Jeff Gordon Scores Chevrolet Its Fifth Consecutive Win for the Impala SS

Chevrolet Impala SS Drivers Sweep Top-Three Finishing Positions at Darlington Raceway

Darlington, S.C. - Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, won the postponed Dodge Avenger 500 on Sunday afternoon to score Chevrolet its fifth-consecutive win for the new Chevrolet Impala SS and the 10th win in 11 races for the Bowtie brand. Gordon's victory is his seventh at Darlington Raceway, the track notorious for being too tough to tame.

"That's the way to win races," said Gordon. "This is an awesome race team, the guys in the DuPont Chevrolet Impala. The guys to thank is the Hendrick engine shop.It was a great call by Steve Letarte. What an amazing year we're having. This is so much fun. I'm having a blast.It's unbelievable when you win races."

Gordon led a trio of Chevy drivers to the checkered flag with Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS, crossing the line second and Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson finishing third giving Chevrolet a 1-2-3 finish. Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five while Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton followed. Chevy drivers claimed seven of the top-10 finishing spots.

Gordon's victory pads his lead of the Nextel Cup standings. He now has a 231-point advantage over Johnson. With the 11th Nextel Cup race of the season in the books, Chevrolet has nine drivers ranked within the top 12 in points.

Chevrolet drivers return to the track for the non-points event at Lowe's Motor Speedway: the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge held on Saturday, May 19.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS - Winner

"I noticed that the water temperature went up and it wasn't coming back down. Usually when you come down pit road it goes up a little bit. It went way up and didn't come back down. I thought there's no way we were going to make it. I've never seen gauges that looked like that and (have) an engine make it to the end. That's a testament to Hendrick Motorsports and their engine department."

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS - Finished second

"We had a good car all day. I felt like we had the dominant car. we gave another one to Hendrick Motorsports. It's a shame we can't get a win for (Joe) Gibbs (Racing). It's a shame. Our car was really fast."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS - Finished third

"That's one of the most difficult races I've been a part of for handling. I think the strategy at the end. nothing we were used to really panned out. I know Jeff had a great car and we regret the fact that we came in and pitted. But with a few laps on tires, you think that's the right thing to do and we certainly did all we could, we just got a little tight on that last set of tires and couldn't make the most of it, unfortunately."

THERE HAD TO BE SOME LOUD MOMENTS AT THE END OF THE RACE WITH FRESH TIRES. "Yeah, it was. There was a lot of different parts in the race where it was loud. The cars were so difficult to drive, which was fun and challenging, but there were a lot of guys that will leave here breathing a deep breath of air just to get out of here (laughs). Just to leave. It was a tough day."

Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Impala SS - Finished sixth

"Talk about a hard day, we had to pass a lot of cars to get back up to where we ended up. I'm just proud of our guys. They didn't get down, I didn't get down, the spotter didn't get down. We all just kept our heads up and kept digging today. It was probably our best effort all year - definitely the best race I've ever had at Darlington, for sure.

Considering everything that happened, when we got back on the lead lap and ran up front there, the biggest thing was just you've got to get away from those guys but you know you've got to manage your tires at the same time. So it was just run hard enough to stay ahead of them and luckily we didn't have to rely on a lucky dog to get a lap after we drove and got our lap back and were able to come in with everybody else."

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Impala SS - Finished eighth

LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE ALREADY CHANGING THE NUMBER ON YOUR CAR OVER THERE: "Yeah, I hit the wall probably 15 times today. It was just slick out there and that car's really wide, a lot wider with the soft wall taking away some race track and this car being wider man. I don't think we're all used to it yet. I saw a lot of guys out there in the same shape."

DID THE EVENTS OF THE LAST FEW DAYS DISAPPEAR OUT THERE? "They disappeared when I got here. My guys said 'We're behind you' and that took it all away. We worked on the car, we drove the car and we had a good time this weekend and I had no pressure, nothing really on my mind other than what we were supposed to be doing. I was surprised, I thought it'd be a little more of a distraction but it wasn't. Fortunately when things go good all your problems are gone but as long we can keep running good, keep focusing. I'm pretty proud of the effort my team gave me today and I try to repay 'em with the same effort."

HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT THE CAR OF TOMORROW? "Well I had a couple decent finishes in this car and you know I really wasn't saying how bad it was. I just said there's some things they could change and I'm sure they'll listen to people. I don't know, I was really never knocking on the car. I just felt like it's obviously not a finished product and hopefully NASCAR is open to that and hoping to improve it. It doesn't drive as good as our cars that we normally drive. It doesn't drive as good as the old cars but it's a new project and we'll keep working at it. It's a handful. It's fun, it's kind of fun. I think it evens the playing field. We ran pretty good today."

WHAT WAS THE SITUATION WITH THE WING: "Tony Jr. tried to explain it to me but I really didn't know what he was talking about. Apparently there's something that they did with the mounting brackets, I don't really know much about it. You'll have to ask Tony Jr. I got his back, I'll pay his fine, whatever he needs me to do. I don't really know what he was trying to accomplish here. We still run alright though with the stock position (laughs)."

DOES THIS GIVE YOU A LOT OF MOMENTUM FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? "I think we can accomplish everything we want this year if we really try to stay positive. These guys are great guys. I expect them to surprise me on how focused they'll stay."

WOULD IT BE IRONIC IF YOU WON A CHAMPIONSHIP WITH THIS CAR? "I don't know if ironic would be the word. It would be a good feeling to win at DEI and that would make it easier for me probably to move on. They deserve a championship. We've all worked hard, you know what I mean? It's not like they don't deserve it. Yeah, that would be great. That focus and that goal hasn't changed, wavered or anything. That's still what we're going to try to do."

DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THE DOVER TEST GETTING CANCELLED? "No, it's awesome. Yah! I vote we go in Thursday early.just two hours. Give us two hours, three hours Thursday. It's all we need. Give us a baseline. We got plenty of practice the rest of the weekend. We'd be fine. They don't need to stick us down there for two days."

SO YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE NEXT WEEK OFF? "I'd love to. I'm going to try to get a couple of days in there at least. I think there's some other I got to do."

WHAT DID YOU EXPECT THIS WEEKEND FROM YOUR FANS? "I hoped for the best and expected the worst as far as reactions from my fans. They've been really supportive. I was surprised at how supportive my fans are. It's just overwhelming. Those guys are so loyal. I hope to repay for that loyalty. My team surprised me on how behind they were. They took me aside and said 'Look man' and I said 'I'm sorry y'all wasn't at the meeting this morning at DEI to hear what I had to say.' They said 'We're behind you a 100 percent all year.' They're just good guys. They know I'm a good guy and we all get along really good an we enjoy racing together so I was surprised by all that."

WHEN DID YOUR TEAM PULL YOU ASIDE? "As soon as I got here. It's a new car and we hadn't adjusted the belts and I had to get here a little early and we had some time. They were just like 'Don't worry about all that.' I think that everybody is just glad to sort of know and not speculate anymore, at least part of the decision we're going to make for our future. I'm just really, really proud of my team. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. It's a good day for me."

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Impala SS - Finished 10th

"I'm proud of my guys for doing a good pit stop there when it counted. We just kept fighting and ended up with something out of it."

YOU WERE CONCERNED ABOUT THE HEATING AND COOLING OF THE TRACK - DID THAT AFFECT YOUR CAR? "I don't know. We were just out of control all day and I have a hard time understanding where we were, much less where we went. We just never had enough grip; rear grip was always iffy and (it was) just a long day. When you're that far off it's hard to learn anything. I'm not real sure what we learned today."

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT YOU MANAGED A TOP-10 FINISH? "We had some things going our way but one thing I know about this team is we never quit. When things are going well we dig in and keep going. That's what I'm really proud of about this group. They never quit. We can be running 35th with five to go and think we still have a chance, that's just how we are."

Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP HDTV Impala SS - Finished 39th

ON WHAT HAPPENED: "We got the motor too hot and tried to make it to the end. Couldn't get water in it, it was plugged up with something. We just burned it up."

DID YOU HAVE OVERHEATING PROBLEMS WITH THE CAR OF TOMORROW? "No, I just think we got a bunch of junk in the radiator and didn't know it. It got hot and we never could get it cooled off again. We'll fix it, whatever caused it."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS - Post-Race Transcript

COMMENTS ON THE RACE: "(It was just) really a challenging day. The track conditions changed as the sun came out. . I thought it was going to be overcast all day long. We got the car adjusted the first half of the race and started making some progress. And then the sun came out. Fortunately when the sun came out I think it helped our setup out... Put up a good fight, I'm disappointed to come in third, especially leading with 20 (laps) to go, not being able to bring home the victory. But very happy for Jeff (Gordon) and Hendrick Motorsports. I think today was a good example of the fight that Hendrick Motorsports has. Jeff and I both had okay cars and then at the end we were running 1-2 because we stayed focused and worked on our race cars all day long. I'm just real proud of our organization."

WOULD YOU RETHINK YOUR FINAL PIT STOP? "New tires always face off here. If I was back in that position I think I would go for tires again. It really amazes me how we weren't able to get through traffic fast enough and I think part of that problem was that the lap-down cars came to pit road and had new tires too. So it was just tough to get through the lapped cars and start racing for the win."

AFTER THE PIT STOP DID YOU THINK YOU COULD CATCH GORDON? "Yeah, I thought we were golden. The first restart I think I got two or three positions and a few of the lapped cars and I'm sitting there behind the No. 8 on that final restart and I thought I was in great position. Then I couldn't get through lapped traffic that fast. I got by the No. 8 finally and then spent a lot of time racing with the No. 12 and then the No. 11 got by the No. 12 and I was finally able to get by the No. 12. We were just too far behind at that point and plus, the last of the tires didn't work out for us. We were too tight."

DID YOU THINK THAT GORDON'S CAR WOULD OVERHEAT AND GIVE YOU A SHOT? "I didn't really think so. I knew my car was getting hot and I saw a lot of other cars steaming under caution. These race cars really aren't happy once you slow down. They don't get enough air through the nose to cool the engines down. My car was hot and I assumed that Jeff's, being the teammate, was probably as hot as I was. So I didn't think his car was going to have a problem."

DID YOU THINK GORDON WAS GOING TO COME IN BEHIND YOU WHEN YOU PITTED? "We were pretty determined to pit. If I saw everybody staying up, I kind of motioned back up to stay out of the pits and I saw everybody behind Jeff coming for the most part so our intention was to pit. With 20 (laps) to go we felt like that was the right thing to do."

DO YOU THINK HENDRICK'S SUCCESS CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO CLEAN OR SMART RACING? "I think we've been solid. I haven't had any speeding penalties. We had an issue at the beginning of the year when we had a couple of tires get away from us but we've been mistake-free for the most part and I think that's helpful. Especially when you have so many cars that are so competitive. Today I saw the No. 17, No. 11, No. 24, No. 99, the No. 20 was up there and had some problems. I guess he got a flat. There were six or seven cars that had a chance to win. I think at the end we just put ourselves in position by not really making any mistakes. On top of the fact that we had a good car. But I feel our cars are equal to the rest of the guys out there. We've just been a little cleaner throughout the race weekend."

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS - Post-Race Transcript

COMMENTS ON THE RACE: "We had a really good car right from the get-go. We started off strong, were good through the mid-point. We got off on one green-flag run when we fell back to third or so but other than that, we fixed our car on that pit stop and it seemed like the best car all day. We just made a mistake there on pit road, went back to 15th with about 50 to go and I knew that kind of wrote our race off."

HOW FRUSTRATED ARE YOU? YOU SHOULD PROBABLY HAVE TWO OF THESE VICTORIES. "I should have a heck of a lot more than that. If we lose about 20, 30 points when it comes down to the championship, we know exactly where we lost it and that's on pit road. I gave away Phoenix, that's my fault. But there's two to three other races that we had the best car most all day and even at the end and just gave it away on pit road. Today was a prime example of that."

ARE YOU UPSET? "Pretty mad."

CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT PIT STOP? "I didn't see. I saw that it was on the right front. Whatever the problem was, I noticed our right side was jacked up when guys were taking off. I think we came in second on that pit stop. It was probably a lug nut issue or something like that. I really don't know it though. Two lug nuts fell off? It looked like a glue problem or I don't know. Who knows."

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED THAT THE HENDRICK GUYS KEEP BEATING YOU? "Well, at Bristol I lost that lead with 10 to go because of a fuel pump issue. At Martinsville, lost it (because of) a loose lug nut and had to go to the back. It just goes on and on every week. It's just the same story. We're at a different race track and I'm here talking about the exact same things. It's all fine and dandy, I hope they talk about how good the Hendrick cars were so we're going to keep digging."

TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET AFTER THE PIT STOP - WERE YOU TAKING RISKS TO DIG OUT OF THE HOLE? "I was. We definitely weren't making any friends. That's what's most frustrating. I try to drive these guys clean every single week but when I get put back in the corner like I was, all I was looking to do was get somewhere near the top five. I felt like that was our realistic expectation, best-case scenario, maybe fifth or fourth. But I had to rough guys up and I had to rely on guys to cut me breaks when I needed them. Carl (Edwards) was one of them and I hate to have to rely on my competition to help me to win races but luckily I had the help from those guys when I needed it. Hopefully I will be able to pay that back one day."

DO YOU THINK THAT THE FACT THERE WEREN'T MORE ACCIDENTS IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE CARS' DURABILITY? "I think it took (hits) maybe a little bit better than what our current car does and I really thought that there was going to be a lot more accidents. Other than one or two guys, I think for the most part there was a lot of good give-and-take out there and that kind of translated into kind of the clean race that we had. We hit the walls at this track anyway and I think that with these cars having no front downforce, you get behind somebody and it just pushes real bad into the wall. I think guys overall did a really good job and I was really surprised too, that this car handled as good behind other cars as what it did. That is a good thing looking forward that I thought this car was really going to push bad on this high-speed race track and really, it didn't. I was pretty impressed."

HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO GET AROUND MONTOYA SO MANY TIMES? "That was frustrating. He was one of the ones I was talking about earlier. I don't know. He's not used to this type of racing but he's doing a really good job of trying to get back to this type. Those guys who race in Formula One are running as hard as they can every lap and he didn't have to do that to go fast. I know a lot of situations where I came up on him, he was fighting for a lucky dog so that's kind of understandable. There's been a lot of times where I probably pissed off a lot of people because I was racing for a lucky dog so it's hard to bash him on that one."

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SUGGEST TO FIX PROBLEMS LIKE YOU HAD TODAY? "The immediate reaction you think about is 'get rid of people and get new people'. That's just not the answer, I don't think. I think you bring new people in there and the chemistry is not the same; it takes a while to get gelled and everything. So we need to sit back and I think it's just a head aspect right now. Their pit stops range from 12.50 to 18.50 (seconds). We know that they're capable of doing 12-second stops, I think just that their head gets in the way of their hands and it's just the mental aspect of it. They're thinking about not making mistakes and they end up making a mistake. I'm not going to bash my guys. They help me out a lot over the course of this year. Unfortunately we got hurt at the wrong times. Had we been running 20th and we had a terrible stop, oh well. When you're in contention for these wins it's all about just not making mistakes, not going out there and doing an 11-second stop. You don't need that. As fast as our car was if we lost one or two spots on pit road, I can get that back. But I can't get 15 back. I got 14, but not 15."

WAS THERE AN ISSUE WITH DEBRIS ON THE LAST FEW LAPS? "If the cameras couldn't have pointed that one out. it was big. There was somebody's entire fender and underbody on the race track. If the car was two-wide or three-wide down the back stretch, they were going to run over it. I knew a caution was going to come out. I saw that and I literally pumped my fists in the car because I knew a caution was going to come out. Of course, a caution comes out and it's game over. But no caution and Hendrick gets another break. I don't mean to open up another can of worms on that one. Forget I said that. I was just thinking in my head (laughs)."

DID YOU KNOW THAT GORDON HAD SOME RADIATOR PROBLEMS AND THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE A CHANCE? "I saw under caution that he was spitting out water but I knew as soon as it went back green and him being in clean air that his car was going to cool off and it probably did. I didn't know we were going to run back to him as fast as we did back there at the end. I don't know how much faster we were there at the end but it looked like a considerable amount. We just came up a couple laps shy. We weren't going to beat him because of mechanical failure, I knew that."

POST-RACE WINNERS PRESS CONFERENCE

Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Impala SS
Steve Letarte, crew chief of the No. 24 DuPont Impala SS

ON THE RACE AND WHAT TURNED IT AROUND FOR HIM:
GORDON - "Well I don't know where to begin. The thing that stands out the most to me that turned around for us today was one, Steve and I just trying to make adjustments - obviously I wasn't making 'em I was just giving him input - but those guys making adjustments. So it made the car a little bit better but there was one time when we stayed out under green and made a stop real late. The caution came out immediately after that and then a bunch of guys ahead of us came in and got tires. That put us up in the top five with only one lap on our tires and from that point on we seemed to stay in the top-five so track position was obviously very important. And then we were able to just fine tune. The car was pretty good. We bounced between loose and tight but still maintained that top five. Then the water temp kept and all that stuff started going up and sky rocketing and certainly had us concerned and I didn't think we were even going to make it to the end. We were running pretty comfortably behind Jimmie and I was going to be very happy to finish second to Jimmie today because I just wanted to finish because everything we've worked so far towards, I just didn't want to lose all that momentum and that ground. To then have that caution come out and Steve make the call to stay out and Jimmie come in and the engine last. It was just a ton of emotions going on today that is was a pretty unbelievable victory."

ON THE STRATEGIC PIT CALLS HE MADE AND ON THE STEAM COMING OUT TOWARDS THE END OF THE RACE:
LETARTE - "I think Jeff picked the right part of the race that really turned it around was that green flag cycle. We really weren't good enough to short pit, at that point we were just trying to get the best finish we could so we decided to stay out and hope for a caution and it didn't come and then just a lap after we pitted it did come which worked out good. We had fresh tires so we decided to stay out and that moved us into the top five. The cars just handled quite a bit different in the top five and I think we made better decisions as a group and maybe had a little better read on our car since we were clean air. Once it started to overheat we pulled all our tape off but there really was no other fix so the Hendrick engine department, they've really, really impressed us time and time again over the last few years and today was another perfect example of teamwork and a whole company coming together and all the small details that people forget. That's what came together today with good pit stops, a good car and a good finish with the engine."

ARE YOU CONCERNED YOUR TEAM IS TOO STRONG THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON AND THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING MOMENTUM:
GORDON -"I'll be honest with you, today we were off. Steve and I have already been talking about things that we're going to do different going forward. Not that we go to this type of track anywhere else, but the speed mainly and the banking of this track. We made some mistakes on what we had in the car and that's why we struggled so much today, why we couldn't move forward. To me we won a race today that probably shouldn't have where we didn't win at Martinsville. I feel like we've had some get away from us that maybe we should have won. Now we've won some.We've won some that we shouldn't and we didn't win others that maybe we should of. I think that right now it's just about continuing to move forward. I'll always constantly try to get better and while I do think that some other guys are going to figure some things out close the gap, I still feel confident that we've got room to improve as well. If we can continue to do then I feel confident but right now what I'm excited about is that we've got a great race team. My goodness we've got a great race team. I think today's performance really showed what kind of race team we got. We're going to be on and we're going to be off with the race cars at times but when we can perform the way we did today with a race car that's not capable of winning, it's got me very, very excited about this entire season."

WAS THERE ANY THOUGHT AT THE END TO FOLLOW JIMMIE INTO THE PITS BECAUSE YOUR CAR WAS GETTING HOT?
GORDON - "You can probably ask Steve that. He makes those calls. I didn't say much on the radio because I was shocked that Jimmie was going to come in. I didn't think we'd run enough laps...if you got the lead in clean are, I don't know what'd be run six laps. If you got the lead I didn't think that was enough laps to come in. Track position is extremely important today. I was pretty happy that he was telling me to stay out but it was his call but he can tell you more. One of the reasons I didn't want to come was because when we stopped on pit road the overheating got worse and so I wanted to keep moving. I ran in fourth gear to put the rpms as low as I possibly could to not build heat. I tried to just get as much air and being out front.honestly had we gotten behind we probably would have blown up. I think that's why a lot of guys blew up there at the end because they were actually behind other cars and not enough air was getting to the front to even hold on to the end. From my standpoint we didn't have much of a choice because we thought we were going to blow up but I will say if he told me to come down pit road I'd have come down pit road. He said stay out and I thought it was a great call."

WAS THERE A TIME THAT YOU KNEW YOU GOT THE CHEMISTRY RIGHT?
LETARTE - "I don't know if there's a specific moment. The one race that comes to mind that I feel we did the best job last year was the fall Charlotte race where we broke towards the end. We were just pitiful in Charlotte in May and we weren't very good. We had struggled at the mile and halfs a lot that year and we showed up at Charlotte in the fall and we weren't very good again. We qualified extremely bad and to build a momentum and make good decisions that day, we were in a position to win when we had our engine failure and I think that's the one that maybe gave me the most confidence to make decisions. But I think the key is we're going to run bad again. There's going to be a week that we show up where we struggle and we miss it and run bad. Those are going to happen and I think that as long as you can accept it, there's no fault in it. We all have a percentage in it, some of us might have more than others. As long as you understand you're going to miss it some weeks and just get the finish you can. At Bristol we completely missed and we came back for a top five and I would say this weekend here there weren't many highlights until the last 10 laps here this weekend and we still pulled out a good finish. I think the key is there's no magic chemistry it's just being on the same page all the way through the team top to bottom."

GORDON - "Steve doesn't quite give himself enough credit but to me we were a team to beat for the Chase last year. We were strong, real strong and we had some failures. We didn't run good at Homestead. It was the only place in the Chase that we did not run good. We had failures and problems that kept us out of it. To me that was when I remember us really gaining momentum with how strong we were in the Chase last year. I feel like the momentum coming from the 48, we're in that some shop so.Steve got a year under his belt and then had an off-season to just say 'OK, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We just need a little here, a little here, a little there and ever since this year started I could just tell the cars are better, he's more confident. The guys are behind him and then when we go out and put the results together on the race track, it just builds momentum. He had to push me today. I was just not very happy inside that car today yet the whole time I was screaming we were still maintaining top 10 at that time. We made a few adjustments, saw some improvement and even there at the end I just didn't think we were going to make it to the end. Steve just kept saying 'Hey, we got this. We can do it. We can do it. Stay with us.' I never slowed down or anything like that. I was just a little frustrated. There's going to be days when I'm going to need that and he was there to be able to that today. Besides getting this team to a whole new level that part of it is nice as well."

ON IF HE SAW THE DEBRIS ON THE TRACK AT THE END AND IF THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CAUTION:
GORDON - " Absolutely should have been a caution at the end but there shouldn't have been one before that so that's why I'm not saying anything about it. So that's why I'm not saying anything about it because there should have never been one, the caution before that when we really checked out and those guys never even had a chance at catching us. They were caught in a lot of traffic and we had a great restart. I was pretty upset they threw that caution. There's wasn't a think on the race track but I will say there at the end - debris, oil, everything you can imagine was on that race track and that comes back to the inconsistency. I'm glad they didn't they throw it at the end but I didn't understand why they threw it earlier. It can work with you or against you, today it worked for us."

WILL IT HURT YOU THAT THE DOVER TEST IS CANCELLED?
LETARTE - "We always like the opportunity to go to a race track and test but I feel that Hendrick Motorsports is very well prepared with this car and I feel that it's no secret that the banked tracks have been our weakness. I feel we didn't have the best car in Bristol and we got fortunate to win there with Kyle. I don't feel we had the best car today and we were fortunate to win here. I believe the 11 probably had one of the best cars. Jimmie was better and he had a little different setup. I feel between the four crew chiefs we can make good decisions and go to Dover and be competitive. I really don't have an opinion either way on the Dover test. I'm kind of glad. The crews deserve some time off. Unfortunately the weather has been bad these last two weeks. Those guys put in night and day effort to run these two different cars and especially with Chevrolet having two different engines. It's a lot of work and they deserve the rest. I think NASCAR made the right decision to completely cancel it."

GORDON - "I think you know what my opinion is."

WAS YOUR MOM HERE AFTER THE RACE?
GORDON - "They bailed on me. Man, I had my mom, my sister, my nephew, my dad and I can't wait to call them when I get done because my sister's never been to victory lane nor my nephew and they always come to Darlington being the Mother's Day weekend and I cannot believe that they left. That was my gift to her. I got a little something for her as well but I really wanted to see them in victory lane. It was great to have Ingrid here. This is her last weekend of traveling so she was pretty emotional. It was very cool to have mom-to-be in victory lane. But yeah they bailed on me. I can't wait to call them when I get done here and chew them out."

ON UNDERSTANDING DENNY'S SITUATION OF LOSING WHEN YOU HAVE A GOOD CAR BUT A MISCUE AND ON DOING SO WELL WITH THE IMPALA SS AND NOT MISTAKING THOSE MISTAKES:
GORDON - "That's why I said that we've got an incredible team right now because we're not making those kinds of mistakes. Maybe things aren't going perfect for us but at the end of the day we're getting the results that we're looking for. To me that means more than anything else. Those are things that when we do have the car (good) are going to pull us through to get the good finish or the victory and then have days like today where we pull of victories when we probably shouldn't. I can understand his frustration. They've been very strong and probably tired of hearing everybody talk about Hendrick's domination especially with this car. We keep saying 'We're not dominating, we're not dominating, we're just getting the wins.' I think today showed those guys they had it again and I don't know what happened, how he got behind. I just know there was one time that he was ahead of me coming in the pits and he was no where in sight when we came off pit road. Those are the things that those guys obviously have to work on but we've got to go to work to make sure that when they don't make those mistakes that we're competitive enough to beat 'em. I'll be honest, today, here, Bristol and probably even Richmond we were not the competitive car to win or get the good finishes but we pulled it out so we know we got some work left to. I'm excited about that because we're still getting good finishes and we've got some work to do. It's not going to be long before they start ending up in the winners circle."

IS IT FAIR TO SAY HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS IS DOMINATING AS MUCH OFF THE TRACK AS IT IS ON THE TRACK?
LETARTE - "I think that we're dominating the finishes. I don't think we're dominating the races by any means. I feel we've been outclassed on the race track a few of these races and that's my job to fix. I don't feel we're bringing the cars to outrun some of those guys on the race track but I feel we're out teaming them at a lot of these races. It's just like you said, it's a lot off the track. It's the motor department, the pit crew department, there's 550 people employees there and it's very important for them to know that we couldn't do it without all 550 of them. Everyone who laid a hand on that motor today made a big difference for us finishing this race and that's the difference. Martinsville is really the only Impala race that I feel that Hendrick had the cars to beat. I don't believe there's anyone in Martinsville that can run with us but I think the other ones we got the wins but I don't believe we led the most laps. We might have lead the most laps but we weren't the most dominant car. There were cars there that were better than ours. That's the strength of our organization is we're not afraid to admit our weaknesses and accept them and we're going to work on them."

DID YOU THINK THERE WAS ANY CHANCE THAT DENNY COULD RUN YOU DOWN? WAS THE MOTOR DOING ANYTHING WRONG OTHER THAN SHOWING BAD ON THE GUAGES?
GORDON - "There was a couple of a times under caution where I went to scuff the tires and accelerate and it hesitated and it popped a little bit and I thought 'We're done.' I thought that was it. I was in third gear when I did it though so sometimes they do that in third gear. On every restart when I was in second gear it took off perfectly throughout all the runs. It did everything as normal so I was shocked as anybody else. The think that gave me some comfort was that when we got going it seemed like the oil temperature would drop a little bit which was a good sign and the water pressure would drop a little bit and I didn't see water spewing out the overflow so those were all good signs to me other than I was hoping we weren't out of water. I thought that Jimmie was going to catch us. The second to last caution I was very frustrated with that caution. I didn't see any reason to have that caution. There was nothing on the track, there was no smoke, a guy got completely off the race track when I think it was a blown engine and I thought they were a little quick to throw that one. At that time I didn't think anybody was going to catch us. The car felt great. We had like 18, 19 laps to go and the fast cars were in a lot of traffic and at that time we were just pulling away. The last caution knowing that Jimmie was only three behind me, when they took off and he got by the first car right way I think Junior and then got up to Newman, I said 'No, we're done.' I even came on the radio.I kept trying to put the laps together and not make mistakes and until Newman battled with Jimmie and held him up there for about two laps at that point I thought 'Oooh, I think we might have him.' Then when I saw Jimmie got passed by Hamlin I knew that just slowed them down that much more and it just gave us even more of any advantage. I'll be honest, when Denny got into second I really didn't think he could catch us. I thought long before that they were going to catch us. Newman knows how to make his car very, very, very, very wide and he certainly did that today. The only friend I think he made out there was me. I was glad he was holding 'em up but at the same I hate it for those guys because I know they definitely had the cars to win the race."

DID YOU HAVE ANY BEER CANS THROWN AT YOU?
GORDON - "No, not today. I didn't see any anyway. There was a lot of smoke because I was doing a burnout which I'm not very good at but I did a pretty good one today. I didn't see anything. I saw people cheering and I was happy about that. I don't pay too much attention to that. When they throw things at me, it's a safety issue but it's a compliment to me."

ON THE OPPORTUNITY FOR HIM AND HIS CREW TO BE A PART OF THE ALL STAR EXPERIENCE:
LETARTE - "The whole All Star weekend is an interesting weekend really. It's hard to prepare for because we're prepared and we race as a company to try to finish the best we can in points and it's really hard to go over there to race. I mean it's a lot of money they put up and it's a prestigious event and it's good for momentum but I really like the 10-point bonus for winning so I maybe wish they had a 10-point bonus for winning the All Star race. But we went over and tested for a couple of days in Charlotte. Our test was about average I think. Jimmie was good at Lowe's which is no surprise and I think the pit crew is excited. The pit crew competition they do at the Bobcats Arena is great for the pit crew. It's gets them on TV, it gets them recognition they deserve but Friday night qualifying, that's the true pit competition in my opinion because that's a true four-tire stop like we do every Sunday. Whethever we can put the three laps together as a team or not, I like to see that they always usually fill up with a pretty impressive stop and I like to root for them there."

YOUR WIFE WILL SOON BE A MOTHER - WINNING HERE ON MOTHER'S DAY, IS IT SPECIAL FOR YOU?
GORDON: "It was fantastic to think that here in about six or seven weeks she's going to be a mother and anybody that's had a child can tell you that you feel like a mother at this stage in the game and she's got a lot of emotions going on right now. We were already planning to give her kind of a pre-Mother's Day celebration along with my mom and my sister, being mothers, and kind of doing that together. So I can't think of a better gift to give her and my mom. Unfortunately my mom wasn't here. But it was very cool. She had a little tear in her eye so definitely the emotions and the hormones are flying right now. She knew, too, that this was her last weekend to travel before she has the baby so I think that meant a lot as well to her to be able to pull that off before she's stuck at home for a little while."

WHEN YOU WON CHAMPIONSHIPS, YOU HAD VERY FEW DNFS. IS IT LUCK?
GORDON: "I don't believe in luck. It's through preparation and hard work and obviously things are going our way right now and that's nice. That's very nice to have on your side and I do hope that we can maintain that side of it because it's making for a fun year. Every year I won the championship there wasn't a Chase and I want that Nextel Cup so bad. So does this team. We've got Winston Cups, we don't have a Nextel Cup and we're hungry to get it. We're doing a lot of things right to show that we're one of the top guys to contend for it this year. I'm just thinking of how we do that last 10 (races, since this is a 10 race stretch) and prepare ourselves and as far as I'm concerned, the last 10 were a Chase. The next 10 will be a Chase. That's the way we're going to focus on it until we get into that final 10 and just keep treating it like the Chase and show what we're capable of.

"Obviously DNFs took us out of it last year and we can't have those things happen to us this year. We hope that we've cured a lot of the things that did happen to us and that we can keep it rolling. Everything goes up and down and you know that sometimes you can pull it off in an entire year. Bobby Labonte, I remember, one year had a tremendous year where he had either none or very few DNFs. You always think it's going to cycle its way through and with the way the Chase format is, you hope that that cycle doesn't come the last 10. If it is going to happen to us - I did think it was going to happen today - I do hope we get it out of the way and learn from it before we get in that Chase."

WERE YOU AWARE OF THE DEBRIS ON THE TRACK WHEN A CAUTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED BUT WASN'T RIGHT AWAY?
GORDON: "I'm guessing that was the time that we stayed out. Steve came on the radio to me and said 'there's debris on the track; they're talking about it. It's coming, it's coming. They're going to throw the caution'. Little did we know they were waiting on all of us to pit (laughs). At least that's the way it seemed, I don't know. I didn't see anything out there, to be honest. The way this track is, there's just so much apron and down the straightaways as well as in the corners that a lot of things can get out of the way. But if it was in the path of coming to pit road or exiting pit road, then that's when cautions should happen. I know that we're out there to put on a show but man, that is a fine line of balancing that out. Like I said, there's no doubt in my mind that the caution should have been out there at the end and I understand why Denny was complaining about it. I thought there was a lot of inconsistencies with it today."

WITH FIVE LAPS TO GO YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT. HOW COME?
GORDON - "I never thought we were going to make it with the engine. That was with 100 to go or 60 to go. I actually didn't think we were going to win the race when I saw Jimmie get into third and putting a lot of pressure on Newman. I was still driving the wheels off the car, I was just kind of commentating, I guess. I didn't get much sleep last night and I was in a bad mood all day. I'm going to apologize to Steve later because he had to put up with me today. I don't know what it is but I haven't been able to sleep the last couple of days. It should be my wife that can't sleep but it seems like it's me that can't sleep. I was ill today for some reason and taking my frustration out on the radio."