NASCAR In Pocono: Drivers Sound Off On Gordon’s Historic Win, Shifting, Overall Day in Pocono

Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway saw Jeff Gordon score his second victory of the season and 84th overall career win, tying him for third on NASCAR’s all-time win list with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

The race also saw driver’s shifting multiple times a lap for the first time in years, causing a few failures late in the race.

Here’s what a few of the drivers had to say about Gordon’s historic win, shifting at Pocono and their overall day following the race:

Jeff Gordon (on being considered a threat): “To me, the people that the media talk about, the fans look at, the garage area looks at the threat to win are the people that are doing it on a consistent basis. When we were doing that, people looked at us. They were scared of us. They thought, ‘Don’t ever count them out.’ You know, truthfully, me and the 24 car, you know, ‘cause I look at Alan (Gustafson)‘s group as a little bit different because it’s new, even though it’s still the 24, we just have not put the numbers together. So I don’t expect anybody to look at us as a real threat.”

Jeff Gordon (on tying Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for third on the all-time win list): “I really can’t even express in words what it means to tie Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison at 84 wins because I just never thought it would ever happen for me, or really when I got in this sport for anybody to win that many races is amazing.”

Jeff Gordon (on how he would like to be remembered): “You know how I want to be remembered? I want to make it to that speech. I’ve been to two Hall of Fame events. I want to be on that stage mixing it up with the other people when that day comes, and hopefully it does, and I want to be able to express it then because I think I’ll have had the moment and the time and the appreciation to truly embrace it and understand what it means.

“I’m just not there yet. I’m just not in that frame of mind to put it in perspective. It would be way too premature to talk about it. There’s no doubt I’m blown away with what I’ve accomplished.”

Alan Gustafson (on working as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief): “To have the opportunity to work with Jeff, you hear the questions, ‘Is he the greatest?’ ‘Where does he rank?’ I can tell you, he’s pretty damn good. He’s the best today. So I’m happy to be the guy who’s able to work on his cars.

“I believe that he’s as good as anybody out there. I think there’s 42 guys in that garage area who are envious of my position. I think it’s a great opportunity. I just feel blessed.”

Kurt Busch (on Jeff Gordon’s historic win): “It’s impressive to see what he’s done over his career, not just in this decade, not in the 2000s, back all the way to the ‘90s. He’s a true legend in our sport, a four time champion.

Kyle Busch (on hard racing with Kevin Harvick): “I’m not really sure to be honest with you. I was running my own race. It was another car I had to pass. Seemed like he (Kevin Harvick) was trying to make it awfully difficult on me. There’s a couple times where I just had to back off and wait, got back to him and tried to pass him again. Maybe kind of shows his character and who he is, how he feels he needs to race on the race track. But it’s not my fight. He’s trying to turn it into one.”

Martin Truex Jr. (on shifting): “The shifting was fun -- that made it a lot more fun, especially on restarts. If guys got checked up a little bit then you could get third and you could get a run. It was a lot more fun than in the past here. We were a lot busier, which was a good thing.”

Joey Logano (on shifting): “As long as there were long green flag runs and I was by myself, I may have gotten bored, but the shifting kept me entertained and it was fun. I enjoyed it -- I wish we did that everywhere.”

Jimmie Johnson: “It was a great day in the pits and on the track. Man, I really thought I had a shot there on that restart at the end and kind of got stuck in the middle and lost a bunch of track position and just had to recover from that. But it was a great day today. I’m very happy to see the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) in victory lane. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has been working very hard to make sure that the cars are getting speed in them and they’ve done that. Our engine package held up today with the abuse we gave it. It was a great day all in all.”

Greg Biffle: “The car was hard to drive but it wasn’t too bad I guess. We were able to move it up through the field but then I got too loose coming off of four and it got away from me and it spun. Unfortunately NASCAR didn’t throw a caution there and that is what killed us there.”

Carl Edwards (on engine issues): “One of the valves got in an argument with something in the engine and lost. We broke one valve. We don’t think it is from an over rev or anything, we just think it was a parts failure. This is a great car and a great engine. We were running really well and I was babying the engine a little bit and not shifting too much. It is just one of those things. Sometimes things break. The good news is that we haven’t had to deal with this very much with this FR9 engine. Doug Yates and those guys have done such a good job with this engine that I don’t end up in the garage watching them work on it very often at all.”