NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT 400

March 29, 2026

Jeff Gordon

Pit Lane Interview

Q. You just handed the phone with Rick Hendrick to Chase Elliott as he was celebrating. Even though it's only the seventh race of the year a lot of relief, they're all happy.

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, no, this is amazing. It's been a tough start to the season. You saw how important track position was. Alan Gustafson made a gutsy call there. Chase had to get it done utilizing that clean air. Denny was dominant all day.

Big win for Hendrick, the 9 team, UniFirst, NAPA, everybody here. Hopefully we can take some momentum of this and move forward.

Q. Where do you feel you are now? You have run well at a lot of tracks, haven't been to Victory Lane.

JEFF GORDON: It seems like it's a little bit more of our notebook. We're strong, have been strong in the past. We seem to be able to follow that up with some good setups. Some of the places we struggle, like Darlington last fall. We struggled bad there again.

I mean, this car has a little bit different balance too, so we're learning that. Our competitors I think stepped up. Toyota obviously is really strong right now.

Q. We talked about when you set a standard as Hendrick Motorsports, and you of course a part of that, I can let this out, I talked to Rick Hendrick this week, that's the kind of standard, right? He's embarrassed. You were figuring it out. Talk about the working with the drivers and the crews and crew chiefs, how you held that not together but planned and stayed patient.

JEFF GORDON: There are high expectations within our walls. Rick always talks about you build it from the inside. You can't tear it down from the outside, you can tear it down from the inside.

In these moments, I've been around long enough where I've seen us struggle. These guys, they know how to utilize their tools, stick together, work together, share information, get back to the basics. That's what the discussions have been here recently.

Q. You're a Hall of Famer. How about the nomination for Kevin Harvick announced earlier today?

JEFF GORDON: That's amazing. I mean, obviously well-deserved. I think we all know he'll be going in.