“Did you guys hear about the fight we got into?” Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson said. “Man, we got into a hell of a fight. Caught him good with a right hook.”OK, the four-time Cup champions didn’t really rumble even though they tangled on the track last week at Texas Motor Speedway. Gordon and Johnson insist there are no hard feelings after they got into a public tiff last week after some aggressive driving and critical comments of each other over the radio.
Gordon and Johnson both said they patched up their differences heading into today’s Aaron’s 499 and chalked it up to two drivers competing hard for a win.
“We’ve raced hard for years. I just never had a car that could keep up with him,” Gordon said. “We’ve got that this year. In a way, I hope we see more of it. We don’t want to be bumping and banging, but I do want to be changing positions with him for the lead and swapping those positions.”
Gordon won the last of his four championships in 2001 - the pre-Chase era. Johnson has made history by winning the last four Cup titles. Gordon, who owns a piece of Johnson’s team, just hasn’t been able to catch up to the No. 48 car.
That’s turned the teammates into rivals - just not bitter ones.
“There’s no doubt that there’s a rivalry,” Gordon said. “I think people talk about rivalries in this sport all the time, and they think that it has to come from another organization.”
Johnson, who earned the pole for today when both Sprint Cup qualifying and the Nationwide race were rained out yesterday at Talladega, said the pair have had disagreements before, they just haven’t been so public.
“We’ve dealt with this before and we’re going through it again,” he said. “A lot of it is just because we’re both very hungry and racing hard for each position.”
Gordon would love to prove that he beat Johnson and win another championship. He knows the pressure is on - especially in the Chase races - to keep up with the defending champ.
“He set that standard here over the last several years, and that’s one that we haven’t lived up to,” Gordon said. “It’s one that I feel like we’re capable of living up to this year. That’s why we’re going to be more aggressive, and we’re going to be racing hard, and that means that we’re going to upset some guys along the way.”
Daytona International Speedway will be repaved for the second time in history after a pothole on the track during this year’s Daytona 500 forced two delays that totaled more than two hours during the Feb. 14 race.
The repaving project will begin immediately after the July 3 Sprint Cup race, with completion targeted for Jan. 1, 2011.
