When it comes to drivers within the NASCAR teams under the same organization, they help each other out sharing information and even sometimes in the race track too. But if you are competing for the wins, your teammate is equal to a driver from a rival team.
That’s what happened with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. While they had a good relationship outside the race track, but they were fighting for the same goal, wins in the Cup Series and ultimately the championship.
Johnson recently revealed about the “pretty intense” battle he had with Gordon on the race track.
“We had some tense moments in our competing years. Especially when you get to, probably ’07, ’08, I’d won a championship or two. And in ’08 or ’09, we literally, Jeff and I fighting for the championship.”
“We started leaning on each other, bumping each other and I overreacted to a moment in Texas. And as we came down the front straightaway, I turned into him and slammed into the side of his car.”
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The seven-time champion added that it was his fault for the incident but also said that a driver would want to beat the other drivers even if that’s your teammate.
“It’s hard to not want to beat your teammate, especially when you’re both fighting for wins week-in week-out.”
After all, a driver’s main motive is to win for himself first. This attitude served Johnson well as he went on to write his name on the history books with seven championships in total