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Jeff Gordon will come out of retirement to race new Cadillac endurance racecar

Jeff Gordon is not a man who takes well to retirement, apparently. That's not a surprise at all, given that we've been talking about his return to racing since almost the minute he retired in the first place. This year, he's taken the wheel for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who is recovering from a concussion, several times already. So we shouldn't be too surprised to find out he's officially coming out of retirement – the twist is that it won't be in a stock car. Gordon has signed onto Wayne Taylor Racing, Motorsport.com reports, and he'll join Ricky and Jordan Taylor as well as Max Angelelli. Their ride will be the newly-revealed Cadillac DPi-V.R racer, a Dallara-chassis car powered by a 6.2-liter pushrod V8 loosely related, Cadillac claims, to the engine in the current CTS-V. You can read all about the DPi-V.R right over here. Remember, Gordon has a total of 93 NASCAR wins to his name, as well as four titles. He knows his way around Daytona pretty well, too, having won the 500 three times. He's also dabbled in endurance racing once before, in the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona with Taylor, Angelelli and Jan Magnussen in a WTR Riley-Pontiac car. They ended up on the podium, so you can say Gordon's inaugural and only outing in endurance racing so far was a success. It's been a decade, so we'll see if he's rusty, although knowing about how competitive champions are, we think he'll blow out the cobwebs and get right down to work. You can read Gordon's statement over at his personal site. Related Video:

2020 Cadillac XT5 spied undisguised with infotainment from CT5

The reveal of the 2020 Cadillac XT5 crossover must be seriously near, because one of our spy photographers caught the new one completely undisguised. Seriously, there aren't any vinyl coverings anywhere, and the interior was completely bare, too. The update is minimal for the most part, but the interior reveals a big infotainment change. Before we get inside, we'll do a quick overview of the exterior. The front grille has a new mesh insert, and the lower air dam has a wider, thinner metallic accent. At the back, the colors for the faux skid plate or diffuser motif have been swapped. And that's it for the exterior. See? Told you it would be quick. The interior is nearly unchanged, too, except for the aforementioned infotainment system. Instead of the current model's touchscreen-only interface, the new XT5 adopts the control knob featured in the XT4, XT6 and CT5. It fits quite naturally behind the electronic shift lever. If it's like the system in other Cadillacs, fans of the touchscreen shouldn't worry, because you'll still be able to use the touch functions if you wish. Odds are we're months away from the new XT5 hitting dealers, since this is clearly a finished prototype. It will most certainly offer the same 3.6-liter, 310-horsepower V6 and 8-speed automatic of the current model. It's possible Cadillac will introduce a slightly more affordable 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 as an option, possibly even a turbo inline-4 hybrid powertrain, since both powertrains are available on the current Chinese-market XT5.

Mary Barra thinks GM is a leader in autonomous tech

Saying General Motors is "among the leaders" in autonomous vehicle technology, CEO Mary Barra rapped about her company's driverless work in an interview with USA Today. Barra covered a number of topics, including well-known efforts, like Cadillac's upcoming Super Cruise technology, as well as hinting at "a lot of efforts that are confidential." "Things are moving quickly in autonomous [cars] because there's so many different pathways and the standards aren't even set. A lot of people can claim leads because people are making advancements in different areas," Barra said. "Next year we're going to have Super Cruise on one of our Cadillacs. On highways you'll be able to take your hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals – with a very creative way to make sure the driver is alert and involved in the driving process." As for those "confidential" efforts, feel free to speculate. GM has recently confirmed that it'd be running autonomous Volts at its Warren, MI tech center, which certainly indicates that the company is playing with much more than Super Cruise. GM will need to continue to embrace autonomous driving, owing to both traditional competitors like Toyota, as well as non-traditional opposition, like Google and Apple. Speaking of its competition from Silicon Valley, Barra was asked about two of the region's biggest names – Apple's Tim Cook and Tesla boss Elon Musk. "I have tremendous respect for Tim Cook, and I don't really think he needs advice from me," Barra told USA Today with a laugh. And when asked about Apple's future as a "viable competitor," she said, "I have no insights other than what I read in the papers. But it would be foolish for me not to assume that they're going to." As for Mr. Musk's openness about future products and how it contrasts with GM's relatively closed attitude, Barra also gave a chuckle. "I'm sure you would like me to say yes. I think we're fundamentally different. Look at our volume and look at the segments where we compete. His product line – his two products – his scale, it's completely different." The rest of Barra's interview is certainly worth a read, and includes talk about the Volkswagen diesel scandal, GM's changed relationship with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Uber. Head over to The Detroit Free Press website for the full story from USA Today.