NASCAR Winston Cup Pocono 500 Post Race Quotes, Winner Jeff Gordon
9 June 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Winner Post-Race Quotes Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway June 8, 1997 LONG POND, PA - JEFF GORDON (#24 DuPont Automotive Finishes Monte Carlo) - Started 11th - "If you've ever been over to victory lane, it's a little tight there. It's a little different than most victory lanes. Really, all the people that you're normally celebrating with then you climb out of the car couldn't be there. They only had enough room for the camera, but I was excited. I was worn out, too. I had to run pretty hard. This is one of those tracks where you can't ever get the car perfect. Even though we were fast and the car to beat at the end, there were places where Burton was better than us, like down in turn one. We were better through the tunnel and turn three. You're shifting and watching your mirror and doing a lot of things, and it wore me out. "We fought back and kept from going a lap down. The guys in the pits did a great job to keep me from going a lap down. We had to fight back from that. We never gave up and never lost sight of the fact that we felt like we could get back in the race. I was a little shocked when that caution came out that everything worked out the way it did. We certainly felt some blessings coming down on us at that time." COMMENT ON 25TH CAREER WIN AND SIXTH THIS SEASON - "I kind of like being at 24 wins. I kind of like that number. I wouldn't have passed up a win to go over it, that's for sure. I had no idea that when we won the race that we were going to be tied for the points. That's great. There's a lot of races left to go. It's too early to think we've got it from here. We're going to be right where we need to be. We're happy we're winning races. We're doing what we need to do. We've got the right attitude and confidence. We just need not to get over confident. The team works so hard this weekend because we had some problems. We ran a lot of laps in practice. We had a good car, but we really worked hard. As soon as you slip a little bit and think you've got the car just right, that's when it falls away from you. That's one thing this team seems to never do, lose sight of that hard work is what pays off. They continue to do it and never let it slip away from 'em." THOUGHTS ON HOLDING OFF JEFF BURTON AT END OF RACE - "I knew if he could get to my rear bumper he could get me loose. I was a little bit looser on that last set of tires. If I could keep some distance between 'em, which again, my pit crew did a great job today. They got me out there far enough ahead of him. He originally started to catch me, but I had enough room and enough time for the tires to come in and everything to kind of come our way to stop that gap from closing. I was a little worried a couple of times. His brother, Ward, was tough. I hated to see him fall out. He was going to be a factor and Jeff certainly was pushing me hard. I was afraid I was going to have to run it too hard for awhile. We still had quite a few laps left to go. I just tried not to make any mistakes. "I don't hear it. I don't see it when I'm out on the race track. Today during driver introductions, I went right after Dale Earnhardt. Dale got all the cheers and I got all the boos. We joke about it. The drivers and I joke about it. Every driver out there is like, 'I'd like to be getting booed.' It's one of those things where you're doing something right. If you know you haven't done something wrong, then you know you must be doing something right. We're doing a lot of things right right now. When the race was over, I could see 'em standing up cheering. We've got a lot of fans out there that support us. Sometimes the ones that don't support us and support their drivers are a little bit more verbal at times. "If I had my choice, I would much rather them be cheering than booing. They choose that, and I have to live with it and not worry about it, and I don't. I remember in '93 when I was riding around the track with Dale Earnhardt during driver introductions, he was getting all the boos. He had just won the championship and some other things. He told me as long as they're making noise. Now, they're all cheering for him. Those things come and go. We don't necessarily take that as incentive. We just don't put a lot of emphasis when we hear it. We grin and wave and go on our way. "I tried it a few times today. I feel like I'm faster not doing it (shifting). I'd rather have two hands on the wheel going through that tunnel turn. That's a handful through there as it is. When I saw the RPMs starting to get up, sometimes you get a real good run through the first turn and maybe you've got a couple of cars in front of you and you get a really good draft. I didn't want to over-rev the engine, so I'd shift to fourth going in there and then downshift back to third through the tunnel turn. I really felt like it slowed me down at times. Unless I got out in the open and didn't have anything to worry about and didn't want to over-rev the engine, then maybe I would do it. When I was running hard and trying to get by a guy or run away from a guy, I'd shift at the start-finish line going up to fourth and down to third and carrying third all the way around back to the start-finish line. "I was having to push the car hard. When the sun was out, it was a little more demanding and you had to fight the car harder at that time. The car didn't have as much grip and wasn't as comfortable. It was a little bit more intense. At the same time, when you're running that hard because you know you've got to make up time, you kind of forget about how physically demanding it is. Your mind is so focused on making up the time, and you don't really pay any attention to it until maybe a caution comes out and you take a breath. This place is always demanding. The weather can dictate how demanding it can be. It was its typical tough place to get around. "My brakes were good all day long. I think we ran the same stuff we always run here. Maybe some guys were trying to run some lighter weight rotors or something. You can do that. Sometimes the thinner rotors can maybe not take the heat and the demand of the brakes. You're braking real hard here. I make sure we've got the most beefed-up brakes we can run at a place like this. I knew maybe I was running over same of the stuff that was falling out. "This really means a lot to me because this is a tough, tough place to win. We know how tough it is because I've missed shifts. I've spun out under cautions. I've been stuck in the mud. I've had some crazy things happen to me here. Everytime I was restarting, especially when I was leading, I'll never forget the moment when I missed that shift. Luckily, everything was smooth today." Provided by Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation Public Relations:
