Hendrick meets with NASCAR to discuss on-track

[antig24]

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Jeff Gordon didn't touch any Powerade bottles after winning the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, but he and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team still might be in hot water.

 

After taking the checkered flag to win his fourth Brickyard 400, Gordon stopped at the yard of bricks under the flagstand.

 

He crawled out of his car, stepped to the driver's side window ledge and thrust his arms in the air.

 

Moments later, as the large crowd roared, Gordon's crew joined him on the track to celebrate the historic victory.

 

Gordon said it was a spur-of-the moment decision and had nothing to do with the recent controversy about drivers knocking plastic sponsor bottles of the tops of their cars.

 

"I didn't do that purposely, to go out there and cause that and stir that up and to make sure that Powerade bottle wasn't on my car," Gordon said. "I went out there because that's where I wanted to celebrate with my team.

 

"Too often these days, as big as the sport has gotten - and I understand that it wouldn't be as big as it is today and we wouldn't be able to race at this level without all the TV, the media, the fans and the sponsors - but to me, we take away so much from these victories when we pull into Victory Lane and it's all about getting the interview and it's all about the hat on, it's all about mentioning the sponsor.

 

"I want to just jump up and down and hang out with my guys."

 

A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed that Rick Hendrick was summoned to the sanctioning body's trailer to talk about Gordon's celebration.

 

Gordon's teammate, Jimmie Johnson, was fined $10,000 last week for placing a Lowe's logo in front of some plastic Powerade bottles after he got out of his car in Pocono Raceway's Victory Lane.

 

NASCAR president Mike Helton had warned the drivers a week earlier that they need to be respectful of other sponsors in Victory Lane. Johnson and Gordon both have contracts with Pepsi, owners of Powerade rival Gatorade.

 

Gordon, meanwhile, said his celebration had nothing to do with any beverage manufacturer.

 

"I just enjoyed the moment," Gordon said. "I didn't care. I will care (Monday) when we find out, but now I don't."

[gave20]

I can just picture Helton and Brian France throwing their bottles in a temper tantram when they didn't get their own way. What a joke....I wonder what local tracks run on Sunday afternoons?

[tmf6902]

I think both sides need a shot of maturity. Besides the main sponsor of the cars, I couldn't tell you one drivers soda/bank/fastfood/sports drink affiliation.

 

BTW powerade sucks anyway, gatorade is where it's at.

[Hecktorx]

Now Nascar is telling the teams how they can celebrate their victories.

 

Next they'll be handing the winning driver a scripted sheet that they must read word for word after the race.

 

I'm not a Gordon fan, but I thought that what he did was pretty cool. Different anyway.

[gave20]

What suprises me about the whole thing is it's GATORADE victory lane, but POWERADE is NA$CAR's Drink sponsor? Why does Gatorade tolerate this in THEIR victory lane?

[mhraracing]

Im a Gordon fan too - thought his celebration was great - It was nice to hear fans actually cheering for him - for a change.

[tmf6902]

How come this has never come up before??? Didn't Jr. celebrate at Daytona once in the infield???? Maybe he ended up riving to victory lane? I forget? I know he got into trouble for jumping on the roof, and messing it up for the post race inspection.

[Elwood]

I think this was only a concern this time because of the recent problems they've been having they figured he was just trying to get around it. I'm NOT a Gordon fan, but I don't thik he did it for that reason, I figure he was just really happy to win such a big race and was celebrating.