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Gordon, Johnson move on from clash

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have settled their differences over their on-track incident at Texas last Monday, after both of them were critical of each other's aggressiveness in the aftermath

Gordon said he was "disappointed" with his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate after Johnson seemed to retaliate for a manoeuvre he disliked, while the pair where battling at the front in the second half of the race.

When asked if he had talked to Gordon this week following their exchange, Johnson tried to play the incident down but then said they have had contact and everything is now fine between the two.

"Did you guys [the media] hear about the fight we got into? Man, we just got into a hell of a fight," Johnson joked. "I caught him good with the right hook and am glad he's wearing those shades...

"No, honestly, we are out there racing and it doesn't matter, team-mate or not, you're going to race really, really hard. And that's what we do. Jeff and I have been racing each other really hard because we've both have had really good race cars and race wins and of course there is a very intense rivalry through the Hendrick team-mates, especially in that #24/48 [cars] shop.

"But being that it's a rivalry, it's always been a very good one and it will continue to be that way. We push each other really hard and ask a lot and we're both greedy in ways and have probably put each other in positions on the race track that he hasn't liked and I haven't liked and found myself in that position in Texas and decided to express myself a little bit.

"We've talked, for sure. Everything is fine and in good shape and we'll just keep racing."

Gordon echoed Johnson's remarks and added that in some ways he was pleased to be involved in these issues with his team-mate, as it confirmed he is competing at the sharp end and against the best again.

"We communicated," said Gordon. "We played a lot of phone tag and sent texts and voicemails. He was testing at Indy, but we definitely communicated. We're fine; everything's good. It's just like what I said on Monday after the wreck, it was just two guys racing really hard, we both had great cars and great teams, and that's just competition. That stuff is going to happen.

"We've raced hard for years. I just never had a car that could keep up with him. We've got that this year. In a way, I hope we see more of it. We don't want to be bumping and banging, but I do want to be changing positions with him for the lead and swapping those [positions].

"I love racing with Jimmie and because you know when you're racing with Jimmie, you're running good. He set that standard here over the last several years, and that's one that we haven't lived up to. It's one that I feel like we're capable of living up to this year.

"That's why we're going to be more aggressive, and we're going to be racing hard, and that means that we're going to upset some guys along the way."

Gordon arrives at Talladega this weekend as the most successful of the active drivers at the venue with six victories to Johnson's sole one from 2006.

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