Waltrip & McReynolds React to Announcement 2015 Will Be Jeff Gordon’s Final, Fulltime Season
"Jeff's accomplishments off the track are impressive, but his numbers on the track are unbelievable. I call him the 'GOAT' – the Greatest of All Time. I believe he is the greatest NASCAR driver there has ever been. What he has done outside the sport has grown the sport's popularity immensely. I give Jeff a tremendous amount of credit for the youth movement in NASCAR. A lot of people think NASCAR started in 1992, because that's when he came on the scene and brought in a new, young audience because he appealed to the 18-35-year-old demographic. We didn't really have a driver at the time who could do that.
"While he has nothing left to prove to the rest of us, Jeff probably has some personal goals in 2015. He'd like to win 100 races, but he knows that might be a stretch. It's hard to win four in a season, let alone eight. And of course, he'd like to another championship. A part-time Jeff Gordon behind the wheel isn't a bad thing, either. When I was at the end of my career, there were some tracks I still enjoyed competing on – and even would today. Jeff has stayed with Rick his entire career and has been committed to that organization. Their relationship has paid huge dividends. Jeff has driven the same number with the same team for his entire career, a continuity that reminds me a lot of the Petty era."
–Darrell Waltrip, NASCAR on FOX analyst
"I applaud the fact Jeff is going out on top and won't be out there just riding around and making laps to finish out his career. We all know Jeff Gordon well enough to know he wants to win more races and maybe another Daytona 500 and another Brickyard 400. As close as he came last year in the championship, he wants to be a player in the championship when we get to Homestead this year.
"Jeff Gordon is a superstar who nearly singlehandedly changed the personality and perception of a race car driver in NASCAR. Before he came along, the perception was more about the good old Southeastern boy wearing blue jeans, big belt buckles and boots. But he created a new buzz in our sport because he looked like he stepped off the cover of a GQ magazine. Dale Earnhardt was a huge watershed in our sport because he showed everyone that while NASCAR is what he does on the track, it's also a big business because people wanted to buy his merchandise. Then Jeff Gordon came along and created a new mark as far as the perception of what a driver is."
–Larry McReynolds, NASCAR on FOX analyst