JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH

YOU HAD A STRONG RUN FROM STARTING 22ND.

“It certainly was. I’m really proud of this 3M Chevrolet team. We didn’t even start the race off very good, let alone starting 22nd didn’t help us out. But they made some incredible adjustments and our pit crew was rock solid on pit road. I’m so appreciative of that. So, overall, it was a great team effort. Everybody wants to be sitting there where the No. 22 (Joey Logano) is. That’s a great place to be; especially with Talladega looming, but I couldn’t be happier with the entire effort that we put out there today. Alan (Gustafson) made some great adjustments to get us back in this thing. I’m real happy with 8th. The problem is you’ve got six of the guys we’re racing in the championship right there ahead of us. But we didn’t lose much to them and I thought it was a really strong effort.”

HOW THANKFUL ARE YOU THIS RACE WAS RUN IN THE DAY VERSUS THE COOL OF LAST NIGHT?

“The day race helped us starting 22nd. At night, it’s so grippy and fast and it’s hard to get multiple grooves; where during the day with the sun being out and heating up the track, losing a little bit of grip, I think it helped. It didn’t move around a lot, but it moved around enough where we could maneuver through some traffic and work our way up there; a little bit on the track and a little bit on pit road. I certainly liked that it was a day race. I thought we had a heck of a crowd here for a rain-delayed race that was not supposed to be run today. You’ve got to be happy about that.”

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