JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH

TALK ABOUT THAT LAST RESTART

“Yeah, I knew we were going to have a tough time not spinning the tires. On old tires like that, it’s pretty easy to spin the tires, especially when you’re on the front row. So, I was just trying to hold pace with Kurt (Busch). I knew that I had Denny (Hamlin) behind me on older tires as well, so I was somewhat encouraged by that. He got a good run on me. I blocked him. He was pushing me down and we were on the apron. I felt like I did a good job, but I just came up off the apron a little bit too early and he was able to just motor right on by me on the inside. And once I got three-wide, we were done. It was over at that point; just try to save this awesome race car. That thing was fantastic. I’m very encouraged about how the Axalta Chevrolet was today, the whole team, and that’s what we’ll be bringing every single week. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about some of these late cautions ruining our day like that.”

YOU LED A LOT OF LAPS TODAY. YOU SHOWED QUITE A BIT OF SPEED. HOW MUCH DOES THAT ENCOURAGE YOU AS WE GET INTO THE FINAL NINE RACES?

“Oh, I’m very encouraged by that. I like this race track. I thought the team brought an excellent race car. They work extremely hard. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has been collectively working together and I think it showed with our No. 24 car today.”

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