JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH

ON THE SPEEDING PENALTY, CAN YOU PUT THE DISAPPOINTMENT INTO WORDS?

“Oh, my gosh. I’m so disappointed in myself. I know I was pushing the limit. I didn’t think I had done anything different than I had all day long when I was behind other guys, so, we’ve got to look at that. I’m very, very disappointed. I felt like we finally got the car, got ourselves in a position to win that race. It was a struggle. We were really battling with tire wear and the car getting really loose with our AXALTA Chevrolet. I thought Denny (Hamlin) had the best car, but I thought with our track position there at the end, we had a shot at it. Oh my gosh, I’m so disappointed. I don’t even know what to say right now. Of course, then the car is the absolute best it had been all day when I drove up from the back (laughs).”

AND THEN, TALK ABOUT THE RESPECT AND TRUST BETWEEN YOU AND MATT KENSETH

“Oh, my gosh. He and I have been through so much over the years. I don’t know. That was like my ‘gift’, I guess for this year, my ‘going away gift’ (laughs). We were racing earlier and I let him go to the inside of me and he kind of body-slammed me. So on that restart, I was just pulling at straws. I really wanted the inside and said hey, ask Kenseth if he’ll let me…..this is the least he can do for body-slamming me. Somehow the message got across. So, that was way cool and it worked out pretty good for us.”