Preview

NASCAR Cup

Gordon going for fourth over fourth weekend - Daytona 400

Jeff Gordon: "It's just whether or not you get caught up in it or not."

Edited: Jul 2, 2013, 8:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Jeff Gordon has visited Victory Lane three times in the annual 400-miler event at Daytona International Speedway. Can he make it a fourth this Fourth weekend?

Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

Overall, Gordon has six victories, three poles, 12 top-fives and 19 top-10's in 41 starts at the 2.5-mile track. But a lot has changed over the course of his 21-year career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. A lot has changed since last year.

"It's a different aero package and this new Generation-6 car has a lot of drag but a lot of down force in it," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS. "It's a little bit different in the draft.

"Earlier this year here we saw where you could upset the cars a little bit more when you got up close to them and outside of them."

Lack of cooperation amongst the drivers seemed to be prevalent during the first race with the new generation of car.

"Everybody was running the high line and protecting their position in the Daytona 500," said the all-time leader in restrictor-plate victories with 12. "It just didn't seem like enough drivers really wanted to get organized to get the bottom lane working.

"They were pretty committed to staying in that outside lane, so that made it very challenging. Everybody kind of protected their position until those crucial moments in the closing laps."

After dropping to 16th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings following a lap-6 accident at Michigan International Speedway, Gordon has climbed back up to 12th in the two races since on the heels of consecutive top-10's. But missing the "big one," the multi-car accidents that typically occur with big-pack racing on restrictor-plate tracks, will go a long way in continuing the climb up the standings.

"The only unknown is when that big wreck is going to happen and what is going to cause it," said Gordon. "Sometimes it happens when you least expect it, but you can be assured that when you get a full group of cars in the closing laps racing for a win, it's going to happen.

"It's just whether or not you get caught up in it or not."

Axalta Racing

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Kenseth claims Kentucky win for fourth victory with JGR

Next article Kyle Bush looks to continue his 'charge' on Daytona 400

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

2 h

Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are

Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

6 h

Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

6 h

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts