"I Am So Sticky, Stinky, and Nasty…"

When the no. 24 Car rolled into Victory Lane at Talladega, the post-race party was one to remember

Surrounded by family, friends and fans, four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon also shared the stage with history after taking the checkereds at the Aaron's 499 on April 29. He shot past Dale Earnhardt into sixth place on the all-time wins list, with No. 77. The day after the race, Gordon spoke to The Magazine about what it was like to make his mark at the very track where The Intimidator won 10 times.

THE LAST five or six laps of the race were a blur. I don't even remember how we got from 14th to take the lead. I just remember a lot of jumbling and a lot of things happening. The next thing I know—boom—we're leading the race, and the yellow flag is coming out. My team said, "Caution is out!" I was like, "Well, does that mean we won or do we do another green-white checker?" I wasn't sure if we had to do it all over again or what. I just kept telling my team, "I want confirmation! I want confirmation!"

I thought a lot about Dale. Anytime you equal or surpass anything that he did, you've reached a level that you never could have expected to reach. The second thing I thought was, I wonder what the fans are going to throw at me.

There were a lot of Earnhardt fans, especially at Talladega, who didn't want me to pass him on the wins list. And they sure didn't want me to do it at that track. Man, did they let me hear it. But in that situation, I always think about something that Dale said a long time ago: Don't worry about if the fans are cheering or booing—as long as they're making noise, you must be doing something right.

After my team told me I had won, I wanted to pull into Victory Lane, jump out and just scream and yell with them and celebrate. But that's not what happens. We pull in and officials say, "We need you to wait until we come back from commercial." All of the sponsors and advertisers and TV coverage help make the sport as big as it is, but there's a downside. This is the one bummer we have in our sport.

Victory Lane is a long process. After team photos and some interviews around the track, you go to the media center. Talladega is nothing compared to the Daytona 500 or Brickyard 400. With those races, you're there all night and do things early the next morning as well. I am so sticky and stinky and nasty after the race, I can't wait to get home and take a shower and relax—get in my own comfortable environment and really enjoy it.

Once the adrenaline fades a little, you start thinking about where you are and what's going on. You try to take it all in and cherish that moment. You never know when you are going to be experiencing that again, and you want to have these memories. With Ingrid and me married and having the baby on the way, it was just a very, very cool experience to think about how my life is right now. I've been able to put my personal life together where things are going well off the track. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to pull the racing side in with that. And here it is, right now.

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