Gordon tries to be sore winner today

HAMPTON, Ga. — Jeff Gordon says there will be no looking back when he takes the green flag for today’s Kobalt Tools 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

But while the Hendrick Motorsports star and today’s pole-sitter insists he’s put last week’s painful accident at Las Vegas behind him, there is one image that will stay with him. The look on wife Ingrid’s face when he first saw her after the accident reminded him how fortunate he was to walk away.

“She was pretty upset about that one,” Gordon said. “I’m a race car driver, and a race car driver until I walk into the bus after a race and see Ingrid and (daughter) Ella, and then you switch over to father — and you see the look on her face and you get the big hug and squeeze.

“And there’s the reaction, and then it sinks in, that it does affect you and it affects them. Ingrid has always known that I’m committed to what I’m doing here, and as a race car driver all I can do is push as hard as I can to try to win races and be competitive until the day I decide not to do it — or I can’t do it.

“It also made me more thankful of how safe my race cars are, and the fact I was able to walk away from one of the nastiest wrecks I’ve ever had.”

Drivers often hear they’re not real athletes and don’t have to be physical in their sport. But there is no disabled list in racing, no easy way to let injuries heal. So Gordon and Tony Stewart, who injured his foot twice last weekend, as others have done before them, will ignore the pain and attack the fastest 1.5-mile track in NASCAR.

“Obviously, I battled through a lot of soreness, but the (right) foot’s just bruised and I got a lot of bruises everywhere else, but that’s just a part of this deal,” said Stewart, who participated in a test Tuesday at Phoenix. “It’s no different than a normal racing rheumatism, as the doctors call it, and we’ll be just fine.

“We’re race car drivers. We’re tough. It’s no different than anybody else who hit the wall. We’re all probably sore from this weekend, but we’ll all be fine for this weekend and I’m no different.”

Winning today’s pole, only his second at Atlanta, helped Gordon put last week behind him. Everywhere he turns in the garage, though, people are asking him about the accident. He’s voiced concern about tracks with infield openings like that at Vegas, and he’s listened as other drivers backed him up. He’s praised NASCAR and the safety measures in the new car.

He tries to put it past him, but the reminders are still there.

“I was sore. But none of the soreness affected me in the race car,” Gordon said after qualifying. “Weird stuff, like my stomach and my elbow was banged up and some things like that, but on the race track I was able to put that out of the way. To be able to come here and get the weekend started off right like this definitely puts a smile on our faces and hopefully can build that momentum back that was lost from last week.”

Doctors can prescribe drugs to help the pain and physical therapists can message the sore muscles, but the mental scars, drivers say, are the hardest to salve. For veterans such as Gordon and Stewart, it has become part of their routine to ignore the doubts that creep into their thoughts following a big hit.

“Yeah, it definitely weighs on your mind,” Gordon said. “But at the same time, I guess I’m a positive thinker, and I always try to think of the positives. It’s not going to change how I’m going to race, obviously. I think it’s just part of my nature: I get in the race car and I put the helmet on and flip the switch, and all other things just go out of my mind.”

Until, that is, he sees his wife and daughter.