Q. What is your approach to these last two races?
JEFF GORDON: I mean, it really doesn’t change. Nothing changes for us. It’s the same as usual. Go out, try to get the best qualifying effort we can here on qualifying day on Friday. And approach practice tomorrow, trying to be better than we were the last time we were here.
You Know, try to be one of the best cars out there, and hope that that pays off on Sunday and then execute the best that we possibly can on Sunday. Try to learn from our mistakes in our past, and try to, you know, make any of those things that we’ve learned from, make them better.
Q. What the 48 did last week with them rebuilding that car to get back on the track to get 15 or so points, does that kind of symbolize the strength behind not just that team but Hendrick Motorsports? I can see the guy from your team going over there to help. Kind of the behind the scene guys that we don’t see about or know about that make Hendrick what it really is?
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, we’re a very deep organization, and we work together. That’s why you see the three teams at the top right now and why you’ve seen the 48 win the last three seasons in a row.
You know, it’s an organization that works extremely well together, shares a lot of information. I don’t think many teams do. And when it comes to times like that, like what you saw at Texas, everybody chips in, you know. Even though we’re competitors and battling against one another, when there’s times like that we don’t think of ourselves as competitors. We think about what would we need in our situation and how would they contribute and we know they’d do the same for us.
Q. In the position that you’re in, do you go into the weekend maybe a little more on the cautious side on the race? I guess more race day, or aggressive side?
JEFF GORDON: It’s definitely more the opposite. When you’re behind in points and the races are narrowing down, you get more and more aggressive. You know, you’ve got to go out there and gain points. You’ve got to get good track position. You’ve got to really try to capitalize every moment you’re out there on the track to try to get the most out of it.
I mean, honestly, I don’t know how we can do things any different than we do all year long. We really work hard at every race to be as aggressive as we can to put ourselves in a position to win the race. I can’t say we’ve really done anything different in the Chase than what we’ve done every weekend.
The difference is when I say “aggressive,” it’s maybe in the pit strategy. It might be taking a little more risk on fuel mileage, you know, it might be thinking a little more outside the box under set-ups if what we had the last time we were there didn’t work so well. You know, those types of things.
Q. We know how you feel since you won the title. But we want to ask you as a teammate and a race fan, how cool would it be if Jimmie wins his fourth in a row, and how cool would it be if Mark Martin wins his first?
JEFF GORDON: Well, either one of those scenarios, including myself, are all very cool. You know, I think you have to look at each differently. I think what Jimmie and Chad and that team has done over the last four years has been phenomenal. It’s something to be respected and appreciated.
And I think even more so from within the organization when we know on what we’re up against and that we’ve been getting beat by them.
With Mark Martin, I’m such a huge are Mark Martin fan, always have been. I battled with this guy in championships. He’s such a tough competitor, and I feel like he deserves it. And I think it would be fantastic for him and the 5 team and Rick Hendrick and everybody.
For us we’ve been doing the drive for five for so long that, you know, I’m tired of hearing about it. But we’re close this year. I feel like we’ve been very competitive and consistent. Obviously, we’d love to pull that off.
Q. Do you get any sense that the fans are rooting for Mark?
JEFF GORDON: I think at this point what people are rooting for is to it to be a race down to the wire in Homestead. I can’t really get a sense—I think that Mark Martin is a sentimental favorite, for sure. I think that people, you know, I don’t think you find anybody that dislikes Mark. You know, it’s just everybody. They like Mark. So I think that that would be a positive to see that happen.
But I think right now, you know, just like what we saw last week, people want—they don’t want to see the 48 have a problem. They want to see the gap closed up. However that happens I think that’s what I’m sure the media and the fans, a lot of people are hoping for, even the competitors.
I know I want to get closer to the 5 and the 48 going into next week’s race also.
Q. After going through your practice laps, how do you expect you and your car to handle the track here?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I feel like our car has a pole possibility in it. We never really got the lap that we were looking for in practice, so we’re ninth or tenth, I think. But it’s in there. The car has it. It has the speed. That’s all we focused on today was qualifying. We won’t know what we have for the race until tomorrow.
Q. Why is Hendrick so good here?
JEFF GORDON: Well, I mean, I don’t know if I would—I mean, Hendrick’s good everywhere. I feel like our stuff’s good everywhere we go. I don’t really isolate to this. I know you’re saying that because you look at the stats and it says we’ve won the last five races in a row. I give a lot of credit to that 48 team. They won like three in a row. That’s impressive.
I think this is one of Mark’s best tracks. Has been before he came to Hendrick, and they’ve given him great equipment. It’s a track that we’ve always been consistent at. You know, we’ve had a tremendous amount of Top 10s here, and a pretty decent Top 5 and we finally got a win. You know, we need that kind of performance again this weekend.
I don’t know, you know. We focus so hard on putting the best equipment out there every weekend that we don’t really look at why are we good at this track. We kind of say, you know, How do we get better?
Q. What are the moments or instances with Jimmie that you’ve seen that kind of defines why he’s had the success that he’s had? That there are things that you see that the fan doesn’t see, that I don’t see, whether it’s stuff that you have seen over the career or even things you’ve seen this year?
JEFF GORDON: I’m not trying to take anything away from Jimmie, but you say “Jimmie,” I say “team.” To me, all the success I have at winning championships is because we were the best team. And I did my part, and Jimmie, he focused really hard on being prepared and giving his best. That’s a huge part of a team, you know. Not every driver out there does it, you know, puts that much effort into it.
But not all crew chiefs put the effort that Chad puts in. Not all team members put in that effort, and not all organizations put in the effort. So it’s a total team effort.
Q. What is an example of that effort that you see that maybe you see behind the scenes that others don’t see that kind of defines?
JEFF GORDON: I don’t know what they do at other organizations. I just know that the lights basically don’t ever get turned off at Hendrick Motorsports. The people never stop working. They never stop creating new ideas and thinking outside the box. You know, second is never good enough. We have those expectations upon us all the time, but we strive to build those expectations as well.
Q. If Jimmie wins this championship he’ll be obviously tied with you. You will have more wins. But some people will look to him more as the Alpha male of the garage. I wonder, you know, every driver has to have a personal ego and believe in themselves. But if the perception starts to slide away that you’re no longer the Alpha male position, I think it’s probably fair to say.
JEFF GORDON: I’ve been off that position for the last four years in my opinion. I mean, you can’t control where you’re at in popularity. You can’t control how you’re perceived by the media. You build that up over time through your actions, your accomplishments, the stats, all those things.
To me I’m always an actions-speak-louder-than-words type of individual. So in my opinion we’ve been chasing the 48 for the last three, now going on four years if not longer than that and even prior to that. They’re the team to beat. Jimmie’s the guy to beat from the driver’s standpoint.
I mean, I’ve accepted that a long time ago. It just makes me work harder to try to get ourselves back up to that level I think we’re capable of.
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