JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS, FINISHED 2nd, SEVENTH IN THE CHASE STANDINGS: IF YOU HAD 10 MORE LAPS WERE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO CATCH TONY (STEWART)?
“I don’t know. I started really running out of steam there toward the end with the tires. I had just used them up so much trying to catch him. It was a great effort by the DuPont Chevrolet team. I’m so proud of them. We were really far off when this race started and I thought there is no way we’ll ever finish second today so that’s just what kind of great team that we have and how we never, never give up. We just kept tuning on it. Steve Letarte, all the guys making great pit stops. Got to give a lot of credit to the engine shop and the chassis shop. Everybody at the No. 24, No. 48, No. 5 and No. 88 shop they just work so hard to prepare these cars and that’s why we don’t give up. I certainly didn’t think we were going to finish second today.”
JUST HOW BIG OF A SWING DID YOU AND STEVE LETARTE TAKE AT IT ON THE FIRST PIT STOP?
“You know you’ve got to be real careful with this car. It doesn’t take as big swing sometimes as you think. I think he tried some fairly small adjustments to see what direction it went. When we started going in the right direction we started going more. Right there at the end they made an adjustment that made the car really good on the restart. It took maybe half a lap to get going and once you got clear of some guys then it just took off. It was really rolling through (turns) one and two. We just never quite got it in (turns) three and four. We made huge improvements and we were catching Tony (Stewart). Congratulations to him. He did exactly what he needed to do. I saw him slip the tire a couple of times and I’d catch him and get a little bit of incentive and the great champion he is he just kept it real smooth and ran his line, as long as he did that I was never going to catch him.”
YOU SAID IF YOU COULD GET THIS CAR RIGHT TODAY, THAT (CREW CHIEF) STEVE LETARTE WOULD BE YOUR HERO. HOW HARD DID YOU WORK FOR THAT 2ND PLACE FINISH?
“He’s almost the hero. He didn’t fix it completely but it’s still a great day for the DuPont Chevrolet. We came a long way and that shows what kind of great team we have. We were really far off in the beginning of this race. The funny thing is, all weekend long when the balance wasn’t right the speed was still decent. So I’ve got to give thanks to the engine shop and the chassis shop and all the guys back in the shop. It was a great effort for us and I’m really proud of Steve and all the guys in the pits today. That’s the kind of effort that we’ve got to show if we’re going to win this championship.”
HOW MUCH MOMENTUM WILL THIS GIVE YOU?
“It’s going to give us quite a bit. This is the kind of finish we needed to have on the 1.5-mile. We’ve just got to capitalize on the tracks that are good for us. It was one of those days where the pit crew had to step-up at the right time. They did. Steve made some great calls. We made some great adjustments because we came from a long way back. We’ve just got to put that effort out every weekend and hope we get those kinds of results and maybe even on (position) better.”
