From NBC SportsWorld:

“I absolutely hated it,” he repeats. I had asked him if he loved racing against Dale Earnhardt.

“I hated racing against him,” he said. “Sure, you loved it at the end of the day if you finished ahead of him because you knew that you have just beaten one of the best. But no, racing wheel to wheel against him was excruciating. He lived up to every nickname he ever hard. He knew how the air worked around the car so well that he was the hardest guy to pass.”

Jeff Gordon’s eyes stay focused on the road ahead, but they seem to harden.

Life After the Race