"My body is just not doing well": When Jeff Gordon told Rick Hendrick about his declining physical prowess in NASCAR

Jeff Gordon made and conquered many records in his long and illustrious career in NASCAR. One of the most underrated of those records is that the 4x Cup champion started every race from April 1992 until the day he retired.

However, towards the final part of his career, Gordon began to experience physical discomfort during races. In fact, that turned out to be a big factor behind him choosing to retire at the end of 2015.

During an interview with Youth Inc., from nine months ago, Gordon was asked why he decided to retire in 2015. In his response, Gordon opened up on his declining physical prowess and what he told his boss regarding the same.

"I started having some back issues some lower back pain and spasms and pain in the car probably around ... goes back to 2005 or 2006 but it really started getting bad around 2010 and I started working on it physical therapy and different things and I went to Rick Hendrick and I said, 'Rick, I don't know how much longer I'm going be able to do this my body is just not doing well I'm in a lot of pain throughout the race and every time I get out of the car,'" Gordon described.

Jeff Gordon further claimed that he was happy about his decision to retire considering he had a 'good plan in place' with FOX and Hendrick Motorsports.

The former #24 driver said he was 'ready to go' hoping his final season in NASCAR would turn out to be a great one.

Jeff Gordon recalls how Rick Hendrick discovered him before signing him to HMS

In an interview earlier this year, Jeff Gordon remembered how Rick Hendrick saw him race in Atlanta and went home with a positive impression. At that time, Gordon used to race in Thursday Night and Saturday Night Thunder, and during a Busch Series race, Hendrick witnessed Gordon win the race.

Following this, Mr. H enquired about Gordon from his roommate Andy Graves, who was in the R&D and engineering department at HMS. While Hendrick assumed the young Gordon had a long-term commitment with Ford, Graves corrected him that it wasn't the case.

"I think the next day I was at Rick’s office and we were talking about how do we get you to Hendrick Motorsports. At that time, there wasn’t even a third team," Gordon said. "It was a two-car operation with Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd as the drivers. I want to say that was March or April in 1992 and by the end of that year, I was driving in my first race as a rookie and starting my (full-time career) in 1993 with Hendrick Motorsports. From that point, the rest is history,"

Notably, Jeff Gordon drove his entire Cup Series career for HMS, a time in which he won four Cup championships, and became the driver with the third-most wins in NASCAR history. He is currently the Vice Chairman at HMS.