By Marty Smith, NASCAR.COM

	Jeff Gordon started off the season with a win at Daytona. Chris Stanford/Getty Images

LAS VEGAS -- Jeff Gordon is kicked back on a leather bench in his team's transporter, feet up, guard down. He's hanging out, talking life.

A month has passed since he scored the third Daytona 500 victory of his career, but the glow hasn't dimmed.

The Drive for Five in '05 is on, and he's hell-bent to capitalize. A blown engine in Fontana momentarily stalled the momentum, but there is solace in the fact that he was running in the top three when the motor let go.

He has it all, but can't be satisfied. He's done it all, but always wants more.

In the hour between Nextel Cup Series practice and Bud Pole qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Gordon hung out with NASCAR.COM's Marty Smith to talk Daytona wins, Mexican initiatives, the Vegas nightlife and an encounter with a tennis legend in Miami.

Have you come down from Daytona yet?

No way. I hope I never come down from Daytona.

Obviously we race a lot, and went to California -- had an amazing week prior to that -- but had a little letdown with the engine problems (at California).

So that brings you back down to reality. The off weekend was nice, because you got to reflect and kind of look back on everything and what a great week that was at Daytona, and a great victory.

But now it's time to get back to work and get another one.

I don't think I've ever seen you that pumped, even at Indy or when clinching a championship.

It was almost as if you had a chip on your shoulder and were showing folks something. Is that an accurate assessment?

I don't know. It's a long off season, a lot of hard work, so to win the first race of the season, and for the first race of the season to be the Daytona 500, and for the race to be that exciting down to the finish with (Tony) Stewart and (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and Kurt (Busch), I thought it was just a really great race for our team and a great way to get the season started.

So I think all those things -- plus it being my third Daytona 500 (win), Rick Hendrick's, I think it's his fifth or sixth, so all those things make for excitement.

You never know how a win will affect you emotionally, and that one just affected me in a way that I showed it.

You were all over the place after winning the 500, so you have to have some crazy stories for me. What's your craziest post-Daytona 500 happening?

See, I'm absolutely the worst person to ask that question! Every time I get asked that question, I never have an answer because my memory is so bad. I'm sure there's something good.

I feel like that week was a year ago already, so many things have happened since. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

I might need (my publicist) Jon Edwards' help on that one. He was with me the whole week. There were some good moments, but I can't of one off-hand right now. Sorry.

Naw, that's cool. Maybe you'll remember this one. Bought anything with that fat check yet?

No! (laughing). I think that money was spent already!

On?

Man, who knows what? It's funny, I just ordered a new car prior to Daytona ...

May I ask what this car is?

It's a new Ferrari. So it's the new 430 that's coming out this summer. So that kind of worked out that'd I'd already bought it. This just helps pay for it.

Kind of worked out? Just a little bit, yeah. So we're in Vegas; what's the coolest thing to do here?

Coolest thing to do? Hmmm. To me, Vegas is a place where, beyond the gambling, obviously, there's great restaurants, these hotels have turned into amazing resorts where you can get all kinds of great service amenities.

And I mean everything, from a gym to a spa to, shoot, anything.

I guess it's the shows. We were just talking about the O show. That's the best show I've been to.

And then just checking out the cool hotels. Of course, I like getting involved in some celebrity poker tournaments, but I don't know if any are going on this weekend.

Back to gambling. What's the most you've ever won in one sitting?

Umm. I'm not a huge gambler. I used to play blackjack quite a bit. I bet I've won five or six thousand dollars at one time.

But I've given up more than that since then (laughing). Poker is my new thing, and it's not much money. When we play, we hardly ever play for anything when we're on the plane and stuff.

But I like to play for charity. That's really cool. And it's cool to have the cameras and all that pressure from the audience. But I'm not a big gambler. I need to stay out of the casinos (laughing).

Do you utilize your sunglasses so people can't see your poker face?

No, I pretty much give up my poker face, let them read me (laughing).

Mexico. Your take?

I was happy to see the people in the stands excited about NASCAR racing. I thought that was very cool. I thought the racetrack was decent.

I thought the guys did a good job, and I've heard pretty positive stories about it. So I guess we'll be going there now, unfortunately (laughing).

No, I think it would be great for us to go down there, I just don't want to see races added to the schedule. So if we go there, great, I just hope it doesn't add any races to the schedule.

Along those same lines, is it appropriate to have the off weekend so early, then another at Easter? They should be spaced out a little more, in my opinion.

I totally agree. I love having an off weekend not too far after Daytona, because there's so much that's put into that, and I understand why Easter's there.

And I'm really happy we've got one in late July this year, that's awesome.

But if we're only going to have three -- is that how many we have, three? -- I would much rather take one of those two early ones and put it after race 26, have one weekend off before we get into the final 10.

You've pretty much met everybody. Is there anyone you'd still like to meet?

I'd like to meet Tom Hanks. I've never met Tom Hanks, and I think he's a tremendous actor and seems like a good person, seems like he'd be a cool guy to meet. Who haven't I met? Ummmmm ...

Exactly.

Yeah! (laughing). (Hanks) is the only one I can think of. I know there's somebody out there, but I feel like I've met my share of amazing people, and I feel fortunate to have done that.

Have you been surprised about anybody who's wanted to meet you?

I heard through the grapevine, but haven't been able to confirm this, that Morgan Freeman was a NASCAR fan, and a fan of mine. We're actually trying to get him to race ...

OK, funny story: I went to a Miami Heat game several years ago, and I'm sitting at one end, courtside, and Boris Becker was sitting down at the other end watching the game.

Well, a security guy came over to me before the game was over and said, 'Hey, when the game is over, Boris Becker would like to meet you.'

I was like, 'Aw man, that's cool. I'd like to meet him.' So the game's over, and the guy comes to get me. So I walk down there, he's talking to a few people.

I stand there and wait, patiently, no big deal. Then he turns and I walk up and say, 'Hey, Boris, Jeff Gordon. This guy said you wanted to meet me. That's cool.'

He looks at me and says, 'Who are you?' (laughing hysterically). I was like, 'OK, somebody just played a really bad joke on me' (laughing).

But then he was like, 'Oh, OK! It's nice to meet you.' But he definitely didn't want me to come down there and meet him, that's for sure.

At least people don't think you're Dale Jr. all the time.

You should take advantage of that, man!

I know. I totally should take advantage of that.

So anyway, is there anything, in particular, that you feel needs to change on the NASCAR landscape right now, aside from the lengthy schedule?

Yeah, the lengthy schedule. I'd like to see us go to some new venues. Obviously, if we could get a track built in New York, I'm hearing rumblings about the Northwest, Canada. I'd love to see us go to some of these places without adding races to the schedule.

Man, I had a good (gripe) the other day, too. What was it?! It's always during the week, when it doesn't matter, that something pops in your head.

Well, basing off what happened in Mexico, I think we need to have two lights for the entry of pit road -- one at the commitment line and then one further back, because a lot of times it's in an awkward position to where we can't even seen whether it's green or red. So I think that would be something good.

During the drivers' meeting in Fontana you asked, straight up, 'Why no speedometers?' And after John Darby finished explaining it, I still had no idea what he said. Do you know?

Ha! No! He's good at answering questions like that. I know how accurate the tachometer is, and I know that we don't necessarily need a speedometer in the car.

But if we're going to get this technical on pit road speed, it was just a question I brought up, 'Why can't we have them?' I definitely don't think I got an answer.