Rick Hendrick expects Jeff Gordon to drive several more years
Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon hasn't won at Homestead-Miami Speedway. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Scene
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HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick said that he expects driver Jeff Gordon to compete several more years in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.
“Jeff and I have an agreement [that] as long as he drives in Cup, he’s going to drive our car, and I’m hoping that he’s going to drive a bunch more years," Hendrick said Friday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "We know it’s going to be at least three or four, so we’re excited about that.”
The four-time series champion, riding the wave of a strong season, says that he doesn't want to put a number on his remaining years of competition, but he didn't dispute that number.
Gordon said that seasons like the one he has enjoyed this year make it easier to think about racing for more years.
Gordon, 38, is third in the standings heading into Sunday's Ford 400. While he will be eliminated from championship contention when teammate and points leader Jimmie Johnson takes the green flag, Gordon has found a lot to be proud of this year. He has one win and 24 top-10 finishes, 16 of them top-fives.
That's a strong improvement on his 2008 season, in which he finished seventh in the standings but went without a victory. He tallied 19 top-10 finishes that year.
This season, he and crew chief Steve Letarte have fared much better, and Gordon seems to be recovering from the back problems that dogged him at times earlier this year.
That, says the driver who ran his first full Cup season in 1993, makes him more optimistic about a longer career.
"My conversations with him are pretty much the same as anybody else," he said of talks with Hendrick. "As long as I'm healthy and competitive and we have sponsorship and we're out there enjoying ourselves, we're going to keep doing it. I don' t like to put a number on that. Things can happen in a hurry, and right now things are going well. My back is better, and we were having a good year.
"Things are going well. To me, seasons like this add years to my career, and seasons like last year take away from it. Last year I was frustrated and not feeling good, and it was like, ‘Give me a couple of more years.’ Now I'm like, ‘Four or five, who knows?'"
