~*~Phoenix 2007~*~

Phoenix was the magical race, in which Jeff Gordon tied Dale Earnhardt in career number of wins. The quotations expressed afterwards from Jeff Gordon & Dale Earnhardt Jr. express their happiness about the win and address fan comments about Jeff’s flying the 3 flag as a sign of disrespect.
Jeff Gordon Quotes

“It means the world to me. Just to get a win at a track we never won at before. I drove my guts out. I never had to drive so hard for a win. I love racing Tony Stewart and Jimmie and all those guys that were racing there at the end. You know, holding that No. 3 flag certainly was by no means saying I am as good or we are as good or even close, but we just wanted to honor Dale in that way. It really means a lot to me. I learned so much from him. To even come close to anything he had ever done in this sport is amazing to me. We just wanted to honor him. We'd been holding on to that flag for a long time. To get 76 wins is just incredible. It seemed like it was in the cards for us tonight. We didn't lead a ton, but we had a good car. I would go for a long way and be one of the best cars and then it would fall off a little bit. We kept adjusting and adjusting. Luckily I had a radio when we switched that helmet out. The yellow did fall in our lap, we got lucky getting off pit road when the caution came out but I thought we needed to keep going through and I almost drove through the pit, Steve made the call and I love him as a crew chief. He is an awesome guy and as sharp as can be. He made that call, he talked to the spotter and talked to me and the team, he is so cool under pressure. Man, this is just an awesome, awesome feeling. It is great to get the Chevy Impala SS in victory lane. I don't know what to say, I am just overwhelmed right now. It is just an amazing victory for us. I can't believe we finally won at Phoenix."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Quotes

"Congratulations to Jeff (Gordon, on his 76th win). He's a class act - and I'm happy for him. I ran over to Victory Lane to shake his hand and let him know. I know a lot of fans of my dad's aren't the biggest Jeff Gordon fans, but he and my dad were business partners on a lot of things and worked together a lot more than most people realize. I saw him with the flag on the big screen. That's cool - they must have had that thing around for a lot of races."
"They were business partners, in properties and in companies. They worked together. When I first met Jeff Gordon, I was trying to qualify for a late-model race that I had no business being in. My dad walked up with this guy who a little mustache; he had his arm around him and said, 'I want to introduce you, son, to Jeff Gordon.' ... I had seen him doing some sprint-car stuff on TV, so I kind of knew who he was. But that was when I met him for the first time in person."
"The second race they ran, I saw Dad walk John (Andretti) and Jeff through the garage. He would walk through with his arm around one of them. He would spend six to eight months [that year], talking to them about the cars, the sport, the business, the people. ... I think Jeff would give Daddy a lot of credit for helping him out with that stuff. They raced hard against each other. Daddy didn't have to teach Jeff nothin' about how to drive; Jeff already knew how to drive. Daddy taught him about off-the-track stuff, how to handle the business end. I think Jeff appreciates that."
"I don't understand people saying it was disrespectful. What's the angle there? Basically when you win a race, it's all about you at that moment. You won; you're happy; you're excited; you're the best of the best. And he decided to split that down the middle and give my dad some respect. ... I knew if they had any amount of class, which I knew they did, they would do something or say something. ...Jeff has been in the sport a long time and knows that acknowledgment and respect are a big deal."
"When I first saw Jeff doing that on the big screen, I just wanted to make sure that he knew that it was OK with me on this side of the fence. It was really cool, and I appreciated it. My dad was a big deal in this sport ... and for him to continue to get recognized on down the road is a real big deal to me and pretty important to me."
"Jeff can't win for losing. Well, he did win a race. But with the fans, he has a hard time getting his point across -- which is unfortunate, because he was trying to make a good gesture. That was all that was. I don't see how anybody in the world could find anything wrong with what he did. That's a shame if anyone did. I want to give him all the credit he deserves for it."
"They had a lot of respect for each other. I think Daddy probably had more respect for Jeff as a driver and a person than I had seen him show for a lot of people he had driven against for years."
So if you think about it, that flag rode around in that [Gordon team] truck for several months. My dad would have really gotten a kick out of that."

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