Jeff Gordon expects 'heavyweight fight' between Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Championship 4 drivers

Yesterday at Martinsville, Jeff Gordon got to see his old No. 24 car go to Victory Lane with William Byron, earning a Championship 4 berth. To see it happen 10 years after Gordon earned his final career win and made his own championship race visit.

Of course, William Byron won’t be the only Hendrick Motorsports driver in the running at Phoenix. Kyle Larson advanced on points and is ready to earn his second Cup Series title.

The Hendrick duo will face off against another duo. Joe Gibbs Racing is sending Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe to Phoenix and the Championship 4. A showdown between two of the most storied organizations in the modern era.

After the race, Jeff Gordon spoke to the media about Phoenix. His expectations are pretty high.

“I mean, we have a tremendous amount of respect for one another. We’ve battled through some big events and championships in the past,” the four-time champ said. “Yeah, it’s Penske, Gibbs and Hendrick that were in this round. You narrow it down to two, which it was going to be. Either one of them was going to be a heavyweight battle, right?

“But yeah, no we’re pretty excited to have two-on-two in a heavyweight fight, as you mentioned. I don’t know. Rudy can attest to how confident he is going into that race. I don’t know. I feel like our chances are extremely good. Right now I’m excited. Now that we’ve gotten through this, this is an exciting day, a lot of emotion of being able to pull off this accomplishment. Now what I love doing is watching these guys leave here and go to work on what it’s going to take to go win it.”

Jeff Gordon has two teams going to Phoenix

At this point, both Hendrick and Joe Gibbs are going to put the cars out on the track and see what happens. There is a ton of work that will go on behind the scenes in the next couple of days to get everything finalized. But a lot of the work has been done at this point.

Having William Byron and Kyle Larson in the race gives HMS a really strong chance to win the title. Larson is the only driver in the quartet who has reached the mountain top in the past.

“It’s going to be an epic battle,” Jeff Gordon said. “You got four cars, two organizations, that are going to give it everything. It’s going to be fascinating week of preparation, seeing how it unfolds at the racetrack in Phoenix.”

Four drivers, two organizations, and one trophy. Who comes out on top on Sunday at Phoenix?