Kids Say The Darndest Things (Jeff Gordon Edition)

Jeff Gordon relayed a hilarious story today about the aftermath of last year’s fight with Jeff Burton at Texas Motor Speedway.

When he returned home late that night after the race, his three-year-old daughter Ella woke up and had questions about what she saw on TV.

We’ll let Gordon tell the rest:

I got home late, but Ella woke up in the middle of the night, so I went in there to lay down with her and help her go back to sleep.

She realized it was me, and she said, ‘Papa, were you wrestling with another guy out there on the track today?’ And I said, ‘Well, kind of.’

And she said, ‘Well, why? Why did you do that?’ I said, ‘Well, I got angry.’ She said, ‘Why were you angry?’ She just wouldn’t quit. I mean, it’s three in the morning and these are the things that are on her mind.

I called Jeff Burton two days later, and he said, ‘I’ll one-up you easily on that. I’ve got a 12- and 14-year-old and they were like, ‘Dad, I’m going to kick Jeff Gordon’s butt!’ I had to explain to them, ‘No, your dad kind of made a mistake.’ ’

We both really laughed about those stories and what kids do to your life and your career from every aspect – the enjoyment of sharing a victory to the agonies of defeat and embarrassing moments.

It’s amazing, you know? To me, it doesn’t matter what your job is – whether you’re a writer or a race-car driver – when you have children, it doesn’t make you less passionate about what you love to do. If anything, it makes you more passionate about it.

I think most people just automatically assume that when you’re in a dangerous sport like this, when you have children it makes you think, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ To me, makes me more inspired to want to do it better.