Q&A: Jeff Gordon.

Saturday, 11th February 2006

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.

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It's tougher to win, but at the same time I think it's easier to have the opportunity to win because if you think about it, as long as you're in the top 10, you got a shot at winning, where in the past going into the last 10 races you had to be in the top three. Your opportunity is still there, but to pull it off, because now you're racing nine other guys, 10, however many make it into the Chase, the chances of actually winning it have decreased. It makes it tough.

For me, I mean, the seven championships has always been outside of me. I mean, I was happy to get one. Then two came along, three and four. I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe it. I still can't believe it. I hope I get five. You know, that's our goal, is to get the next one, and that's five.

Q.
Is it hard to maintain a winning streak?

JEFF GORDON:
Definitely, definitely. You know. I appreciate that because we won four right away. We won three right away. You know, so, it looked like, "Hey, you're on track, you're going to go do it." This is a competitive sport. We did have our act together for five years straight. We were awesome. But it's hard to maintain that.

One of the things that I think made Dale so special is that, you look at the period of time that he won seven championships, it didn't just happen seven years in a row where they just figured something out, he did it over a period of time. You got to grow with the times, set-ups, engineering, all these things that change with the cars, racetracks and everything else. That to me is proof of a great driver.

I'm proud of the fact that we did it from '95 to 2001. We battled for the championship in 2003. But, you know, to do it year in and year out, it's tough.

Q.
On Loomis leaving and Letarte becoming Gordon's new crew chief

JEFF GORDON:
Well, we learned when Ray (Evernham) left the team that change is not always a bad thing. That taught me a lot about racing, taught me a lot about life. You know, sometimes those things can be positive and good.