Jeff Gordon Last Quotations

My goal every year is to win the championship and when you don't do it ? or even make the Chase, as was the case last year ? it leaves you feeling a little empty. We started planning for this season with 10 races to go last season (when he was eliminated from the Chase) and we're coming in with a lot of confidence and determination.

Obviously, with what Roush (Racing) accomplished last year, it's doable. We're one of the organizations that can pull that off.

We needed a long run. We didn't need that last caution. That last caution hurt us a bit.

Last year was a very humbling experience. I don't want to ever go through that again.

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 just continues to impress me. I feel like he won us the race last week. This week we had a car that got better all day long, and that's as impressive to me as our win at Martinsville.

Having those last 10 races together really gave us a lot of momentum coming into 2006. I think we found some things that were important to work on over the winter. Now, we have to make them work for us.

I thought I was going to get a run on Tony down the back straight, but then the caution came out. I wish I could have gotten a little closer to his bumper, it might have gotten a little more exciting. I wish that last caution hadn't come out, because I think I could have gotten a fender under Tony.

I think anybody that feels like we've slipped on the restrictor-plate tracks hasn't seen restrictor-plate racing for the last couple of years. I mean, I think that no matter what our seasons are like, what's happening with our team, we always seem to be pretty steady at restrictor-plate tracks.

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.

We fought back all we could. Unfortunately, we got caught up in that last deal with Kurt Busch. That really got us behind. I think we had a shot at a top-10 with that tore-up race car.

We've got a points system that's built on consistency, and then we change how it's structured to make this exciting 10-race stretch, but then it's still about consistency. The guy could finish top-five every weekend in those last 10 races and still win that championship. It's very possible that it could happen.

I've been fortunate where, when I've had bad years, we've usually ended those bad years with something positive to build on in the off-season. And that's what happened to us last year.

I've worked with Steve for more than 10 years and we already communicate extremely well, both on and off the track. The team has a ton of confidence in his abilities, so we're looking forward to the last 10 races of 2005 and getting an early jump on next year.

We didn't need that last caution. I thought I might have had something for him on the caution before that. I just didn't get my tires up to temperature on those last few laps, but I'm real, real proud of the Dupont Chevrolet team.

We didn't need the last caution. It jumped sideways on me. I was doing everything I could at that point not to wreck.

Texas is an important race track for us. We struggled here last year, and we've been really focused on improving our intermediate track program.

Honestly, if we perform this weekend like we have the last few, we don't belong in the Chase anyway. You know, all we're going to do is go out there and finish 10th in the points.

I don't know if we had to go win a championship in February, if that was the final event, that we'd be ready for that. But I really believe just in the last 10 races of last year, what I saw in Steve was unbelievable, and that really has me excited about getting this season started.

It's been a while since my last win. What a great, great feeling.