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Jeff Gordon says he was approached to drive Tony Stewart's car at Daytona
INDIANAPOLIS – Did television get in the way of Jeff Gordon getting behind the wheel in the 2016 Daytona 500?
Gordon, who has served as an analyst for Fox for its coverage of the Sprint Cup Series and is subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Brickyard 400, said Friday at Indy that this was at least the second substitute-driver approach he’s had from a team this season. The four-time champion said Stewart-Haas Racing asked Gordon to drive Tony Stewart’s No. 14 car at Daytona, but Gordon said he had to decline because of his responsibilities as an analyst for Fox, which broadcasts the Daytona 500.
“Well the crazy thing about all this I was asked to drive Tony Stewart’s car in Daytona to start the season out with his injuries and the incident that happened there,” Gordon said. “No, I wasn’t able to do it because of my commitments to Fox.”
When asked later about Gordon’s comment, Stewart said he wasn’t aware of any approach to Gordon by the team.
“That probably would have been one of the coolest things to happen this season if that happened,” Stewart said. “I would have been all for it … But, no, it would have been awesome. I wasn’t aware of that, but that would have been a really cool deal for us.”
Stewart missed the Daytona 500 and the next seven races to start the season because of a fractured vertebra suffered in a sand buggy accident in January. Brian Vickers drove Stewart’s car at Daytona and filled in with Ty Dillon in Stewart’s absence.
NBC Sports, which broadcasts roughly the second half of the Cup season, started its coverage at the beginning of July, so there were no television conflicts for Gordon to worry about this week. And he was apparently scheduled to be at Indianapolis anyway if he wasn’t going to be driving Junior’s car.
Gordon had agreed to drive the pace car for Sunday’s race and Indianapolis Motor Speedway was about to announce his appearance around the same time as the maneuvering for Gordon to get back in the cockpit began.
“I sent [public relations representative] Jon Edwards a text and said, ‘Um, have you spoken to the speedway?’” Gordon said. “And he goes, ‘Yeah, the announcement is getting ready to come out’. I said, ‘You need to hold off on that announcement.’”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
