got, and I appreciate your patience in asking about him, and I thought it was cool that you came into victory lane to congratulate him.
JEFF GORDON: Well, you know, one thing, I’m a team player and it was at a great organization, and as frustrated as I was at New Hampshire, I wanted to go and congratulate Mark because it was a job well done. And same thing last weekend with Jimmie. You know, we are competitors, but there’s also, you know, the right thing to do. And sort of put it to Jimmie, you know, when you do what he did, it deserves a congratulations from everybody in the garage and in my opinion, because it was impressive.
The thing is, there’s going to be times where your teammates are going to out run you, they are going to do a better job of all of the details and you have to give them credit when they do it, but it makes you work that much harder to get those details put together for the next race so that you can go out and accomplish the same thing.
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