#24-Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports team owner, Rick Hendrick, met with members of the media to discuss Jeff Gordon’s announcement that 2015 will be his final full season of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. Below are some high lights from Thursday’s NASCAR teleconference:
Q. I’m curious. You didn’t use the word retirement in your statement. With the way NASCAR’s rules are as far as ownership and driving, it looks pretty difficult to see you in a car after next year if it’s not “ unless something were to happen to a Hendrick driver or something like that. Can you just not mentally use that word or do you really think there is a chance you could be in a Cup car at some point after 2015?
JEFF GORDON: Well, the way I see myself in the world is that retirement means you go off to a beach somewhere and sit in a rocking chair on the front porch and drink your coffee and pet your dog. That’s not me. I plan on working. I’m going to be working “ I’m actually going to have to get a real job now. So when I think of retirement, I just don’t think that that’s what I’m doing. I want to leave myself open, as well, to be able to get in a car. It doesn’t have to be a Cup car. It could be an [XFINITY] car. It could be a truck. It could be a prototype for Le Mans or the Rolex. It might not be any of those things. Heck, I was just out in the desert driving buggies and I maybe want to do the Baja 1000. I don’t plan on doing any racing, but I know I’m not going to be retiring because I have a lot on my plate already that we have plans for, and we’ll be talking about in the future. And I’m excited about that. I really am.
Q. Rick, obviously there is a lot of speculation about Chase Elliott. Where does he fit into the plans given this announcement?
RICK HENDRICK: Oh, we’re just kind of looking at what’s down the road a little bit later. We’re going to kind of focus on Jeff and what he’s accomplished, and then at a later time we’ll kind of focus on who is going to be in the car.
See the full transcript at the Team Chevy website.(1-23-2015)
