Speaking on the eve of the new NASCAR Nextel Cup season, quadruple champion Jeff Gordon knows at least one thing is for sure, he and the #24 Hendrick team will be back in a big way in 2006.
Q.
Do you have the feeling of spring training?
JEFF GORDON:
We're a lot closer to the season than spring training. I mean, spring training is when we were here in January. You know, it's exciting. There's definitely a buzz. This event right here is really what kicks off the season. Every year when you show up here at media day, you know it's right around the corner and that you're going to be on the racetrack the next day. There's definitely a lot of exciting things about that.
We've obviously made a lot of changes within our team. We've got a lot to be anxious and excited about. We had a great test down here in January. Certainly looking forward to putting that car on the racetrack tomorrow and seeing what we've got.
Q.
Does how you do at Daytona indicate how the year will be?
JEFF GORDON:
Yeah, well, I mean, one doesn't necessarily relate to the other. I mean, you know, our success here at Daytona doesn't have anything to do with the type of year that we had. Our restrictor plate programme, it's like Martinsville, you know, you can say we've had a bad year, but we dominated Martinsville. That's the way we look at
Daytona, is that this is a great track for us, great opportunity for us to win another race, the biggest race.
We're well prepared. We want to start the season off the same way we did last year. We want to go through the middle part of the season a little bit different than we did last year. That's what all the work he's done for the last 10 races of last year, through the off-season last year, that's what we've been working on to make sure we don't have that happen again, that we're in the Chase and ending the season the way we feel like we should.
Q.
Did not making the Chase make you hungrier?
JEFF GORDON:
Definitely. I think years like that make you hungrier, make you humble, make you appreciate the competition and teamwork and so many different things. You know, I look at one side where, you know, I hated to go through what we went through, the frustration through the summer, different races. I mean, you have no idea how disappointing they were even to ourselves.
![Jeff Gordon addresses the media in Las Vegas. [Pic Credit Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/192824.jpg)
