Jeff Gordon hopes his Kansas Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup race victory will help silence talk over his retirement.
The four-time Cup champion turns 43 this year, and has been competing in NASCAR’s top series since 1992. As he celebrated last weekend’s win, Gordon declared that it had him feel like he was “25 again” and said his and Hendrick’s current form was making his age irrelevant.
“The racecars that I’ve been driving are just making this a lot of fun,” said Gordon. “I just feel so competitive out there, and that makes me feel young again.
“I’ve been really working harder on my fitness, which I think is helping me mentally and physically be more prepared out there. When the cars are that good, my back just doesn’t seem to hurt as much.
“The whole retirement thing I think is thrown out there too much, and I’m probably somewhat to blame, but there’s no secret, I’m going to be 43 this year, but, man, if 43 is like this, I can’t wait for 50.”I feel young because I’m just having a great time.”
The Kansas win was Gordon’s 89th at Cup level, cementing his third place on the all-time winner’s list. Richard Petty’s record tally of 200 victories is likely to be out of reach, and Gordon insisted that surpassing second-placed David Pearson’s 105 wins was not in his mind, either.
“I think we can get to 89 because we’ve done it and the next one on the list is 90,” he said when asked if Pearson’s mark was a target that would inform how long he kept racing.
“All I can tell you is the kind of racecars and race team that I have this year tells me that we can get more wins. And if we can keep running like this, I want to keep driving and keep winning. Until we get within a couple [of Pearson], I still am just focused on getting as many as I can.”
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