For Jeff Gordon it all came down to what a difference a day will make.
This time yesterday Gordon never let his mind wonder to the possibly of sitting on the front row for the Daytona 500. His Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet just didn’t have it in it. Something Gordon felt during winter testing and qualifying practice.
Then Sunday morning his car fell off the jack stand, tearing off the rocker panel just as the team was prepared to bring it from the garage to its place in line for qualifying. Instead they had to quickly get to work in order to make qualifying at all. Gordon did make it qualifying and was the only driver who came close to knocking Danica Patrick off the pole.
“When it’s Daytona qualifying, I should never question Alan Gustafson [crew chief] and his team,” said Gordon upon locking up his spot for next Sunday’s Daytona 500. He starts on the front row of the race for the fourth time in his career.
“With the way testing went, we were so-so. The way yesterday went, I didn’t feel like we had a shot at the pole. So my expectations were kind of low. When I started the lap, the car definitely carried good momentum and RPMs. I thought this is going to be certainly better than where we were yesterday.
“So, yeah, I’m surprised. I didn’t expect to be that close. I told Alan, if I had known we might have been that close, I might have driven across the apron to win the pole. I’m thrilled. This team is thrilled. It’s a great accomplishment just being on the front row.”
Gordon and Patrick have locked up their starting spots for the big race next weekend. Gordon’s looking to win his fourth 500 and has started from the pole before. Still, after qualifying he understood the significance of what had taken place, as well as the position it puts his team in as the start a new season.
“This is big, to be on the front row at Daytona. It’s an accomplishment in itself just because of how many people put so much hard work into it, not just from our team but all the teams that are out here,” stated Gordon.
“When you have all winter long to prepare, you have the biggest race of the year as your first race, there’s a lot of effort that goes into those two laps. I’m very proud of my team. Very proud of Hendrick engines, to see how well the new Chevy SS and Hendrick engines performed today was fantastic.
“We’re here to win the Daytona 500. Sitting on the front row is a great step towards accomplishing that goal. It’s great to be part of history with Danica being on the pole. I think we all know how popular she is, what this will do for our sport. Congratulations to her. Proud to be on there with her.”
Gordon’s time of 45.85 with a speed of 196.292 was the only one to top the 196 barrier besides Patrick’s. It surprised Gordon, who didn’t think neither himself of anyone else was going to come close to Patrick’s time. Especially after seeing how fast Patrick’s team ran yesterday compared to everyone else, including Gordon. And while he would have loved to have won the pole, Gordon joked he’s glad that he didn’t, which would have ruined the big story Patrick has created.
Instead, he’s happy to sit and watch history unfold over the next few days. To see what will be written about it and how it will show up on the front pages in the news arena. It’s a big moment in NASCAR history, he acknowledged, a great headline for the sport. Awesome, is how Gordon summed it up.
And it will be for the next few days. But when the cars hit the track again on Wednesday for more practice and then Thursday for the Budweiser Duels, Gordon will be thinking about what he needs to do to for his team and his car. He and his team have a lot of decisions to make about how they want to approach the rest of the week, either by going into protection mode or as Gordon knows, trying to use every available track time to learn what they can for the 500.
“For me, we’re locked into the Daytona 500. I’m not going to be able to breathe until we’re looking at the green flag waving, sitting on the front row,” he said. “The good thing about being on the front row is that you’re locked into the Daytona 500. The downside is you don’t want to put your mind into protection mode that I don’t want to mess this car up because I want this car to be our car for the Daytona 500.
“If you want to win the Daytona 500, you have to practice like you’re going to win the Daytona 500, race in the Duels like you’re going to win the Daytona 500, do everything to prepare yourself and your team to win the Daytona 500. Sometimes being on the front row can be a hindrance to that mindset.
“We’re going to put a lot of effort in – Alan, me, the team, Rick – are going to put a lot of effort into how we approach the Duels. Once you get through that, we’ll start thinking about how we’re going to approach the Daytona 500.”
