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 definitely creates excitement. No matter what the change is, you got the excitement. You just hope you made the right change. The fact we won a championship with Robbie Loomis, another crew chief, only added confidence to our programme, to our organisation. That's why when this came about, it wasn't a difficult decision, even Steve being 26 years old. It was that we need to make a change. We were already planning on making the change. This is the guy.

That same thing, we got a lot of excitement right now. People believe in Steve and the team and everything. The confidence is back in there. I just hope we can maintain that, because that's what's going to win us a championship.

Q.
What do you think about Loomis joining the Petty organisation?

JEFF GORDON:
I look at Petty's organisation, I think this is one of the best opportunities I've seen since I've been racing with them to really put some good numbers up there. It's not just any one thing, like it never is. They got a good combination of people. Robbie, it was a great move for him. Petty was always like family to him. That was no surprise. You know, Bobby Labonte, it was a bit of a surprise. But I think, to know his connection to the Pettys over the years, he's always been close with them, lived near them, everything else. It wasn't a huge surprise. I know Robbie's close friends of Todd Parrott, so that wasn't a big surprise either.

It's a great combination they have. If they can put the resources behind them, those guys can have success.

Q.
Do you think Earnhardt's crash changed the way drivers look at things?

JEFF GORDON:
Definitely. You know, when the biggest name in your sport goes through a crash and doesn't survive it, it's a wake-up call to everybody. I think, you know, if there were things -- I know for me the HANS device is something that I tried. I wasn't really comfortable with it. After that, I was like I got to make it work. I felt like we were always kind of on the leading edge, one of the teams on the leading edge of seat design. Ray Evernham was great about a lot of that stuff. He incorporated that into our team. Hendrick Motorsports was always big on the way the chassis were built, being safe as well. That was always something that was on our minds.