NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 6, 2015
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed competing in his last race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a full time driver, the start to his season, the further installation of SAFER barriers and much more. Full Transcript:
Following a presentation of a custom blackjack table and commemorative photo by Las Vegas Motor Speedway President and General Manager Chris Powell, Jeff Gordon talked about what Las Vegas Motor Speedway means to him.
“It means a lot to me coming from Chris. Chris and I go way back. He was my caddy back when I played golf at a particular big golf tournament. I think it goes without saying that was quite an experience for both of us. That was an interesting time in my life, I think in your life (referring to Chris), in racing and certainly moments I will never forget. To see how well you have done and the great job you do here and things have gone okay for me as well. Thank you. We have been in this thing a long time. It means a lot to me for those people who that know me and have been around me for many years to say those types of things and these types of gifts. He knows me too well. He knows how much I like blackjack and poker.”
WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU COME TO TRACKS FOR THE LAST TIME TO COMPETE AS AN ACTIVE DRIVER?
“It’s kind of hard to put it into perspective right now because we are so early in the season. It is certainly important to note and to recognize that this is the last time that I will be here competing. Certainly at this level with the No. 24 car. I don’t have plans to come back and race here, but I guess it is always possible. This place has meant a lot to me. It has been an up and down track, performance wise, but I think that this track means a lot to our sport in how it has helped grow the sport. I’m proud to have won here and been a part of the growth and the success that we have seen here. It’s been really amazing the interaction that I’ve gotten with people that I’ve been friends with for years, known for many years in the sport, as well as fans. When you hear those people say ‘we are going to miss you’ it makes you feel good, but it also is emotional. Right now though it’s pretty much business. That is what is on our mind. We have had a couple of rough weekends. I can’t say all of our doing, but we are really focused this weekend on getting that turned around. Practice went pretty well for us, so that is a good start to it all.”
HOW GOOD A GAMBLER ARE YOU?
“I’m a better gambler on the race track. I’m not that good (laughs). I like the game. I used to play a lot of blackjack and I still play a little bit of blackjack. Then I really started playing a lot of poker. I realized, like most things that I do outside of racing, that I don’t get near enough time to practice them and build a real skill for it. As long as I don’t put my life savings on the table then I enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THESE TRACKS SHOULD BE DOING WHILE THEY ARE LOOKING AT PLACES TO PUT MORE SOFT WALLS?
“I think it’s important to note that the tracks and NASCAR, I know they are doing a lot to put as much effort into answering the question what can we do right away? You see it here. You saw it last week. But there is only so much that can be done in a short period of time. That is what I want to see. I have a meeting with NASCAR next week. I wasn’t able to do it this week, but I have a meeting with them next week. I’m looking forward to getting together with them to hear a little bit more detail in that progress. I don’t want to allude to too much because I have just enough details to get myself in trouble by bringing them up because I don’t have the full scope of it. I would prefer to have the full scope of it. I think that the most important thing is just to continue to see progress.
“The one thing that I would question is when did SAFER barriers start being put at race tracks and what was the plan for them to be complete and where are we in that plan. I was under the impression when they started going in it was going to be a three or four year plan to complete the SAFER barriers in every wall that needed to have a SAFER barrier. I don’t think anybody expected them to have SAFER barriers around every wall day one. I think I’m realistic to know that they can’t just have it next week. It takes a while to manufacturer them. There are only a couple of groups or distributors or however you want to put it. The people that make them that are certified to even do it. My question is what is the time frame to have those built and installed? I think everybody knows it’s a priority, but it seems to be kind of pushed further a long since Kyle’s (Busch) accident. Where were we prior to Kyle’s accident on that plan?”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HITTING A WALL WITH A SAFER BARRIER AND ONE WITHOUT?
“All I can tell you is that I have hit a lot of them with and I’ve hit a lot of them without. What always comes to mind to me. literally, is when I hit a non-SAFER barrier wall I go ‘wow, what did I just hit? What was that?’ I’m always caught off guard by the impact and how severe it is. When I get out of the car my first thing is I want to see what I hit. Every time I have felt that it is because I hit something that was not protected with SAFER barrier. With a SAFER barrier wall and this happened to me I think at Texas last year or the year before, I blew a right-front tire going into Turn 1. I was like ‘oh God this is going to hurt’. ‘Oh that wasn’t so bad.’ So it’s a huge difference. But I also understand there are angles that are better for hitting it. There are some that a tire type of barrier might be better for a straight-on impact. There are some where tires are not good for impacts because of how it grabs the car and wants to flip it over or spin it around and can propel it back out in traffic. To me every area that they say ‘yes that wall would be safer with a SAFER barrier’ it needs to have a SAFER barrier and we need to know what the time frame is and when it is going to become a SAFER barrier.”
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOUR CAREER COULD HAVE BEEN LONGER HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE HITS THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN OVER THE YEARS?
“That is quite possible. I don’t know. Listen, if you race long enough and you have raced at a high level you are going to hit stuff. You are going to hit hard and you are going to have accidents. I feel very fortunate really. Over the years of when I hit some walls that didn’t have SAFER barriers and didn’t have the HANS device and didn’t have the carbon fiber seat that I survived it. Did those impacts play a role on my health today and a role in my decision? Sure, but I’ve also been extremely fortunate to have accomplished a lot and that is not my primary reason for the decision I made. I’ve got a lot of great things happening in my life and half of those things are outside of racing. And are things that I kind of have on my list of things that I want to do. I’ve been fortunate enough to have such an amazing career and have those opportunities to you know be able to go and experience those things. I feel more fortunate then I do held back.”
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE STATS IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVEN’T HAD A VERY GOOD START TO YOUR FINAL SEASON. HOW DO YOU FEEL THE TEAM HAS PERFORMED IN THE FIRST FEW WEEKS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE TRACK? DO YOU FEEL JUST AS COMFORTABLE COMING TO LAS VEGAS WITH A CHANCE TO WIN?
“Yeah, from a team stand point we have a phenomenal team. I’m very excited about that. You have to have confidence in your car and in your team to be able to climb yourself out of this little bit of a hole. Jon Edwards (Gordon’s long-time PR Rep) was quick to point out to me this is not the worst start I’ve ever had to a season. It’s not how you start it is how you finish. He didn’t say that, I’m saying that. Because that year we finished pretty darn good, we almost won the championship. I’m hoping that is the kind of season that we have ahead of us.
“Here we are in Vegas and we are talking about gambling and playing the odds. That is the way that I look at crashes. I really do look at it this way. Last year I didn’t hit much. I didn’t crash a whole lot. We had a really solid season those percentages and odds kind of catch up to you. I’m hoping we are getting them out of the way here early in the season. The nice thing about it is I know we’ve got a very strong race car and race team to be able to go and perform and move up in the points and put some victories on the board.
“Today we had a fast car, it went well. We have some more work to do for the race. Hopefully we can qualify as good as we ran in practice. I feel pretty confident about it. I’m a little disappointed in Atlanta and I take full responsibility. It’s my job to give good information and communicate with the team so that we are well prepared when they drop the green. I don’t know. We were pretty good in practices, especially on Thursday. Then we were pretty good on Saturday at Atlanta. I don’t know I felt like maybe we weren’t quite as good as I thought we were. Jimmie (Johnson) was terrible. We went in our debrief and he was like ‘oh man we are terrible.’ And they won the race. I was feeling pretty good about it and we were struggling to get up into the top 10. I don’t think we performed as well as we would have liked to have at Atlanta. The car was super-fast when we hit it right.”
THIS IS THE ONLY NORTH AMERICAN SPORT WHERE SO MANY PEOPLE SHOW UP FOR A PRACTICE. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW UNIQUE THAT IS?
“I don’t know anything else; I only know racing. I know that when I was racing Sprint Cars and Midgets, there weren’t many people that showed up for practice. But when I came into the Cup Series, I was blown away by how many people showed up for practice and for qualifying. Vegas is a unique place. It’s a very entertaining city and people love to come here for the entertainment that includes NASCAR racing. And we get great crowds out here. People are very excited. They come from all over and they’re in the garage area and in the stands. So this is a very popular venue on the circuit and we certainly recognize that and how fortunate we are to be able to perform in front of all those folks.”
IF YOU WIN ON SUNDAY, THIS COULD BE THE MOST STELLAR MOMENT FOR YOU AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. BUT SINCE IT’S NOT SUNDAY YET, WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST STELLAR MOMENT FOR YOU AT THIS RACE TRACK TO THIS DATE?
“Well, we won here in 2001. That’s been way too long. Yeah, I’d like to have a more recent memory of a win. Unfortunately I get reminded more about hitting the wall on the back straightaway than I do about that win. When we first started coming here, it was a really tough race track to compete on and win at. So that win in 2001 meant a lot to me because it was a personal hill to climb and challenge, as well as a team challenge. I didn’t feel like I was doing all the right things to get us to Victory Lane; not so much team and the car, and we won that race in ’01 and that was a big moment. One of my big goals this year is to win at Kentucky because I want to check off every track on the circuit and to me, that win in ’01 was a big checkmark because I know how difficult it is to win here. Obviously it’s difficult; I haven’t done it since 2001. So, it’s a tough place and I’m very proud to have that win.”
WITHOUT GOING INTO ANYTHING PROPRIETARY, THIS MEETING YOU’RE HAVING WITH NASCAR, DID THEY INVITE YOU? DID YOU ASK TO SEE THEM? DO YOU KNOW IF THEY’RE SEEING OTHER DRIVERS?
“I reached out to them not necessarily for a meeting, but I just reached out to them to discuss some things and that being one of them. And they said they’d like to share some information with you when you have a chance.
“They have been sharing a lot of information with drivers a lot more than I’ve ever seen in the past. So, I’ve been pretty happy with that. This just happened. And whatever comes out of that, I’ll share with other drivers and my team, for sure.”
INAUDIBLE
“Whoever shows up; it might be me by myself sitting there. I don’t know.”
CAN YOU RECALL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR WINS? ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO CAN REMEMBER EXACTLY?
“I can remember most of the wrecks. No, if you just give me a little bit of it, then I’ll remember quite a few details. But there usually needs to be something to jog my memory. I’m terrible at memorizing things, which is why I thought it worked out well for me to be a race car driver because I wasn’t very good at school because I didn’t have much of a memory (laughs). But I can go all the way back to the late ‘70’s and ‘80’s on wins in Quarter Midgets and Go Karts, but you’ve got to like say remember this? Like if I’m with my dad, we’ll talk about it. (Jon) Edwards (PR person) is really good. He’s got a good memory and so usually I go to him. He’s the encyclopedia. If he can’t remember then he’ll go through his notes and then he’s got it. Then I’ll throw more details in there. But that’s about it. I don’t really remember that much about that day I won here. I remembered it being ’01. We won the championship that year. We were strong that year. But I can’t remember what all went on throughout that day.”
WHERE ARE ALL YOUR TROPHIES? DO YOU HAVE THEM AT HOME OR ARE SOME IN YOUR OFFICE? HOW DO YOU DISPLAY THEM? AND IS THERE A TROPHY THAT YOU REALLY LIKE THAT GETS A MORE PROMINENT DISPLAY SOMEWHERE?
“I have a display at my house that we built. For years, I didn’t have any trophies at home. I think I had the Charlotte trophy from my very first win. When I lived in Florida, I had maybe a couple of trophies like a Southern 500 trophy and two of the Cup trophies. But that was it. I didn’t have a lot at home because at Hendrick Motorsports we have such a great way to display them. At my office we had a great way to display them.
“So now, basically that’s kind of how it is. There’s a lot at Hendrick Motorsports where I can go by and look at all of them. At home, I built shelves in an area and I have the Brickyard 400 wins, the Daytona 500 wins; I have two Goodyear trophies, and then I have the four Winston Cup trophies. And I have two helmets as well. One I like the paint scheme on it and the other one was actually the Winston Million when I won that race. I have that at home.
“And my wife really liked the Kansas trophy. She said it looks like art. And so we took the plaque off of it that says all the details about the win and we just made a nice base on it with the trophy and so it’s like a piece of art that sits over there.”
KEVIN HARVICK HAS BEEN CRITICAL IN THE PAST ABOUT TRACKS SPENDING MONEY ON VERY EXPENSIVE GRANDSTAND RENOVATION PROJECTS WHILE NOT SPENDING MONEY ON SAFETY MEASURES THAT HE THINKS ARE NEEDED. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON HOW MONEY IS PRIORITIZED AT THE TRACKS?
“We’re not involved in those decisions and all I can say is that if you go do that and then somebody gets hurt, and there was a way to make it safer to have possibly prevented those injuries, then you might want to rethink how you’re spending your money on those things. But, we’ve got to have people in the grandstands. We’ve got to have people that want to come back to the grandstands. So I understand that’s important. And we all recognize how important our fans are.
“But throughout my career, what I’ve seen is that it goes in waves where safety is a very high priority and everything is spent on safety. And then you feel like you’re in a pretty good place and a safe place, and you start putting more energy into some other areas. And we do this as race teams sometimes, too. You start focusing so much on performance and you get off a little bit on safety. And then something happens and you go, whoa; wait a minute. We need to put more energy into that. And we need to put more money into that. And so, I would say that it’s easy to criticize after the fact. But when those choices and decisions are being made, I think that I feel pretty good about saying this, that I believe NASCAR or the track is saying it seems like we’re in a pretty good place here, so let’s go spend money on making the fan experience better. But, then an accident happens and you’d better rethink that a little bit, or a lot.”
AFTER THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST TWO RACES, HOW MUCH PRESSURE DO YOU PUT ON YOURSELF AND ON THE RACE TEAM TO PERFORM THIS WEEKEND?
“When you’re sitting back there in 40th in points or wherever the heck we are; it’s a long walk from my trailer, I can tell you that. That’s motivation is the way I look at it. Yeah, a little bit of pressure. What we’ve got to make sure we do as a team is perform at the level we’re capable of performing at. And that means that you not only have to qualify well. I’d just like to have the opportunity to qualify this weekend (laughter). That would be like a great start to the weekend; we’re just out there when the green flag drops for qualifying. And then, it’s not just about performance. Yeah, you have to perform well. But you have to finish well. I think that if we can finish as well as we’re performing, then we will get back up there. And we’ve got a lot of great tracks coming up and we’re a strong enough team. I don’t look at that as pressure. I just look at it no more than then normal pressure. We just can’t focus too much on where we’re at in points. We’ve got to focus on doing our job.”
WHAT DID YOUR WIFE AND KIDS THINK ABOUT THE BANDOLERO CAR YOU GOT LAST WEEK FROM ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY? GOING BACK TO YOUR TROPHIES, YOU HAVE QUITE A FEW GRANDFATHER CLOCKS FROM MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY. WHERE ARE THOSE?
‘You have to understand that my house is very modern. It’s not classic and traditional. So, we keep the grandfather clocks outside the house. They’re not at the house. If they make a more modern one, and my wife would be happy to design that for them, then I would look forward to getting another one and putting it in the house. But that doesn’t mean they mean less to me. They mean a tremendous about to me. I love those clocks. I think they’re the coolest trophies.
“When I’m at home, I try to be away from racing. I have it displayed a very classic way and very low-key. It’s not like stuff all over the house. If you came to my house, you’d see very little racing and that’s because that’s my way to get away from it. I’m at the shop; I’m at the track. And even in the bus, I have very little pictures and things of racing. That’s just my way of kind of keeping everything balanced out from life away from the track and life at the track. I don’t know, maybe one day if I’m retired and decide to build a traditional house, I’ll be waking up every day to a bunch of grandfather clocks (laughs). We’ll see.
“Oh yeah, the car. My wife thought it was awesome and the kids thought it was awesome. I was like, they’re not getting in this thing anytime soon. This is way too fast. We’ve got about three steps to go before we’re ready. It’s a beautiful car. A very cool gift. And I’m very thankful. If this is the way our gift-giving is going to go this year, man, I’ll tell you what. I’m doing all right. Everybody told me oh boy you’re going to be getting a bunch of gifts that are going to embarrass you or whatever. Not so far (laughter).”
AFTER THAT CRASH LAST WEEK, WHAT IS IT IN YOUR CHARACTER THAT KEEPS YOU FROM GETTING EXCITED CLIMBING OUT OF THE CAR? AND WHEN YOU’RE DOING AN INTERVIEW, YOU DON’T BLAME ANYBODY FOR THE CRASH.
“Well, you have to understand I’ve been around a long time and I’ve blamed a lot of people for crashes over the years. And then you think oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. In all honesty, last week, they did not show me a clip of the video when I was been interviewed. So, I had not seen the accident or what caused it. So, I was hesitant to blame anybody. Although I feel like I was pretty accurate in what I saw from where I was driving that car and to what actually happened. So the way I described it was pretty much what happened. But I didn’t feel like it was anybody doing anything dumb or stupid. I feel like it was just a racing incident and we just happened to get caught up in it.
“That’s just kind of the way I’ve always been. I try to make sure I’m not in that position to get caught-up in wrecks and I look at every incident that I’ve ever been in, especially on a race track, and say how could I have prevented that? Even if it was somebody else’s fault, how could I have prevented that from happening? And, you know, my team is the same way. That’s what I love about them. The first thing we did in our meeting this week was well, we didn’t qualify; so had we qualified then hopefully we would have qualified well enough to be toward the front. And if we had qualified up towards the front then maybe we would have had a little cleaner air. And if we had gotten the car a little bit better, then maybe we would have been ahead of all that stuff instead of behind it. So, instead of blaming others it’s really looking deep within ourselves to try to make ourselves better.”
WHICH TRACK WILL YOU MISS THE MOST? WHICH TRACK WILL YOU MISS THE LEAST?
“Let’s see. The most. Gosh. It’s hard to say. I love Bristol. I think Bristol is just an awesome track. It’s the one track that I go in the night before and I walk over to the track when there’s nobody there and I just look at it and I go, man this place is cool. There is no other place like it, the stadium and those hills and Tennessee. If ever we had a coliseum or a real stadium, it would be Bristol.
“Missed the least? I like going to the race track as long as I’m competitive. So, I’m trying to think of one. Oh, yeah. I used to like plate races. I don’t know what happened over the last 10 years. Somehow plate racing changed. So, yeah, I’m not crazy about restrictor plate races. But, I love Talladega. I can’t wait to go back there just for the boulevard instead of actually being there for the race. So, I’m actually fine with the races; just not when I’m driving (laughs).”
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