JEFF GORDON, NO., 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 26TH

ON RUNNING OUT OF GAS IN THE FINAL GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED

“The whole race for us was just so up and down and crazy. There at the beginning, we had a leak in the right rear and went a lap down. I could barely hold onto it. I didn’t know what was wrong with it. I just knew it was really hard to drive. I was doing everything I could to keep from wrecking. And we thought we just missed the set-up, but it was that tire. So we made an adjustment that probably over-compensated and we had to come from a lap down. But, the car, once we were able to tune on it and knew what we had, was actually really, really strong.

“We were able to show that towards the end, which was great. We didn’t have the tires that those guys had, so they were a little bit better than us, but we held them off for a good while there in the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. We were looking good to finish third. I felt very confident we could finish third until that caution came out and then we just ran out under caution.”

WAS IT UNEXPECTED TO RUN OUT OF FUEL?

“We knew we were very close. That pick-up is in the right side and so I was scuffing my tires and think I just took enough fuel out of the pick-up and I could never get any back in there. I tried. I think if we would have gone green, we would have been fine. I think it was really just because under caution it wouldn’t pick-up the amount of fuel that was in there.

“We might have run out anyway. But, it was the best effort and chance we had at winning this race. And that’s what it’s all about for us in the points. Leading and where we’ve been, it’s all about wins right now. We got to go for it so I thought it was a great call even if we did come up short.”

WHAT DO YOU TAKE AWAY FROM TODAY THAT YOU CAN USE HERE IN SEPTEMBER?

“When the green flag dropped, I thought we were in big trouble. But as it turned out, we had some kind of issue with the right rear tire going down. So, we’ve got to work on it. We weren’t good enough, in my opinion, to win, but we weren’t far off. So that gives us something really good to work with and notes to take back and go over and debrief with our teammates and hopefully come back even stronger.”

DID ANYONE HAVE ANYTHING FOR RACE WINNER, BRAD KESELOWSKI TODAY? THEY SEEM TO BE VERY STRONG

“Yeah, I don’t know what they’ve got but they’ve got something that’s really good right now and we’re playing catch-up.”

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