Jeff Gordon reflects on leaving NASCAR TV broadcast role

Jeff Gordon worked as a NASCAR analyst on Fox for six seasons and is now explaining why he left the role. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Gordon told Kevin Harvick that his role with Hendrick Motorsports was why he stopped calling races full-time.

“What happened was I looked at doing TV and it’s half the season. Great schedule and the folks at Fox were amazing,” Gordon said. “I just went straight from a team environment to another team environment. … I like that, I like that a lot. I like the live-action and there’s pressure and there’s a real responsibility there.

“It was challenging, and I like that. But what was happening as soon as TV would end, I immediately, and even in between, I was going into the office and trying to do more things with Hendrick Motorsports. I wanted to stay in touch with it because I knew second half of the season this is what I do kind of full-time. …So the second half of the year, I found myself trying to play catchup in everything that was going on at the shop and with the businesses and the teams. I felt like I was a stranger. I’d walk in, they’re like, ‘Okay, he does TV but he’s got this role over here.’ I feel like I was doing a good job with TV I didn’t feel like I was doing a good job on that side or really adding value.”

Jeff Gordon ‘learned so much’ during his time with Fox

Gordon went on to talk about how he spoke to Rick Hendrick about Fox extending his contract. He told Hendrick that he would do three more years of TV before joining Hendrick Motorsports full-time.

“I was the right move,” Gordon revealed. “I learned so much about a different side of the business by doing TV. I love that. I love the people that I got to interact with, the friendships that I made and the things I learned about business. So I think it really added a lot of value to what I’m doing now as vice chairman of Hendrick. But I realized how much I was missing by not being there on a daily basis and really being focused on it all the time.”

Gordon has a close relationship with Hendrick Motorsports as he drove for the team in the Cup Series from 1992 to 2016. In his racing career, Gordon won the Daytona 500 three times, earned three Cup Series titles and won 93 total Cup Series races.