NASCAR Cup

Dover II: Jeff Gordon - Friday media visit

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS met with media and talked about sponsorships and changing sponsors, having teammates in the Chase, racing at Kansas next weekend, on Kyle Busch as a driver and teammate, and more. Select quotes from driver ...

Published: Sep 22, 2007, 4:53 PM

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Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS met with media and talked about sponsorships and changing sponsors, having teammates in the Chase, racing at Kansas next weekend, on Kyle Busch as a driver and teammate, and more.

Select quotes from driver interview:

WHAT TASTES BETTER, JEFF GORDON ENERGY DRINK OR AMP? "I don't know what AMP tastes like (laughs). I've never had it. But my stuff's good. I know that."

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR CAR OF TOMORROW TEAM? "I think the stats pretty much speak for themselves. We've been very strong and I'm extremely excited about all of the Car of Tomorrow races, from a competition standpoint, that we have coming up."

IS THERE MORE COMPETITION NOW THAN THERE WAS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR? ARE YOU STILL THE TEAM TO BEAT? "It's like anything else. You take a car where everybody is put into a box and you introduce it, there will be some teams and drivers that are going to hit on something early on. But as time goes by, everybody gets more knowledge and experience with it and the competition is just going to get tighter and tighter."

WHAT'S IT LIKE HAVING A TEAMMATE IN THE CHASE? "Two teammates. I've battled with Terry Labonte in the past and actually Jimmie (Johnson) and I have battled before as well. It's challenging, as you get closer down to the wire, especially if you really are battling one another. It definitely gets challenging. We pride ourselves on sharing information and that information sharing is what has gotten us here. Hopefully it is what's going to get one of us to the championship. So you've got to take that into consideration and continue to keep that open book policy going. But on the race track, you're competitors just like you are anybody else and you race hard."

ON THE KANSAS TRACK: "The only track you can really compare it to in my opinion is Chicago. But there was just a period of time where a lot of 1.5-mile tracks were being built so it kind of got labeled that. But it's unique to itself. It's a great race track. I really like it. The way that track has matured over the last couple of years it's turned into a track that offers great side-by-side racing. I'm looking forward to going back there."

HOW HAS KYLE BUSCH GROWN AS A DRIVER AND AS A PERSON? "Kyle is a guy who is very determined and very talented. But like all of us that come into the sport young, we have a lot to learn about ourselves and the sport and how to keep that aggression that you have as a young driver but bring the patience along with it. He's done an excellent job but there is always room for improvement. He'll probably be the first to admit that sometimes he gets himself into situations by saying too much or saying something he wished he hadn't. Those are things he has to learn from. You know, everybody has their own unique personality and Kyle's got his. He's got to learn how to adapt to all those things into what's going to make it work for him. I just hope that at Hendrick he's been able to learn from a top-notch organization and that he takes whatever he can from that and only grows that for himself as he moves on to Gibbs."

COULD YOU FATHOM HAVING TO CHANGE A SPONSOR? "To me, what I love about working with DuPont is that they know me and I know them. I know what works for them. We've been able to really get a comfortable schedule over the years to get the most for them and work within my schedule to make sure that I'm focused on doing my job. It's a great balance. When it's working for them financially, from a business standpoint, it feels good to know that they want to continue to stay with you. But, I could see also where if a change came, like it has for Junior, he might be really excited about it. It might be something he might be looking forward to and doing something different. But I guarantee you there will be some growing pains. That's going to be challenging to work through those things. I know what kind of company Pepsi is. They're a great company. I think he's going to be very happy with them."

IS IT FAIR THAT DALE JUNIOR HAS TWO DIECASTS TO SELL WITH AMP AND NATIONAL GUARD? "It doesn't matter (laughs). He sells twice as many anyway (more laughter)."

-credit: gm racing

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