Jeff Gordon bites back
As Dustin Long reported Sunday, Jeff Gordon is in a slump (for him). Why? Who knows? Lots of reasons, I suppose. My favorite theory came from the recently retired Rusty Wallace, who has three fewer championships than the driver of the No. 24:
"I don't think Jeff is as focused right now as he's been in the past. I think he's got a lot of other things going on that are a lot of fun to him, a lot of vacationing, a lot of cool places that he's been to around the world and he's really enjoying himself. These race cars take 100 percent of your concentration."
And because the Cup garage is a gossipy little place, word got back to Gordon. His initial take: "Had he stopped being the crew chief and the driver years ago, he may have won more races and championships." (emphasis mine).
Everyone loves a good catfight, and Gordon keeps scratching after the jump ...
Gordon got asked about it again today at Richmond. Here's his response from the transcript supplied by the GM flacks:
HOW DO YOU TAKE CRITICISM ABOUT NOT BEING 100 PERCENT FOCUSED? "I don't pay any attention to it. If someone within our organization was criticizing me of that, I would take it very seriously and I would take issue with it. Anybody outside our organization, it's so easy to criticize when you're up in the booth or you're watching from on top of a trailer and you don't know all the details of what's going on the inside. I always use this as an example. In 1998 I was building a house in Florida. I spent probably the least amount of time at the race shop that year. I had so many distractions because every spare moment I had was working on plans, architecture, designing this house, working with the construction people and the headaches that going along with building a house. Every week there was something coming up and I won 13 races that year and killed them in the championships. I think one of the best things that my race team and my office does and Jon Edwards (PR manager) and the folks at the PR department do is organize my time in making sure that I am focused. I take that very seriously. I've been doing the same thing for the last several years and that's what is important to me as a team. That part is there. I like vacation. I take vacation when I can. I feel like I'm more focused when I do because I work so hard when we're not vacationing. I would not be ashamed to say that I'm probably one of the hardest working guys in this guy area. Maybe it's not always on the race track at a test somewhere but it's between racing, testing, appearances and things that I have to do for sponsors and to be a part of this sport. I know I'm busy so I look forward to taking that time off."
I'll leave it to you to decide how focused Gordon's answer is.
Comments (1)
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Jeff needs to bite back on the track and back his 4 championships up with the ability he exemplified when he used to be a factor to be dealt with in every race he entered.
Something cracked in 2005 and quite honestly I think they were a little too quick to drop Loomis.
Posted on May 9, 2006 4:17 PM