Jeff Gordon - Distracted By Life's Foibles

Daytona February 8, 2003; The AP reported that the season hasn't even started yet and Jeff Gordon already is tired of the often-asked questions about his personal life.

Gordon is in the middle of a divorce from his wife, Brooke, and spent much of last season denying the split was a distraction in his racing career.

The offseason did little to silence the skeptics.

"I still have a hard time believing that breaking a rear-end spring at Sears Point had anything to do with (the divorce)," Gordon said Saturday when asked about the distraction.

Mechanical failures aside, Gordon is now admitting that attention paid to his personal life sometimes caused his mind to wander last year.

"I didn't maybe think it was going to be as big of news as it was," he said. "There's no doubt that that stuff was a distraction - more of just the actual events going on than the media."