"I was very laser focused": Jeff Gordon comes clean on not attempting 'The Double' like Kyle Larson

Jeff Gordon recently opened up on whether he could've potentially attempted 'The Doube' like Kyle Larson. The 4x Cup champion is widely regarded as one of the greatest to ever do it in the history of NASCAR.

During a recent press interaction, Gordon was asked whether he ever wanted to attempt the Double of running the Indy 500 and the Coke 600 on the same day. He revealed that he has thought about it because working with Kyle Larson in his second Double attempt, this is the closest he's ever been to it in terms of the experience.

Having said that, Jeff Gordon claimed he couldn't have done what Kyle Larson is doing. He elaborated:

"I just don't think there are many Kyle Larsons, you know, I was always the type of driver where I was very laser focused on one team, one car, one kind of goal. And and you know, it's just the way that my mindset and my efforts were. There's a reason why I didn't go back and forth and run sprint cars and and midgets and other types of cars. And it just wasn't the thing that I did throughout my career other than when I was trying to make it into NASCAR." [10:00]

Jeff Gordon added that he wanted to compete in the USAC championship.

But once he got to NASCAR, he made sure his efforts and time was all directed in one direction.

Jeff Gordon opens up on his approach which prevented him from participating in anything outside NASCAR

Speaking further about why he couldn't attempt a Double during his driving days, Jeff Gordon mentioned the other major factor. He claimed that like drivers such as Mark Martin or Kyle Larson, he couldn't jump in and out of cars and be good at that.

"For me it like took time for me to learn the car, learn the team, communicate with them and that took time," he said. [11:40]

Gordon recalled his first Rolex 24 attempt in 2007, he came away feeling like he couldn't fully commit to it. That is why his second attempt was after he retired as a full-timer from NASCAR in 2017, where he ended up in the winner team.

Because of this approach, Jeff Gordon emphasized how much he respects Kyle Larson and his capabilities.

"He does it on such a regular basis that this doesn't seem that abnormal for him where for me not doing it I think it would have been super stressful and I don't know that I would have been as successful as he's been. So to me it never really was," Gordon said.

Having said that, Jeff Gordon revealed that the only time he came extremely close to the opportunity was on the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500. He revealed that the management wanted to get as many drivers from different series.

But even then, he didn't put a lot of consideration to it because he didn't feel it was right for him.