07/09/12

Daytona: Post-Race Notes

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET - FINISHED 12TH:

YOU WERE SITTING PERFECTLY IN THIRD, EVERYONE WAS STARTING TO MAKE THEIR GREEN FLAG STOPS AND THEN THE TONE JUST ABSOLUTELY CHANGED WHAT HAPPENED?
"We were just coming to pit road. I don't know what happened behind me but they just started wrecking. We got caught up in that. That definitely changed our day. We were in great position, fast race car, pit stops were flawless. At that point it was trying to fix the damage and get track position. The damage they did a great job with the car had plenty of speed, but track position there was just no passing when you were in the back in those final laps. It was just three lanes wide, you just had to wait until somebody wrecked or got out of shape and the momentum would change. We actually had a great run coming through (turns) three and four right there and we were going to be better than I think even 12th. Even though they wrecked we kind of got caught in that wreck too. We had some momentum coming so I think we could have finished 10th or 12th. We ended up 12th, not a bad day considering all the things that happened."

ON THE RACE

"If you put everything into perspective, there were moments tonight when I felt like we had a car that could win and we were close to being in a position for that. And then when that wreck happened when we were trying to come to pit road, that just changed our night a bit. Not only did it tear up the race car, but it cost us track position, which was very very difficult to make up. So considering that and where we started on those last couple of restarts, 12th wasn't bad. I even got in the wreck on that last lap and still finished 12th. So, we don't have much of a race car, but we got a 12th place finish."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN DESPERATION MODE YET?

"It doesn't matter what mode we're in. We're going to go to the race track and try to do the same thing, and that's to win. I guess if we're in a position to make a very risky call late in the race that we might run out of fuel or something or there is a good chance we'd run out of fuel, then that might be a risk worth taking for this time. But I'd leave that up to Alan (Gustafston) and our engineers and I'm just going to drive the wheels off of it every weekend. And they've been giving me great race cars so I know we can win. It doesn't matter to me if it's the last two going into the Chase. It's whatever it takes to get in."

IS LOUDON A RACE THAT YOU LOOK FORWARD TO AND A TRACK YOU LIKE?

"Oh, yeah. I think Loudon is a great opportunity for us. This race, even though we have a great race car here and everything, this type of racing you never know what you're going to get here. But at Loudon, you can control your own destiny and at Indianapolis and some other great tracks that are coming up that I feel like we can be very competitive at and have a shot at winning."

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