1on1: Wii king, 'Rock Band' star drummer Jeff Gordon (cont'd)

Q: So what games on the Wii have you been playing most recently?

Gordon: Tennis is probably the one I have played the most. To me, it's the one you can pick up fairly quickly. Like I played some of the war games or whatever, and I started getting dizzy because I've got the gun moving here and I'm trying to move over there and all that. So I'm more into the sports ones.

Q: What about racing games?

Gordon: I've played the NASCAR karting as well as the Mario karting. And that's what I played the last time -- the Mario karting -- and I liked that real well. ... They just recently came out with the NASCAR one, which is cool because they're like these full-bodied go-karts that look like our race cars. They're pretty sharp-looking.

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Q: When you do that are you always yourself, or do you like to play Jimmie Johnson or someone else for a day?

Gordon: If I had my choice, I'd want to create a whole different thing. But the time I did that recently, I was myself.

Q: How did you do?

Gordon: I won a few races. I guess, to me, the NASCAR one seemed a little too easy -- as well as it has this team thing, where you have to draft off a teammate that you pick. I didn't like that. I don't mind teammates, but I just wanted to go out there and race and not worry about what happens to him. In the Mario game, I was just Mario.

Q: Any others? What about the Tiger Woods golf game?

Gordon: I do have it. But with my back, that swinging motion isn't the best thing for it. I've gotten to where with tennis, I can just flick it with my wrist. I played a little bit of the golf, though, and I did like it.

Q: Some drivers have talked about using video games or simulators to help them prepare for certain race tracks. Do you believe that?

Gordon: I think they're great; I love 'em. I think they're great for hand-eye coordination. But I don't think they teach you anything about racing most places. I could see maybe a road course that you had never been to. I guess I can see how maybe [Denny] Hamlin when he was talking about having never gone to Pocono before, and using it to help get him ready for that -- because Pocono is so big and has three different corners where you have to halfway treat it like a road course. You need to get visual points of where to drive in. But they just don't give you anything about the grip, or the bumps. Those are the only things the video games have missed so far. They've got all the visuals down; they're unbelievable with that. I guess what I'm saying, though, is that I really can't see how it could help you.

Q: Of course a guy like Hamlin isn't married, so he can sit down and play that stuff for hours on end, right?

Gordon: That's for sure.

Q: So when you're in the bus alone, do you have a routine where you have a certain amount of time set aside to play?

Gordon: These days I'm spending a whole lot more time stretching and doing exercises for my back, and getting myself prepared for the race. That takes up a lot of time. Then fixing dinner takes me about an hour from start to finish. But if I have time and there's nothing good on TV, sure, I make the time for it.

Q: Did you play video games as a kid?

Gordon: I used have an Atari. I used to tear it up. Asteroids ... Defender. I tell you what, they used to have poker on there way back when, too. ... They had football, too. That was a lot of fun, and it wasn't as complicated as it is now.

Q: Didn't Dale Earnhardt give you a hard time about playing video games when you first arrived in NASCAR?

Gordon: He gave me a hard time about anything kid-related that he thought I was doing. I mean, I wasn't drinking milk -- but he thought I was. So he gave me a hard time about that and everything else.