NASCAR on NBC crew go in-depth on Gordon’s choice to step away
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 2015 marks the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season at the start of a 10-year relationship between NASCAR and NBC Sports. It also marks Jeff Gordon‘s final one.
The NASCAR on NBC broadcasting team of Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and Rick Allen touched on Gordon’s recent announcement that this would be his last full-time Cup season on Tuesday during Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom, each with their own spin on it, as a driver, crew chief and broadcaster.
The trio gets into why Gordon would have made this decision to leave NASCAR at the top of his game, what he’s been missing out on in his personal life and how they think he’ll fare in 2015.
Jeff Burton, 21-time Sprint Cup Series winner
“The starting age is starting sooner. When a guy can start sooner, that means they’re probably going to retire sooner. You love what you’re doing, but it’s a really stressful way to make a living. What I came to believe was the season was perpetual; it never stopped. Everybody looks at it where there’s a 2014 and 2015 schedule — and there are, for points — but from a lifestyle standpoint and a commitment standpoint, it’s from January to January. It doesn’t stop. So when you do that for 20 years, it’s hard to bring that same level of intensity that you did on year 20 as you did on year one. I think that’s why you see drivers retiring.
“To be quite honest, this generation of drivers has been really fortunate to be able, financially, to retire. In the sixties, that didn’t happen. The fact that we’re starting younger, the fact that, financially, it’s better in the sport than it’s ever been. The fact that it is very intense. It’s hard on your family, it is a commitment not only for the drivers that the crew chiefs and everybody involved, it’s a commitment for the families, too. When you don’t get to see your kid graduate, when you don’t get to see your daughter leave to go to the prom and all those kinds of things start happening later in life as you have children, they start to mean more. So all of those things start to factor in.
“It is a great thing when a guy like Jeff Gordon can retire when he’s at the top of the game. He was a real serious contender for the championship (in 2014) and to be able to say ‘Hey, this is my last year,’ I think that’s a great thing, it’s wonderful that he can do it, but there’s a lot of factors that go into that.”
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Steve Letarte, 15-time Sprint Cup Series-winning crew chief
“The sport is difficult. The Cup garage is one of the most competitive places I’ve ever seen. For a driver or crew chief, you have to bring your A-game week in and week out, 36 races over the course of the year. Jeff’s point was accurate — the season never ends. We might not race for a few weeks or a few months but there’s so much work that has to be done over those few months that really you never get a chance to step away and I wouldn’t give back a single year of my career as a crew chief, I loved every race, every minute of it. But just like Jeff said, I missed my little girl’s first communion.
“There’s a lot of things you have to sacrifice and basically you have to get to a point where you look in a mirror and decide ‘Am I as good as I can be? Does my team deserve better? Am I bringing all the effort I can bring?’ and I felt like I did that last year but at some point, I felt like I would be the hold up to my race team. Dale Jr. was committed, the guys on the team were committed. They make the same sacrifices and if you can’t bring the same intensity as you brought last year or the year before then you really have to look in the mirror and make another decision.
“I mean, to be quite frank, who knew what possibilities were out there for me, but the NBC team is great and I’m glad to be on it and it really gives me an opportunity to still cover a sport that I love at what seems to be a cut back schedule compared to being a crew chief but my second family is still in the NASCAR garage and I still get to see them for a big chunk of the year.”
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Rick Allen, NBC Sports commentator and lead race announcer
“I’m actually already trying to write the script for when Jeff Gordon wins the championship at Homestead in his final race in the Sprint Cup Series. There are some incredible storylines coming into the 2015 season that we get to cover. The excitement level, I think, is growing continuously and I can’t wait to be a part of that.”