JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 18TH:

YOU STARTED IN A BACKUP CAR AND WORKED YOUR WAY FORWARD. YOU HAD A GOOD CAR. WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND JEB BURTON?

“I guess Jimmie (Johnson) blew a right front tire. I was right behind Jeb (Burton) getting ready to make a move on him. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go inside or outside, but all of a sudden he started checking up and I thought he was doing it to let me go by him and I didn’t realize until right at that moment when my spotter said something to me that Jimmie was having a problem; and I ran into the back of him. It ruined our day with this 3M Chevrolet and certainly ruined the front end. Our car just wouldn’t go down the straightaway and it was real tight.

“Man, we were coming. We had one weird set of tires. We drove up there right at the beginning and the car was amazing, on rails. The next set of tires, the thing was just terrible loose. So we made an adjustment and then the car went back to being tight. So, I don’t know what happened there, but that got us off a little bit. But, it was a great effort. I just can’t believe the way these days are going.”