Jeff Gordon Guys Quotations

When you put him in that position, how does he go from being one of the guys to all of a sudden being the boss? How is he going to deal with the guys? That's the part I've been impressed with. He came right in there and took control and got the guys that support him to support him more and the guys that didn't to either support him or they were out the door.

We won the 150, and we're on the front row and we won the Daytona 500 last year and the Talladega race. I think that's enough for guys to know we're on the radar screen. I would hope that people would think we're one of the guys to beat.

He was one of the most competitive guys out there. There were days when he'd push you and shove you right out of the way and frustrate you, then there were other days where you just saw his talent and you had a blast racing with him. I think certainly the fans miss the excitement that he brought. I don't think there will be anybody to replace Dale. I believe he was the best race-car driver I've ever raced against.

He was one of those guys that right away, you knew he was gonna do a lot more than sweep the floors. I knew five years ago that Steve would be a crew chief. I didn't know if it'd be with me or some other team. But I always hoped that it would be for me.

I think Bristol already brings that out in guys, because there's such tight corners and the track is fast, and I just think you're going to see guys battling to get into that chase who are going to be pushing the envelope really, really hard.

Kyle had a very good car and could get by all of us. My guys got me out (of the pits) first.

I think from what I've seen so far, the guys are doing a fantastic job. We've just been seeing this trend more and more over the last six, eight years of rookies just being able to come in and perform well, win races and put consistency together and also come in with strong race teams.

I think having those no-bumping zones out there did make a difference. There was certainly some desperation for the guys who had to race their way into the 500, but I think we saw a heck of lot less crashes than we would have seen without NASCAR making that change.

I would love to see Jimmie get in position where I could get behind him and help him all I can. I am going to work as hard as I can to get myself into that position. He certainly has helped me plenty of times, and I want those guys to win the championship and I'm going to do everything that I can to help them.

The season has gone in cycles. Guys that ran really strong at the beginning of the year maybe haven't run as strong in the middle. There's no reason that cycle can't come to us as well, and I'm sure that there are teams out there that would prefer not to find out if that cycle comes our way.

Our deal could have been avoided. A lot of them could have been avoided. I saw a lot of things just out of control. I saw a lot of guys out there driving aggressive. If you bump someone, something is going to eventually happen. I was a little bit anxious.

Right now, they're getting a ton of publicity because the focus is on the guys that are battling for the Chase.

I'm real happy with the comeback. We got way off and a lot of it is my fault. You know, I asked the guys to make some adjustments on the car and it was totally going the wrong direction.

At the end of the race, you are very aware of the position of the guys you are battling with in the points. You know that passing one more car may cut the points a driver gains on you, or even add a few more points separation to those behind you.

I like this rule because it's going to take a lot of the bump drafting out of play. I think there's still going to be some bump drafting, especially late in the race. But I think it will make guys have to think a little bit more about how they pass. That goes back to the type of drafting I learned early on. We used the air to push the cars around instead of the bumpers. I like that type of drafting, and I'm curious to see how we'll manage it.

He's tough here, there's no doubt about it. When I look at guys that run good here, I put him as one of the top guys.

I don't know how you can just pick one guy, there's strong cars out here. I felt like (Sadler) was really strong in that first race. I know that Tony and Junior and Jimmie and those guys who weren't in our race are going to be strong.

Some weeks guys do a fantastic job, other weeks ... you never know. Something may have happened that he was just ticked off. You don't know. Sometimes things set you off to where you don't want to get out of anybody's way, you're mad that you're a lap down, you're mad your car is wrecked, maybe it wasn't your fault, you're not thinking about being kind to the guy coming up behind you.