NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks

Topics:  FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks

Jeff Gordon
June 2, 2013

DOVER, DELAWARE

THE MODERATOR: Jeff, great race out there today, talk a little about your run.
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, it was a fantastic finish for us. We battled hard all day long, hovering 13th, 14th, I think we got to maybe 10th at one time.
But I mean, it's frustrating, you know, when you think you have a better car than that, but you're trying to make adjustments on the pit stops and play the right tire strategy but you're just not making any ground and you know, we just got fortunate there where we only had a few laps on the tires and we decided to stay out.
Right away on the restart, I knew that clean air was making a huge difference and we were able to stay up there and we went third, fourth, whatever it was, for that entire run, and you know, we knew we needed the caution to come out. You hate to see it happen the way that it did but it certainly paid off for us to be able to come in and get four tires and have a good restart there to get third.

Q. Overall do you think this is a turning point to get the season started?
JEFF GORDON: It's certainly a great feeling. We have been running good. We just, you know, have had some things happen to us, kind of like last year, some self‑inflicted and some things out of our hands. We have just got to fight. We fought hard today, very hard, and this is a tough place. It's hot, slick. It was not an easy race and this team just never gave up. That's what got us in the Chase last year and that's what is going to get us in there this year.
It's so hard. Every time that we have a finish like we had at Darlington or a finish like we had today, or like Charlotte, it's never over until it's over. We just never seem to get into a rhythm of momentum.
All I can tell you is our pit crew has definitely improved. We made a little change there and it's paying off for us. Our cars have improved, so that always makes life a little easier, and now I just have to make sure I don't make any mistakes. I think Alan would probably second that; we just got to be really solid and get the results that we are capable of getting.
Today was a great race for us, just because we were sitting there 12th, 13th, 14th, and we stay out and all of a sudden, here we are third. So that's a great lesson for us to learn when we go to other tracks, as well.