Jeff Gordon Racing Quotations

I am real happy with a top-10. We were way off. I just can't say enough for the DuPont Chevrolet team. If it weren't for the effort of the team and never giving up, we would have been way way back. We got lucky that one time racing Jeff Burton so Mark Martin wasn't able to lap us. We stayed on the lead lap and fought for everything we could and got a top-10. I don't know how we didn't because we certainly didn't have the car to do it tonight.

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.

I was just trying to hold on because I was completely sideways and my teammates behind me were trying not to get into me. They were racing one another. They got pretty excited. Unfortunately I didn't get as excited as I wanted to for the lead.

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.

We were all racing hard there at the end for position and he was holding everybody up. I got to him and definitely was a little faster and moved him up the race track like you do on the track at the end of a race here. We went down into one and he decided to wreck me instead. It is pretty disappointing. We had a great car. I am sorry that happened. I like racing with Matt, I certainly didn't enjoy racing with him today. I showed him my displeasure. I get fired up too. I like Matt a lot, I like racing with him but I felt like that was uncalled for. We will keep racing hard against him in the future.

At Talladega, you worry about the big one that takes out 17 cars. Here, you worry about the 17 little ones that take out several cars. You're always racing with people around you so you don't have anywhere to go when things go wrong. And believe me, a lot of things go wrong.

We've had to deal with it. It hits home. In racing it's like family; we're a community no matter what the series.

I'm sure he didn't mean to do it and all that stuff, but I wasn't happy about it. I showed it to him after the race. I like racing with Matt ... that stuff rarely happens with him. But I'm going to give it back what he gives to me.

I like Matt. I like racing with him. I didn't like racing him today.

I'm curious to see, once they lock in the top 10, how aggressive they're going to be. To win a championship, you really have to go for it. You can't be out there racing for points every week.

By having those no-bump zones or whatever we want to call them, I think we saw a heck of a lot less crashes, big crashes, than what we could have seen. I think the racing was still good out there, but it was so much calmer.

I feel like over the years that I've been here that I've earned more respect. But I don't know if I'll ever have the type of respect that Dale had. Because Dale had that kind of respect, everybody looked up to him. Whether they enjoyed racing with him or having dinner with him or not, they all respected him tremendously.

In NASCAR, you don't have to be as physically strong as in some other forms of racing. You've just got to be able to endure the heat and endurance of it.

My career in racing started at a very young age in California.

I've been racing a long time, and I realize you go through good streaks and bad streaks.

Ever since I've been racing, I've always been the young guy.

Racing is not what I like to do; it's winning.

The business model of racing is not a pretty one.

I think driving in New York is a great experience. A lot more racing techniques go into it than anyplace else I've ever driven. There basically are no lanes.