Jeff Gordon (Race Car Legends)

JEFF GORDON

RACE CAR LEGENDS C O L L E C T O R ’ S

E D I T I O N

A.J. Foyt The Allisons Dale Earnhardt Jr. Danica Patrick Famous Finishes Famous Tracks The Jarretts Jeff Burton Jeff Gordon Jimmie Johnson Kenny Irwin Jr. The Labonte Brothers Lowriders Mario Andretti Mark Martin Monster Trucks & Tractors Motorcycles The Need for Speed Off-Road Racing The Pit Crew Rockcrawling Rusty Wallace Stunt Driving Tony Stewart The Unsers

JEFF GORDON

Dick Brinster With additional text by

Richard Huff

Jeff Gordon

Copyright © 2008 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-8760-2 ISBN-10: 0-7910-8760-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brinster, Richard. Jeff Gordon / Dick Brinster with additional text by Richard Huff. p. cm. – (Race car legends. Collector’s edition) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-8760-2 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 0-7910-8760-3 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 978-1-4381-2271-7 (e-book) 1. Gordon, Jeff, 1971—Juvenile literature. 2. Stock car drivers—United States— Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Huff, Richard M. II. Title. GV1032.G67B76 2007 796.72092—dc22 [B] 2006103375 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House books on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Series design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Hierophant Publishing Services/EON PreMedia/Joo Young An Printed in the United States of America Bang PH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

CONTENTS 1 Three’s a Charm

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2 The Kid Emerges

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3 The Prodigy

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4 The Champion

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5 When Will It End?

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Statistics

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Chronology

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Glossary

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Bibliography

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Further Reading

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Picture Credits

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Index

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About the Authors

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1 THREE’S A CHARM nly a few laps remained in the 2005 Daytona 500. Behind the wheel of his multicolored, DuPontsponsored Chevrolet, Jeff Gordon was in the lead. “It’s time,” team owner Rick Hendrick radioed to Gordon. Tony Stewart had led much of the race, but in the last laps, there were a handful of crashes that would change the day. A crash involving 10 cars on lap 184 of the scheduled 200-lap race put many cars out of the running. This gave drivers who had chased Stewart all day another shot at getting the lead. It was the season-opening event at the 2.5 mile– long Daytona International Speedway. The race, the Daytona 500, is one of NASCAR’s most prestigious events—the equivalent of football’s Super Bowl— and starts the season. The drivers begin the event and the season fresh, believing that this might be the year they win the big race—and, perhaps, win the series championship in November. All drivers start the Daytona 500 with no points in NASCAR’s

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Cars tangle during the 2005 Daytona 500, dashing hopes for those involved in accidents but creating opportunities for other drivers to try to take the lead.

championship race, and so, technically, they’re all tied for first place. A good day at Daytona can set the tone for the coming season.

Three’s a Charm

Winning is also an honor that few have shared. It took driver Dale Earnhardt 19 attempts to win the Daytona 500. By the time he won it, he had already won seven championships. But nothing hung over him more than not winning the Daytona 500. Winning this race is a big deal for any stock car driver, which is what makes the race so important to them all. On the sunny race day, February 21, 2005, Stewart appeared to have the race in hand; that is, he did until the wreck on lap 184. Dale Earnhardt Jr., the son of the legendary Dale Earnhardt (who died at the 2001 Daytona, in a last-lap crash), had one of the fastest cars going into the race. But on this day, his car was not quite as strong as the rest. Yet, on lap 195, showing strength he hadn’t had all day, Earnhardt swerved to the outside lane and took the lead from Stewart. “When [Earnhardt] got the lead, I thought it was over, done, he was so strong,” Gordon said later. But Earnhardt wasn’t invincible. Racing at speeds nearing 200 miles per hour, Earnhardt did what he could to block his rivals. Then Gordon—with help from driver Kurt Busch, who was right behind him— began drafting. Gordon was now able to power past Earnhardt and take the lead. A yellow caution flag on lap 199, however, made everyone slow down, and many of the cars bunched together. NASCAR officials determined that they should extend the race by three laps so it would end with the cars racing, and not just chugging along in a pack. Listening to Hendrick’s shouts of encouragement over the radio, Gordon held on and won the race. “Jeff Gordon, you’re a driving son-of-a-gun,” Hendrick called to his driver through the radio.

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Jeff Gordon, driving the number 24 car, takes the checkered fl ag ahead of Kurt Busch (97) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (8) to win the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in 2005.

Gordon earned $1,474,466 in prize money that February afternoon, but he also earned something more. He showed that he truly deserved a place in a circle inhabited by very

Three’s a Charm

Jeff Gordon celebrates his third Daytona 500 win. He is a member of a very elite group of drivers: those who have managed to win more than one Daytona 500.

few people: drivers who have won more than one Daytona 500. By hanging on in 2005, Gordon now had three Daytona wins. “I don’t know how to put that into perspective,” he said after the race. “It’s overwhelming to me. I was thrilled with the two. Just one is enough to make your career.

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WINNER TAKES ALL Jeff Gordon won the Pepsi 400 at the Daytona International Speedway on July 1, 1995. The Pepsi 400 (formerly called the Firecracker 400) is run annually during Fourth of July weekend. Gordon won it when he was just 23 years, 10 months, and 27 days old, making him the youngest winner ever at the famed speedway. The oldest driver ever to win at the historic 2.5-mile track was Bobby Allison, who at the age of 50 years, 5 months, and 11 days, won the 1988 Daytona 500. Richard Petty, who retired after the 1992 season, remains the leading race winner at Daytona, with 10 event titles spread between the Daytona 500 and the Pepsi 400.

Bobby Allison gets his reward after becoming the oldest winner of the Daytona 500.

Three’s a Charm

To have three now is just incredible . . . You know, this third one is even sweeter than the other two. It’s just amazing.” In fact, amazing has been a word used often to describe Jeff Gordon, one of the best drivers in the history of NASCAR.

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2 THE KID EMERGES eff Gordon was born August 4, 1971, in Vallejo, California. His hometown is about a mile from the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, on the eastern shore of San Pablo Bay and about 25 miles from San Francisco. By the time Gordon was four, he was involved in dirt bike racing, and his mother was worried. “At BMX events, they were hauling kids away in ambulances at the time,” his mother, Carol Bickford, said. She put a stop to his racing, but her husband, Gordon’s stepfather, had other ideas. John Bickford, an auto parts manufacturer and a racing devotee, bought Gordon a quarter midget car, which is a tiny racing machine with a 2.85-horsepower engine. “He bought a black one for me and a pink one for my sister, Kim,” Gordon recalled. “I was 4, and she was 8.” Although upset at first, Carol Bickford soon realized, “it was a lot safer than the bikes.” Still, Gordon was not allowed to compete in quarter midget racing until he was five, so he spent a year careening around a parking lot. Soon Gordon could be seen in play competitions. An early family home movie shows

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The Kid Emerges

Jeff Gordon stands between his parents, John and Carol Bickford. John Bickford bought Gordon his fi rst race car, a quarter midget, when Gordon was 4 years old.

a contest with little boys calmly circling a small racing surface, keeping their lines and following one another. Suddenly, into the right corner of the screen comes another little boy, and he’s driving considerably faster than the others. The leader veers a bit wide on a corner, leaving an opening on the inside of the track. There isn’t enough room to get through, but that doesn’t bother the little boy with the determined look on his face. Gordon dives to the inside, runs over the tire of the leader, drives away, and leaves the rest of the field in his wake.

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RACING IN MIDGET CARS Jeff Gordon got his start by racing quarter midget cars. Other top NASCAR stars did, too: drivers such as Terry and Bobby Labonte. Many racers have started out in these pint-sized cars, which are scaled-down versions of racing cars. Quarter midgets usually run on oval tracks that are one-twentieth of a mile long, with dirt, concrete, or asphalt surfaces. The cars can cost upwards of $3,000 for a basic vehicle, making this an expensive activity for young racers. The sport is open to children between the ages of 5 and 16. Quarter midget racing tends to be a family affair, with the dads serving as the crew chiefs and the moms handling other tasks during a race. Since its start in the 1930s, in the Los Angeles area, quarter midget racing has grown tremendously and is now held in every state.

By the time he was eight, Gordon had won his first national championship, in quarter midget racing. A year later, he was beating boys nearly twice his age in go-karts. John Bickford realized Gordon was an unusual talent, and they soon began a program designed to carry the young charger to greatness in racing. They ran races 52 weeks each year and practiced two or three times per week. “We were the Roger Penske of quarter midgets,” Bickford told Sports Illustrated, referring to the great auto race team owner.

RUNNING WITH THE BIG KIDS When Gordon moved up to the 10-horsepower go-karts, parents of the other racers figured he was lying about how old he was and was just on the small side for his age. “Nobody wanted to race us,” Bickford said. “Those kids

The Kid Emerges

were 13 to 17, and we were killing them. We then moved up to superstock light. Now we were running against guys 17 and older. And those guys were going, ‘There’s no damn nine-year-old kid gonna run with us! Get outta here. ’ ” Gordon returned to quarter midgets and won a second national title at 10 years old, but he felt trapped. By the time he was 12, Gordon had nothing left to accomplish at the youth level of racing. He was ready to move up, but the bigger cars could not be driven most places by someone his age. In the Midwest, however, Bickford discovered a racing circuit where there was no minimum age requirement. “Nobody was fool enough to drive that young,” Gordon said later, “so they didn’t think they needed an age rule.” The family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana, 20 miles from the state capital and a hallowed piece of ground off that city’s West 16th Street known as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Each year, for a few hours on the Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, this huge arena holds the attention of auto racing fans around the globe. The event they are glued to is the Indianapolis 500, the world’s most famous auto race. But it is more than just a race. It is one of the great annual sporting events in the United States. Among one-day sports events, only the Super Bowl, and perhaps the Kentucky Derby, gets more attention. Neither, however, draws crowds in excess of 400,000 as does the Indianapolis 500. None of this was lost on a young racer growing up just down the road from the track. Jeff Gordon was no different from most of the other local kids interested in racing. Perhaps the only thing that set him apart from them was his early start.

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Sprint cars speed around a dirt track during a race. Jeff Gordon mastered driving these powerful, lightweight vehicles before he moved on to racing stock cars.

At 13, Gordon went to war in a $25,000 sprint car that Bickford built for him. Behind the wheel of one of those 650-horsepower monsters, Gordon was

The Kid Emerges

light-years removed from the vehicles with lawnmowerstyle engines that he raced in his early victories. At 14, he was driving sprint cars at places like Winchester, an Indiana track that is often featured on ESPN’s racing series. Races on the ultrafast, half-mile oval are exciting and sometimes frightening to watch— particularly from an in-car camera. Gordon drove on the winter circuit in Florida in 1985 and then settled in after the family’s move to Indiana in 1986 to become the young terror of tracks there and in Ohio and Illinois. Before Gordon was old enough to get an Indiana state driver’s license, he had won three sprint races against the best competition in the Midwest. When he graduated from high school, he needed to make an important choice: college or racing. It was a serious decision. “I started to look at racing as a job,” he said, after he made his choice. “The night I graduated from high school, I finished fourth in a sprint-car race at Bloomington, Indiana.” At 18, Gordon was driving 1,300-pound, 815-horsepower sprint cars. These fast, light vehicles whiz around highbanked tracks and can be highly dangerous, especially when handled by less-than-expert drivers. In comparison, stock cars are heavier, weighing about 3,400 pounds, and are less powerful, with about 800 horsepower. Gordon won the United States Auto Club (USAC) midget championship in 1990.

STARTING WITH STOCK CARS Around this time, Gordon’s parents advised him to look into stock car racing. He went south to the racing school operated by NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Buck Baker at Rockingham, North Carolina. “That first day, the first time

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I got in . . . I said ‘This is it.’ It felt big and heavy,” Gordon recalled. “It felt very fast, but very smooth. I loved it.” By 1991, there was little doubt that Gordon was well on his way to the top of his profession. He drove in NASCAR’s Busch Grand National series, just a level below the top division. Driving for race car team owner Bill Davis, Gordon continued his run of early wins and was awarded the series Rookie of the Year award. At the same time, he won USAC’s Silver Crown series for Indy cars.

GORDON GETS NOTICED The next season, Gordon caught the attention of Rick Hendrick, the Charlotte-based auto dealership giant who also owned a stable of Winston Cup cars. On a Saturday in March 1992, Hendrick was in a luxury box watching a Busch race in Atlanta. As is often the case, some Winston Cup stars ran the race to become better prepared for their featured event the next afternoon on the 1.522-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway track. In that Saturday race, Gordon battled veterans Dale Earnhardt and Harry Gant. Hendrick kept an eye on Gordon throughout the race. The young driver was loose and fast through the corners, running what is known in the business as the “ragged edge”—going as fast as one can up to the point of losing control. “I saw [him] go into the turn in three and four and he was so loose. He was really hazing his tires,” Hendrick remembered. “I said, ‘Watch this guy bust his butt.’ But he kept racing like that lap after lap after lap.” Some of racing’s most talented veterans generally negotiate the ragged edge without problems. Most young drivers, however, do not have the equipment, the

The Kid Emerges

Race car owner Rick Hendrick watches Jeff Gordon leave the pits during a NASCAR race. Hendrick immediately recognized Gordon’s potential during a Busch race in 1992 and offered him a contract.

knowledge, or the courage to pull it off. No matter how impressive they appear, young drivers eventually sway the vehicle too much and spin out, often slamming themselves into a wall and getting hurt. Gordon didn’t crash that afternoon, nor has he ever had a serious crash. The most devastating injury of his life came when he fell and broke his nose as a five-year-old. Hendrick was impressed, to say the least. “Dale Earnhardt and Harry Gant were leading, and this white car was right up on them,” Hendrick recalled. “I told the people with me, ‘You just can’t drive a car that loose.” But Gordon held on to win his first NASCAR victory. “I asked who the

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driver was,” Hendrick said. “Somebody said, ‘That’s that kid Gordon. ’ ” Hendrick was immediately reminded of the prodigy of his multicar operation of the 1980s. “I said, ‘It’s too bad he’s got a contract because I see a lot of Tim Richmond in him, hanging his car out there like that lap after lap after lap.’ His roommate said, ‘He doesn’t have a contract.’ Two days later, he did.” In his first meeting with Gordon, Hendrick saw something he had not expected. “I was almost in a daze,” he said. “Jeff had it all. It was just scary. He’s good looking, and I couldn’t believe how well he handled himself at age 20. What I found was a mature, young guy who was kind of humble, a little bit bashful—a sponsor’s dream.” By the time he reached his twentieth birthday, Gordon had posted more than 500 short track victories. He had moved to stock cars in 1991, winning the Grand National Rookie of the Year title. The next year, he won three Busch races, set a series record of 11 starts at the pole position, and earned his shot on NASCAR’s premiere level. With NASCAR’s rapid expansion, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, from a Southeast regional sport to one of truly national appeal—one with each race televised—a new wave of drivers emerged. There was the late Alan Kulwicki, who came out of Wisconsin to challenge the racers from the South and eventually win the NASCAR championship. There was Tim Richmond, from Ohio. Ernie Irvan, a transplanted Californian like Gordon, was the sport’s next star. And then there was Gordon.

3 THE PRODIGY y the end of 1992, Gordon had won 11 Busch pole positions and three races. There were no mountains left to climb in stock car racing except one, and it was the Mount Everest of the sport: NASCAR’s top circuit. Although he had plans for Gordon for 1993, Hendrick put the young driver behind the wheel for the 1992 fall race in Atlanta, Georgia. He placed twenty-first in the qualifying round—no easy feat for a first-timer in the world of the Earnhardts and the other veteran drivers of the time, including Rusty Wallace. Gordon finished thirty-first at Atlanta, collecting $6,285 in prize money. His performance did little to attract the attention of reporters, who may have figured he was just another young driver thrown into a season-ending race to see how he could do against the big boys. His next competitive appearance, however, was not something to be forgotten. Gordon opened the 1993 season with a stunning victory in one of the qualifying races for the Daytona 500. At 21, he had mastered the Daytona International Speedway, the graveyard of hopes for many a driver with far more experience. Daytona is billed as the World Center of Speed. In baseball, the ultimate event of the season is the World

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Series. In football, it is the Super Bowl. In hockey, it is the Stanley Cup. All of these are held at the end of the season. In stock car racing, however, the biggest event of the year starts the season. Every February, all racers go to Florida to test themselves and see if they can put their names in the record books. Richard Petty has: He won here seven times during his illustrious career. Dale Earnhardt also finally won it, in 1998. In 1993, Gordon put his name in the record books by becoming the youngest driver ever to win a Daytona

Jeff Gordon races his number 24 car against Dale Earnhardt (3) during the 1993 Daytona 500. Gordon fi nished the race in fi fth place, an auspicious beginning for a season that won him the title Rookie of the Year on the Winston Cup circuit.

The Prodigy

qualifier. He erased the mark set by Johnny Rutherford, a legendary racer who later went on to win three Indianapolis 500s. Rutherford’s mark had stood for three decades before Gordon came along. With Bobby Labonte and Kenny Wallace among the younger racers first joining the tour, the competition for 1993 Rookie of the Year honors looked as if it would be fierce. It wasn’t. Gordon opened the season with a fifthplace finish at Daytona, a staggering achievement for anyone so young and proof that his qualifying-race victory three days earlier was not just luck. Although he won no major races that year, Gordon finished 7 times in the top 5 and 11 times in the top 10. That was good enough for him to be named Rookie of the Year on the Winston Cup circuit. He won a lot of prize money throughout the season, too: $725,163, to be exact. He also collected a $25,000 check for being named the top rookie in the series. Not all of the money Gordon won throughout the year went to him, though. Typically, the driver gets a percentage, and the rest goes to the team owner, who uses the cash to help pay for the costs of running the car and hiring a crew. The 22-year-old was pleased; but in typical fashion, he said he could have done better. “I looked at this year as a learning experience and as a chance to do some pretty good things,” he said during NASCAR’s annual awards ceremony festivities in New York City. “We had a good year,” he said. “I learned a lot and I had the opportunity to race with the best drivers in the world.” But there was some disappointment in his heart as Gordon accepted the applause and the award money. Late in the season, he had been among the top points winners

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of all racers but had fallen out of the top 10 with only a few races left. “I felt like we were awful close to a win a few times,” Gordon later said. “I just thought we’d win a race and one of our goals was to finish in the top 10 in the points. You like to reach your goals.” One goal he and crew chief Ray Evernham did reach was winning a pole position, a feat they accomplished at Charlotte in October. It put them in the Busch Clash the following February at Daytona. The Busch Clash, now called the Bud Shootout, is a non-points event run a week before the Daytona 500. The racers are all drivers who won a pole position the season before. “That pole was a big thing for our team,” Gordon said. “It made us all feel like we were on the right track, going in the right direction. I just wish we could have won a race, too.”

THE COMPARISONS BEGIN Soon, people in the racing world began whispering about Gordon. Could Gordon be as good as Earnhardt? How about the late Davey Allison? Tim Richmond? How good was Gordon, really? Gordon didn’t need to answer that question himself. Earnhardt, who had taken a liking to Gordon early on, did it for him. “His age doesn’t really have anything to do with it,” said Earnhardt, a fierce racer known to many as the Intimidator. “That Gordon boy is a very good driver. I have no problem racing with him anywhere on any track. He’s probably going to win a lot of races and some championships.” Considering that there are usually more than 40 wellequipped cars driven by skilled racers, that sounded like a long-shot prediction. But Earnhardt knew talent when he saw it. He liked very much what he saw in Gordon,

The Prodigy

Dale Earnhardt (left) and Jeff Gordon watch qualifying for a NASCAR race in 1993. Fans soon began comparing the career of the talented rookie with that of the veteran Earnhardt.

although even he probably could not have known that the rookie’s success would happen as fast as it did. Gordon treated all his newfound fame in modest fashion. “Winning Rookie of the Year was a goal we had all season long and we’re happy about that,” he said. “But there was some really great competition from Bobby and Kenny. I’d like to think all three of us have a pretty good future.” Actually, Bobby Labonte and Kenny Wallace had not given Gordon much competition on the tracks that year. But Gordon was right about their futures.

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The comparisons didn’t sit well with crew chief Ray Evernham, himself a former terror in the modified division in his native New Jersey. “I don’t think it’s fair to compare great drivers against each other,” Evernham said, adding that Gordon doesn’t like to be compared to other drivers. “He’s trying to be as humble as he can. He’ll tell you he doesn’t have a God-given talent. He’ll tell you he’s just driven race cars all his life.” Still, Gordon couldn’t escape those comparisons. Early success has its price. The key to Gordon’s future success would be how well he survived these early years. “I knew there would be a lot to learn,” he said. “But the competition really is incredible. You can do everything right and still wind up fifth or sixth or twelfth because that many other guys are having a great race. But we do have a great owner and a great race team and our goals are to be competitive, win some races next season, and eventually win the championship.” At the time, such talk may have seemed like wishful thinking. It wasn’t. “I can’t wait for next season to get started,” he said.

GORDON’S LUCKY CHARM The start of the 1994 season brought an unusual revelation. Gordon announced that he was engaged to Brooke Sealy, the winner of the 1993 Miss Winston beauty pageant. Her job was to smile in the winner’s circle and plant a kiss on the cheek of the victorious driver. But, according to the rules of the contest, she was not allowed to date drivers. Gordon had met Sealy after his victory in the 1993 Daytona qualifier. He took one look at the stunning brunette and had a feeling she was the woman of his future. Gordon wasted no time in the winner’s circle that February afternoon. He immediately asked her to lunch.

The Prodigy

Then the deception began. The couple spent stolen moments during 1993 seeing each other when and where they could. “Everybody knows you can’t date Miss Winston, and I did,” Gordon later confessed. “Hiding her for so long was difficult.” Each of them would show up at racing festivities without an escort and never seemed to have a date. People in the sport began to wonder how two people so young and attractive could be loners. There were restaurant rendezvous and other episodes of sneaking around. Once, when they planned to take the same airplane flight, owner/driver Darrell Waltrip’s crew showed up just before Gordon and Sealy were to board their plane. Sealy left the gate area and hid out until everybody was gone. She caught another flight two hours later. Sealy proved to be more than a pretty face, though. She was a stabilizing influence on the young star. She became Gordon’s good-luck charm. “Ever since Brooke and I have been able to tell people we were dating, and then tell them we were married, it seems my luck has changed,” he said. “. . . Keep Brooke happy, because she makes me happy. When she makes me happy, I drive better.” The night before the running of the Busch Clash at Daytona, Gordon proposed to Sealy. He brought a ring to the French restaurant they had chosen for dinner and waited for the right moment to pop the question. Just as he was getting ready to do it, he noticed “some folk from Unocal having their function.” Not wanting to propose while racing people were watching, he delayed leaving the restaurant by going to the bathroom several times and ordering dessert, something he ordinarily never does. Finally, the right moment came. Gordon proposed, and Brooke cried as she accepted.

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The next day he won the Busch Clash. It was the start of something big for Gordon, although just how big it would be wouldn’t emerge until three months later.

THE COCA-COLA 600 On the big day—May 29, 1994, to be exact—Gordon faced one of the toughest races of his life. From the moment he drove his Chevrolet Lumina onto the 1.5-mile North Carolina track, Gordon had a special feeling. Joe Nemechek had posted the fastest qualifying speed—180.252 miles per hour—15 minutes before Gordon took his qualifying run. “You don’t know if you’ve got a car capable of going for the pole until you drop that thing down into the first corner,” Gordon said. After streaking through where the start-finish line is located, Gordon reached the short straightaway just before the first turn. In matter of seconds, he knew. “I was smiling all the way down the backstretch,” he said. He turned in the fastest time, clocking an average speed of 181.439 mph to win the pole position. In doing so, he broke a stranglehold that Ford drivers had enjoyed; Thunderbirds had started from the pole position in the previous 10 races. Winning the pole position was a long way from winning the race, but Gordon had already known success at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In years past, Gordon had finished second in the CocaCola 600, and he had snagged the pole position for a fall race at Charlotte in 1993. Gordon had won a qualifying race in Charlotte a week before the 1994 Coca-Cola 600. He had also driven his Chevy in the Winston Select, a rich non-points race held a week before the Coca-Cola 600. Gordon’s car was banged around a lot in that race, and he

The Prodigy

finished fourteenth in the 20-car field. “They pretty much had to put a new nose on it, front fenders, and a right side,” he said of his crew’s work on the car. “They worked until three in the morning some mornings just to get it ready.” The 1994 Coca-Cola 600 was a tight race all the way. With more than 300 of the 400 laps down, a yellow caution flag came out, and all the race’s leaders used this opportunity to head for the pit area. Dale Jarrett went in first but came out second. Rusty Wallace emerged first, thanks to the quick work done by his pit crew. When the yellow flag was taken away, and the race went back to normal on lap 324, Wallace steadily pulled away from the lead pack. Jarrett had his hands full with Geoff Bodine and Gordon. While the three of them battled it out for second, Wallace built his edge to about two seconds. Bodine eventually worked his way to second and then began to slowly track down Wallace. At that point, there were 30 laps left, but everyone’s tires were becoming very worn, and they needed to refuel. Wallace was the first to head to the pit area, on lap 379. While the leaders headed to the pits, though, Ray Evernham had Gordon stay on the track. Evernham remembered a trick the great Richard Petty had used several times, including once to win the 1981 Daytona 500. When Gordon came in for his last pit stop, Evernham took a big gamble, giving him fuel and just two new tires instead of the four most drivers get. If either of the two worn tires on the car blew, not only would Gordon lose, he might also crash. Gordon charged out of the pits and found himself in first place, 250 yards ahead of Wallace. His tires held up fine, and all Gordon had to do was dodge traffic for the final nine laps. He drove low into the first turn of

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Crew chief Ray Evernham gambled by giving Gordon only two tires instead of four during the last pit stop in the 1994 Coca-Cola 600. The strategy helped win the race.

the final lap and headed down the long backstretch. He repeated the pattern entering the third turn, and exited the fourth turn just as the checkered flag was being readied at the finish line. “I was trying not to hit the wall from all the tears that were coming down my face,” Gordon said. Seconds later, the flag waved, and Gordon had won the Coca-Cola 600, his first Winston Cup race. After 600 miles spread over 4 hours, 18 minutes, and 10 seconds, Gordon had won by 3.91 seconds. “If there’s a feeling higher than this, I don’t know what it is,” Gordon said in the winner’s circle that Sunday afternoon. “This

The Prodigy

absolutely is the greatest moment of my life. This is a memory and feeling I’ll never forget.” That victory would definitely not have been possible had Gordon stayed to get all new tires in his last pit stop. “It was a chancy move to put just two tires on,” Wallace said later. “We really had them beat bad today. It was almost disgusting how bad we had them beat. I never thought he’d try two tires, and I never thought it would work.” Wallace, figuring all the drivers would follow his lead, wasn’t sure whether to be upset or embarrassed by what had happened. He had led for 187 of the 400 laps, easily dominating the race. “In hindsight, we should have changed two and we would have won by a ton,” he said. “But it was a pretty savvy move on their part. They did a good job.” Bodine wound up third. When asked about Gordon, he just shook his head and said: “I can’t believe it.” Jarrett, who finished fourth, agreed. “I’d have to say Gordon outfoxed everybody tonight,” he said. True to his character, Gordon wanted no credit for the win. “I had nothing to do with it,” Gordon said of the crucial call. “I didn’t know what they were going to do until they told me to leave the pits.” In just his forty-second start, Gordon was a winner of one the most coveted races in the sport. “It’s an incredible feeling to get this far in your career. It’s everything you’ve ever worked for. I’ve won a lot of races, but none of them have felt like this,” he said, once again fighting back the tears. His prize for winning the Coca-Cola 600 was $196,500. Shortly after the race, Gordon was talking with track owner Bruton Smith. Gordon joked that the payoff should have been a nice, round number. Smith reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. He counted off 35 $100 bills

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and handed them to Gordon. The Kid’s winnings were now a “round” $200,000. But Gordon did not keep a dime of his winnings. The money went right to his crew chief, Ray Evernham. “He’s the one who made this happen,” Gordon said. Evernham had provided Gordon with a terrific strategy and a fast car. As it would come to pass, Gordon was only a year away from greatness. By the end of the 1995 season, NASCAR would be crowning a new Winston Cup champion. In 1993, at 22, Gordon had been Rookie of the Year. Now, before reaching 23, he had become the youngest firsttime winner on the circuit. Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip—the biggest stars on the circuit then, with more than 150 wins combined—had been much older when they won their first Winston Cup races.

THE KID IS JUST PHENOMENAL Two months after his triumph in the big race at Charlotte, Gordon was still looking for his second victory. The next big race on the circuit brought him to his old stomping grounds—Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was hosting a stock car race. According to tradition, this was unthinkable. The stock cars had their cherished Daytona 500, and the openwheeled Indy cars had their beloved Indianapolis 500. Case closed. But the business end of auto racing finally outran its tradition, and 85 years after it was built, the Indy track became the scene of a battle among Chevrolets, Fords, and Pontiacs. A win at Indy would provide more than recognition among stock car fans. History was to be made that first Saturday in August 1994. Someone would get his name on a trophy as the winner of the inaugural Brickyard 400.

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This one would be one of the most talked-about, most well attended, and most interesting stock car race in history. It would also be offering more prize money than any other stock car race in history. The Indianapolis track seats more than 250,000. The Daytona International Speedway, limited by outside factors, seats less than half that number. Given the wellestablished loyalty of the old racing fans, the great growth of the sport, and the novelty of the first stock car race at Indy, some said the Brickyard 400 could have sold a

More than 250,000 spectators fi ll the stands to watch the Brickyard 400, the first stock car race to be held at the Indianapolis Speedway.

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half-million tickets. The $3.2 million prize purse surpassed the record $2.75 million payout of the Daytona 500 that year. NASCAR’s richest race was no longer the Daytona 500. But much of that was of little interest to one of the drivers who sought to make it into the 43-car field for the first Brickyard 400. And Gordon had another reason not to care about the dollars. His place in history was more important. Plus, the idea of winning on turf he had revered as a teen made Gordon proud. “To make history here in NASCAR is more than a dream come true,” he said. “This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my life. To see all these fans when you come driving down that front straightaway is just the greatest thrill ever. And this was still days before practice began. “If it was just another race, everybody wouldn’t have been up here testing so much,” he said. “When we drive out there for the first time, that’s when the chills will start going up my spine.” For the crowd, it was to be a little different until they realized what they were seeing. A quiet audience at first, the fans warmed to the show on that sunny Saturday afternoon. That day, Gordon would be “discovered” by millions of fans. Gordon staged a great battle with Ernie Irvan, a driver once called Swervin’ Irvan because of his history of wrecking fields. Much of the final 20 laps was an all-out duel between Gordon and Irvan. Irvan was leading in the points race and just as eager as Gordon to make history. “It got very exciting the last 20 or 30 laps,” Gordon recalled. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The Prodigy

Each time the two traded places for the lead, the car in front would begin getting loose as the trailing car took air off its rear spoiler. “When I was leading, he could get right up on me and loosen me up and I’d have to let him go by,” Gordon said. “But the thing was, I could do the same thing again. I could get right up on him and loosen him up.” Gordon did just that, all the time hoping he could somehow get away from Irvan. Finally, Gordon showed wisdom beyond his years. As the laps wound down, Evernham was trying to help Gordon with his strategy. Gordon moved alongside Irvan on the backstretch on lap 156. Both cars stayed side by side until Irvan slowed suddenly, his right front tire cut, and his hopes of victory gone. “With four laps to go, five maybe, I drove as hard as I could in on him to try to get him loose going into the corner, not to spin him out or anything,” Gordon said. “Then, all of a sudden, I saw him fall back.” Gordon finished four car-lengths ahead of Brett Bodine. Brett will be remembered for a celebrated late-race bumping incident with his brother Geoff. (This reminded some onlookers of the Allison brothers—Bobby and Donnie— who, a generation before, had often nicked each other’s cars in the name of competition.) Eventually, Brett spun out Geoff, making it easier for Gordon to win. Irvan regretted that the duel was over. “The tire went down and Jeff [passed] under me,” he said. “I turned into the corner and it didn’t turn. The good Lord was watching over us and kept us from hitting a fence. But I guess he can’t keep us from losing a tire.” Two weeks later, Irvan found out firsthand how dangerous it was to lose a tire. He was in Michigan, practicing for the GM Goodwrench Dealer 400. Again he lost a tire; this time, the right front

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one blew out while Irvan’s car was traveling at high speed. The crash nearly cost Irvan his life. But after the Brickyard 400 on August 6, 1994, this battle-seasoned soldier of the asphalt saluted his young conqueror. “He was like any rookie,” Irvan said. “He’s made mistakes in the last year and a half, but there’s not a guy in the garage who doesn’t think he has a lot—a lot—of raw talent. He’s already done things at an age when most of us were not even sitting in a Winston Cup car.” Hundreds of thousands of people were on their feet, cheering, when Gordon’s Chevrolet crossed the finish line. As Gordon drove slowly down pit road toward Victory Circle, dozens of crewmen from other teams gave him high fives, raised thumbs, and victory signs. “By God, we’ve got a great driver,” Evernham said. “The Kid is just phenomenal.” Not only did Gordon prove he could win on the most famous auto racetrack in the world, but he also showed he was learning how to hide his emotions a little better. Unlike after his win in Charlotte, this time he did not sit in his car, crying on national television. After crossing the finish line at the Brickyard, Gordon took not one, but two victory laps. He got out of his car all smiles. “That’s why I took an extra lap, so I could wipe all the tears off my face,” he admitted. “I can’t control my emotions at a time like this. But I don’t want to be known as a crybaby all the time.” Excited as he was, though, Gordon made no attempt to say the Brickyard victory was the biggest of his life. “When I won at Charlotte, that was a great thrill,” he said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to win my first race at any other place than Charlotte. And I wouldn’t want to win my second race at

The Prodigy

Jeff Gordon kisses his fiancé, Brooke Sealy, after claiming the trophy he won for the 1994 Brickyard 400.

any other place than here. Winning that race at Charlotte prepared us to win here. I don’t think a guy who hasn’t won a race could come here and win this race.” He also thought the fact that none of the drivers that day had any experience on the Indy racetrack gave him a better chance to win there than on any of the old tracks on the circuit. “This was a track with no history of Winston Cup races,” he said. “It’s tough to race on those

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PUBLIC FACE Jeff Gordon’s good looks and his public-speaking abilities have made him a dream spokesperson for people in the business of selling products. Before Gordon came along, stock car drivers were used in television commercials, but usually those spots only aired during racing-related programs. Gordon was different, though. One of his sponsors, Pepsi, used him in a commercial that also included stars from other sports. The commercial aired during a variety of programs—not just racing shows. Today, Gordon’s face can be seen in advertisements for watches, cologne, and other products in national magazines such as Vanity Fair, GQ, and Sports Illustrated.

Jeff Gordon prepares for another take while filming a commercial for a sponsor in 2002.

The Prodigy

tracks where all these guys have been racing for so many years. Right now, we’re just learning the ropes, learning the racetracks.” Growing up, Gordon had hoped for a victory celebration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but he didn’t think he’d get there in a stock car. After all, it wasn’t by accident that his family wound up living less than a halfhour from the track. That’s where he had to be to become a race car driver, they figured. Indy cars were to be his ticket to stardom. “I didn’t grow up around stock cars,” Gordon said. “I grew up around open-wheeled cars, and Indy cars and all that was really a part of life. But when I got to a certain age, I realized it didn’t matter where I went as long as I was racing. There wasn’t any certain place that really took me away. It’s just that I went looking for opportunities, and opportunities came to me in stock cars.” Firsts were on Gordon’s mind that afternoon. “As bad as my memory is, I still remember Ray Harroun’s name,” Gordon said of the winner of the first Indianapolis 500. “I don’t know what it was like back in 1911. I don’t know if anyone anticipated the race like they did this one. Everyone wanted to win this one.” In the wake of Gordon’s victory party, he talked about something that would mean more than a victory at Charlotte or Indy. “The topper of them all would be to win a Winston Cup championship,” he said. “It may be out of reach this season, but we’re the team of the future.” Little did he know at the time that the future was only a year away. The Indy win was just the start of a joyous year for Gordon. On November 26, 1994, he and Brooke Sealy married; Carolina Bride magazine printed a story about their wedding. The Gordons then settled down

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in a house on the shore of Lake Norman, a large lake outside Charlotte. After a tropical honeymoon, the Gordons flew to New York for the NASCAR awards banquet. As the eighth-place finisher in the Winston Cup race, Gordon got to make a speech. In it, he paid tribute to his new wife. “It was really fun for me because now I’m married, I get to say ‘wife,’” Gordon said. “For so long it’s like, girlfriend, fiancée. And I was finally able to say ‘My beautiful wife.’ So that was a perfect place to do it at, really the first time.” By the time the 1994 season was put in the record book, Gordon had won $1,779,523. He had the kind of season drivers with two decades of experience dream about. There were two wins, one second-place finish, one third, two fourths, a fifth, and seven more top-10 finishes. For most drivers, this would be considered a career year. But Gordon was sure his future was still brighter than his past. Dale Jarrett easily summed up the phenomena that made Gordon popular. “It should be illegal to be that young, that good looking, and that talented,” he said.

4 THE CHAMPION he late Dale Earnhardt has been called the Intimidator, the Dominator, the Man in Black, Darth Vader, Ironhead, and some less complimentary things. Before his death in a last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, there were two groups of fans: Those who rooted for Earnhardt and those who rooted against him. But back in the mid 1990s, Earnhardt fans often tried to mimic him, wearing the shirts, hats, and other assorted items that he tended to favor. They dressed in black, styled their mustaches like Earnhardt’s mustache, and wore sunglasses similar to his trademark reflective shades. Those who rooted against him often wore T-shirts imprinted with the words “Anybody But Earnhardt.” Earnhardt’s philosophy on the track had always been this: Win at all costs. Those who didn’t move fast enough were nudged aside. He bumped more than his fair share of opposing drivers, sometimes forcing them into the wall, off the track, or into dangerous spins and crashes. Fans never appreciated seeing their heroes bumped by Earnhardt. He had been the most successful stock-car racer since the legendary Richard “The King” Petty. But he had never

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Checkered fl ags are refl ected in the shades worn by Dale Earnhardt, one of the greatest stars in racing history.

been as beloved as Petty, who was largely responsible for the rise in popularity of stock car racing. Indeed, Earnhardt worked to create his image of the bad guy in the black hat, the angry gunslinger come to town to seek revenge. Once, when asked why he ignored a black flag ordering him to stop his oil-leaking car, Earnhardt explained: “I wasn’t looking for the black [flag], I was looking for the checker.” Another time, after a brilliant drive to a runner-up finish, Earnhardt refused to accept praise for his effort. “Second ain’t no good,” he said. Earnhardt was tough and gruff. He asked for no mercy on the racetrack and offered none. He was the genuine superstar of his time and perhaps the most controversial driver ever. He also happened to be one thing more, as even many of his critics will concede: He was arguably

The Champion

the best driver in the history of the sport. Others will still argue loud and long against him because they didn’t like his rough driving tactics. Like him or not, no one ever called Dale Earnhardt dull. He was the most spectacular driver on the circuit. A twist of fate or a penalty from NASCAR that put him at the rear of the field always brought excitement to crowds of 100,000 fans because most knew what would happen next. Before his tragic death, one of the thrills of a NASCAR race was to watch his black number 3 Chevrolet roar through a 42-car pack. Earnhardt was a master at finding ways to pass other drivers, even if the other cars were traveling at nearly 200 mph. In 1994, Earnhardt won his seventh NASCAR series title. Only Petty had won that many before. No other driver had won more than three driver’s championships. Many people had thought Petty’s record of seven titles would never be touched. But not only had Earnhardt tied him, he had also won those titles in a shorter time span than Petty. Earnhardt had won four times in five years and entered the 1995 season as odds-on favorite to win his eighth championship. His next Winston Cup title would be his eighth, one more than the legendary Petty.

ALONG CAME JEFF GORDON Gordon dominated the circuit for much of the 1995 season. But titles are not easily won, and old champions don’t go quietly. Earnhardt certainly didn’t. On Fourth of July weekend in 1995, Gordon won the Pepsi 400. That gave him victories at Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Daytona—the three great American racetracks. If he had announced his retirement that day,

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Gordon’s career would already have been a success. But anyone thinking along those lines would have missed the larger story. One can never really be sure when or where a torch is passed; but after it happens, everyone recognizes it. “I don’t know if it’s been passed or not,” one veteran sports writer told another that July, “but it’s certainly in transit.” It may have passed from Earnhardt to Gordon the week after the Pepsi 400. On a hot Sunday afternoon, at the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at the Pocono International Raceway, virtually all the Chevrolets were beaten badly by the Fords. Thunderbirds took eight of the first nine positions. On days such as those, Earnhardt usually found a way to survive—even to thrive. But not this time. “Same car, same junk,” Earnhardt said, after a twentieth-place finish left him 164 points behind Gordon in the standings. “I’m so disgusted and frustrated and aggravated.” One Chevy driver flourished that day. “We did not have a second-place car all day long,” Gordon said, after an Earnhardt-like effort carried his Chevrolet within 80 feet of his third straight victory. He was only five car-lengths behind the Thunderbird of Dale Jarrett when the checkered flag waved. After a valiant effort, Gordon finished second. With an explanation he could have borrowed from Earnhardt, Gordon blamed himself for not winning. “We had a two-tire stop and I totally forgot about it,” he said. “I was just sitting there taking a drink. They dropped the jack and I stalled it.” A month earlier, at the same racetrack, a simple driving mistake had cost Gordon an almost-certain victory. In other years, that type of error would have been hard to

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Ray Evernham, wearing a “Refuse to Lose” tee-shirt, holds up a sign with a checklist marking the stages of Jeff Gordon’s career.

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forget. But in 1995, Gordon overcame errors of inexperience and rode his team’s “refuse to lose” approach to a commanding lead in Winston Cup points by mid season. “They had to fight real hard to get us back up there,” he said, after the crew overcame his pit-road lapse at Pocono. “So, this one’s for the team.” That was a typical Gordon response. The closest he will come to claiming responsibility for winning is, “I drove my heart out.” After nearly stealing the spotlight from the Fords at Pocono, he said simply, “If anything, I drove too hard.” Still, he was on his way, and people were starting to notice. Perhaps the first to realize how great Gordon could be was three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip. He compared Gordon to a great pitcher, saying he had to be beaten early in the race. “Once he gets rolling, that boy will be hard to beat,” Waltrip said.

“GREATER THAN SLICED BREAD” Gordon was indeed rolling, and he didn’t stop until he had won seven victories and eight pole positions that season. Even so, he had more to accomplish. Waltrip and other racing fans will likely never forget what they saw Gordon achieve at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway during the TranSouth 400 on March 24, 1995. Waltrip has won 84 races, tying him for third on the NASCAR career list, so he is not easily impressed. But even Waltrip was stunned when Gordon became the only driver ever to qualify at a speed in excess of 170 mph at the difficult racetrack at Darlington. Watching Gordon attack the treacherous old track as no one ever had, Waltrip

The Champion

thought about some of the late greats of racing. “When Gordon ran what he did, Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts, Joe Weatherly, all them guys up in heaven said, ‘I’m glad I ain’t running Darlington this weekend.’” Gordon was awesome, and he looked like a sure winner. But Gordon and Bobby Labonte crashed late in the TranSouth 400. The win went to Sterling Marlin. Visibly, all Gordon had to show for his effort was a badly broken race car. Emotionally, the scars ran deeper. For perhaps the only time all season, there was a bit of doubt. “I guess the ego around the garage area is that you’re not a real race car driver until you’ve won at Darlington,” he said. “I believe that as much as anybody else.” He remedied that six months later, winning the coveted Southern 500 at Darlington. At the end of the season, Earnhardt made an amazing run at the championship. Gordon’s 305-point lead was reduced to 34 when Earnhardt won the last of the 31 races. But it wasn’t quite enough. A month later, Gordon showed up in New York City to collect his Winston Cup check for $1.3 million. Including bonuses, he earned a record $4,347,343 in 1995. His racing winnings totaled $2,430,460, which led the Winston Cup circuit. Earnhardt, whose 68 career victories made him sixth on the all-time list, was hardly ready to concede that Gordon was now the best driver on the track. “I don’t know what people are expecting out of him. . . . Winning one championship doesn’t make him the greatest driver in the world,” Earnhardt said. “He’s a good driver, but he’s got a long way to go to win 200-plus races and seven or eight championships.” But, in assessing the Gordon of 1995, Earnhardt said, “The Kid has just been bulletproof.”

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Jeff Gordon celebrates after clinching his fi rst Winston Cup Championship in 1995.

Gordon knew that Earnhardt sometimes liked to play mind games. “That’s not a bad thing,” Gordon has said, though he is quick to point out that such talk can create

The Champion

HOPE AND CHARITY Jeff Gordon may make a lot of money driving a race car, but he also gives away a lot of it. The Jeff Gordon Foundation was created in 1999 and primarily supports charities that benefit children in need. In addition to funding his own foundation, Gordon has been a tireless advocate for organizations that help people who are fighting leukemia, an illness that struck Ray Evernham’s son and team owner Rick Hendrick. Gordon’s foundation supports the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Hendrick Bone Marrow Foundation, and Indianapolis’s Riley Hospital for Children.

Jeff Gordon and friend tour a motorsportsthemed “Speediatrics” hospital in Homestead, Florida.

pressure. Still, he insists it doesn’t bother him. “Nobody puts more pressure on me than I put on myself,” he has said. During his 1995 championship run, Gordon did not allow

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Jeff Gordon, driving the number 24 car, crosses the finish line to win the 1997 Daytona 500. He is closely followed by Terry Labonte (5) and Ricky Craven (25).

talk of a possible series title to interfere with the main thrust of the team. “We don’t think about championship, we don’t talk about championship,” he said, midway through the season. “We just get ready for the next race.” Gordon was only 24 years old when he accepted the Winston Cup championship trophy. Winning the trophy meant that, for at least a year, he was the greatest stock car driver; and he was the second-youngest Winston Cup champion ever. Bill Rexford was 23 when he won in 1950. Earnhardt was 29 when he won his first title in 1980. During the 1995 season, Earnhardt and Gordon were pictured together on boxes of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini

The Champion

Wheats, billed as “The Champ” and “The Kid.” When the checkered flag fell for the last time that year, Gordon was both. In 1996, Gordon had another wonderful year. For several months, he led the NASCAR points race, and experts predicted another title for the young driver. But teammate Terry Labonte won a string of races right at the end of the season and, in one of the tightest finishes in history, eked out his second driving championship. (Labonte had also won one in 1984.) In 1997, Gordon got off to a flying start by winning the Daytona 500. Early in the race, he headed to the pit when he thought he had a flat tire. He told his crew chief, “I’ve just cost us the race.” But some aggressive driving brought him back to the front; and when Earnhardt crashed twice, including once near the end of the race, Gordon got to cruise to the finish line. At age 25, Gordon became the youngest driver ever to win Daytona. The previous record holder had been Richard Petty, who won for the first time when he was 26 years old.

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5 WHEN WILL IT END? ordon’s 1997 Daytona 500 finish was remarkable because he was so young and because so many other drivers have struggled for years to win the big race. However, this would be only his first Daytona win. Two years later: same track, same race. Gordon found himself chasing Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd in the final laps of the season-opening race at the Daytona International Speedway. Sensing an opening, Gordon drove his car low, nearly on the apron of the speedway, to storm past Wallace and Rudd to take the lead. It was a risky move that, if tried by a less experienced driver, would have sent half the field to the garage area with mangled cars. Not with Gordon driving. “The split second I was thinking of letting off the gas or touching the break was the split second I saw Ricky move,” Gordon said of Rudd. “I just couldn’t block him,” said Wallace. “I thought I had him blocked off and he just kept in there and I said, ‘Man, I’m not going to try and wreck a bunch of cars,’ so I pulled up and he got me.”

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Jeff Gordon, driving the number 24 car, pulls ahead of Rusty Wallace (2) and Mike Skinner (31) to take the lead in the 1999 Daytona 500.

Gordon was able to hold off a charge by Earnhardt, who was on his rear bumper. “Yeah baby, we got it,” Gordon shouted into his radio, as he crossed the finish line. “We’re going to party tonight.” Gordon earned $2,172,246 in

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prize money for the win and cemented another record for himself: multiple Daytona 500 winner. “[The fans] got their money’s worth today,” Earnhardt said. “I had one strong race car,” Gordon said. “I want to thank Dale for a great race. He’s taught me a lot of things in the last couple years and that’s the only way I could keep him behind me.”

HARD TIMES AHEAD For Gordon, the Daytona 500 win was the highlight of a year that would include some tough times. Since his start on NASCAR’s top level, Gordon’s career had been guided by Evernham, who helped groom the young driver into a top competitor. But Evernham noticed that over time, Gordon needed less of his input because he had matured so much as a driver. Gordon struggled in the first half of the 1999 season. Indeed, at Texas Motor Speedway, the sixth race of the season, Gordon crashed 69 laps into the event, bruising his ribs. It was the first time he’d ever been injured in a crash, and his forty-third place finish was his worst ever. That season, Evernham was being wooed by executives at Dodge, who were looking for people to create a new team supported by the car manufacturer. Speculation swirled all season that Evernham and Gordon would split, leading many to wonder how Gordon would perform on the track without the New Jersey native calling the shots. Evernham told Gordon in mid September 1999 that he was leaving. He invited Gordon to come along. Gordon visited Rick Hendrick at home the next morning. “I took a deep breath and said the words I never thought I would have to say: ‘We’ve got to find a new crew

When Will It End?

New crew chief Robbie Loomis (right) shares a laugh with Jeff Gordon after winning a NASCAR race in 2000.

chief. I’m staying. But Ray’s leaving, ’ ” Gordon recalled in his autobiography, Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front— My Memoir. The split was major news in the NASCAR world. It is rare that a crew chief and a driver get along so well, but Gordon and Evernham did from the start. They were a team, but now they were a team no more. By the end of

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the season, the entire pit crew—the guys who changed tires, added fuel, and washed Gordon’s windows during the race—left to join the team of Dale Jarrett, who ended 1999 as the series champion. Gordon started the 2000 season without many of the members of his team who had made him so successful in years past. Hendrick Motorsports hired Robbie Loomis, a NASCAR veteran, to be Gordon’s crew chief. “With Robbie, I had no history and no frame of reference,” Gordon wrote in his autobiography. “In our first test session at Daytona in January, we tested each other out as much as we tested the cars.” The formation of the team was slow in coming. With Loomis leading his crew, Gordon finished the Daytona 500 that year in thirty-fourth place, after his engine expired before the end of the race. But by the April race at Talladega that year, Gordon was back in his old form and won the race. He won again in June on the road course at Sears Point and in September at Richmond. “As Robbie and I grew closer, I realized that we’re much more alike in our personalities than Ray and I had ever been,” Gordon said. Together, they overcame some early problems and finished ninth overall for the season.

TRAGEDY ON THE COURSE For all in NASCAR, the 2001 season was saddened by Dale Earnhardt’s last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. “I saw the crash, but I didn’t think it looked that bad,” Gordon wrote in his memoirs. It was. Earnhardt died. Michael Waltrip, driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt, Inc., drove on to win the race. It was Waltrip’s first win ever.

When Will It End?

The number 36 car crashes into Dale Earnhart’s car (3) during the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt did not survive the crash.

“It’s things like losing Dale that make you think about how precious life is,” Gordon wrote. “You can’t chose when you can come into this world or when you leave it, so you need to live every minute as if it could be your last.” Gordon drove his heart out in 2001, winning six races, six pole positions, and finishing in the top five an amazing 18 times. He also won his fourth championship. If anything, Gordon seemed to have it all: a superior race team,

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a beautiful wife, more money than he could have imagined, and a future ahead of him that appeared endless. Richard Petty may have been called “The King,” and the late Dale Earnhardt the best driver ever; but Gordon did something other drivers couldn’t: He transcended stock car racing. Indeed, he was the first stock car driver ever to be included in a commercial with other sports stars. Sponsor Pepsi had Gordon appear in a commercial with basketball giant Shaquille O’Neal, signaling to the world that stock car racing had arrived in the mainstream. Yet, all was not perfect with Gordon. In 2002, he and his wife separated in preparation for a divorce. It was an unpleasant and messy situation, drawn out in the courts and gossiped about in the press. Gordon’s troubles became news in the supermarket tabloids. His performance on the track in 2002 was impacted by the divorce, which didn’t get settled until 2003. During the time he was dealing with lawyers, rebuilding his team, and becoming a part owner of his team with Rick Hendrick, Gordon spotted an upcoming driver named Jimmie Johnson. He later convinced Rick Hendrick to give Johnson a shot in their team. As a driver, Gordon rebounded in 2003. In 2004 he was in the hunt for NASCAR’s title right up until the last event. Away from the track, Gordon’s superstar stature was growing. In 2003, he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, becoming the first stock car driver ever to do so. “Heck yeah, I’m scared to death in a lot of ways,” he said before the show. “But each day that goes by you get more and more comfortable.” He did well on the show. He’s also been a frequent guest on shows such as Live

When Will It End?

Jimmie Johnson (left) and teammate Jeff Gordon talk after qualifying for a Nextel Cup race in 2004.

with Regis & Kelly, where he has even occasionally sat in for host Regis Philbin. Many people speculated that Gordon was different after his divorce, perhaps a little more open. “I felt like that for the longest time, I was this kid that was somewhat resented, and hadn’t earned my stripes,” Gordon said. “I’m definitely in a comfortable place in my life, a comfortable place in my career, and it feels good.” He’s more comfortable being Jeff Gordon, the former Kid, now a legend in the sport, who still generates just as many cheers as jeers. “I think in some ways, I’m just being a little more myself,” he said. “Not that anybody was preventing me from doing

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Jeff Gordon (center), guest host of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, appears on stage with musical guest Avril Lavigne and cast member Tracy Morgan.

that. It was what I chose to do.” Some of the change was maturing and understanding where he stood in the world, in racing, and in life. “You know, I learned quite a while ago that it’s not racing that I love, it’s winning,” he said. Competition had changed dramatically since he first started, he said after his win in the 2005 Daytona 500. “Every one of my wins that I have now, I know they’re not as easy to come by,” Gordon said. “As I get older, this is my thirteenth season, I appreciate every win that much more.” On the track, though, 2005 wasn’t a great year for Gordon. He started out strong, but he missed NASCAR’s

When Will It End?

WINNING BIG Jeff Gordon’s seventieth win, in 2005’s Daytona 500, may sound like a lot of victories, but Gordon in fact has a long, long way to go to have the most wins in NASCAR history. Retired racing legend Richard Petty has 200 career victories, many of which came at a time when NASCAR held upwards of 50 races per year. Competition has changed dramatically since Petty retired, in 1992, making it difficult for one driver to be so dominant. David Pearson, also retired, is second in NASCAR history, with 105 career wins, followed by Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, with 84 wins each. By July of 2007, Gordon had amassed 77 wins to be sixth on the all-time win list, passing Dale Earnhardt Sr. by one win.

Jeff Gordon pays tribute to the late Dale Earnhardt after tying his record of 76 career victories in April 2007.

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Chase for the Championship, meaning that after the twenty-sixth race, no matter how he finished, he could not win the title. He finished eleventh overall—not bad for some teams, though not great for a championship contender like Gordon. But, looking ahead, Gordon and his team used the last 10 races of the 2005 season to prepare for the 2006 season. Missing the Chase for the Championship made him appreciate all that much more what it takes to get into the title chase and what life is like outside of the top 10.

2006 AND BEYOND Top 10 or not, his longevity and driving ability make Gordon one of the strongest personalities in the stock car racing business. At the start of the 2006 season, a reporter asked Dale Jarrett who he thought was the leader among the drivers. Without hesitation, Jarrett said Gordon. “I would say that probably Jeff Gordon comes as close to that as anyone,” Jarrett said. “I think that everybody in the garage area has a lot of respect for Jeff and I think that because of what he’s accomplished and the way he’s gone about it, that NASCAR has that same respect for him.” The 2006 season was different for the more mature Gordon. His experience in the sport helped him overcome the highs and lows. “You have to balance a lot of things out in this sport in order to stay on top or be your best,” he said. “You’ve got to learn from the good times and the bad times, and I’ve had some tough seasons [and] those things have taught me as much or more than the good season did.” He started the 2006 Daytona 500 in the second spot, but he finished the race twenty-sixth overall. He rebounded

When Will It End?

quickly in following races, doing better as the season went on. A different Gordon emerged during the 2006 season as well, one who fought back on the track and was a bit more vocal than he had been in the past. If a driver banged him on the track, he bumped back. He also confronted drivers who he felt treated him poorly on the track. “What you see today is a more truer Jeff Gordon and who I really am,” Gordon said. “I’m not a robot; I have a personality and I have emotions and I have a humorous side to me and an angry side to me. I feel like I’m a fairly normal person.” He admitted that early on in his career, he felt like an outsider, and maybe he didn’t speak out when he should have. Now that he’s older and established in the sport, he’s enjoying life and enjoying racing more. It shows on the track. By the time the twenty-sixth race of the 2006 season rolled around at Richmond, he was well within the top 10 drivers eligible for the Chase for the Championship. A year after missing out on the title, Gordon was right in the hunt. He won two races and finished sixth overall, which was good enough to send him to New York City to be part of the NASCAR Nextel Champion’s Week events. He also got to experience the championship on another level—as a car owner. Jimmie Johnson won the championship driving a car co-owned by Rick Hendrick and Gordon. “I’m just proud of Jimmie,” Gordon said. “He’s a friend of mine and one heck of a race car driver. We’re proud to have him here at Hendrick Motorsports and to get Rick his sixth championship is something that is very, very special.” Gordon added: “I don’t like to take much of the credit because Jimmie is a heck of a race car driver.”

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The biggest change in Gordon’s life in 2006 actually came off the track—and between races—when he and fiancée Ingrid Vandebosch flew to Mexico and got married in November. Gordon and Vandebosch met in the summer of 2002 through mutual friends and began dating in the winter of 2005. They worked together on the 2004 movie Taxi, in which Vandebosch played a bank robber and Gordon made a cameo appearance. They were engaged in May 2006 but did not tell anyone publicly until a month later. They got married between the NASCAR events in Texas and Arizona, with very few people other than close family members knowing.

Jeff Gordon is embraced by his wife Ingrid Vandebosch after winning a qualifying race for the 2007 Daytona 500.

When Will It End?

A NEW ADDITION On June 20, 2007, Jeff Gordon and his Belgian modelactress wife, Ingrid Vandebosch, welcomed Ella Sofia Gordon, the couple’s first child. “It’s been an absolutely incredible experience,” Gordon wrote in a message on his Web site. “Ingrid came through amazingly and we’re both really happy and overjoyed. We can’t wait to get home and start our lives together as a family.”

As a way to raise money for his charitable foundation, the couple sold the exclusive rights for their wedding pictures to US Weekly magazine. “One of the biggest reasons why we did it is that we got contacted immediately when we announced the engagement by magazines and people wanting an exclusive on it,” he told reporters who asked about the wedding before the pictures ran. “I’m not one to do things like that. But they wanted to make a contribution to the Jeff Gordon Foundation in order to do it, and that’s what sold us on it and allowed us to have control over it.” Before Gordon got into the sport, NASCAR drivers never made cohosting appearances on national talk shows, nor did their pictures show up in celebrity magazines. The fact that Gordon has experienced both of these pieces of celebrity life says as much about his being a star as it does about how far he has helped bring NASCAR into the spotlight.

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STATISTICS

Year

Races

Wins

Top 5 Finishes

Top 10 Finishes

Money Won

1992

1

0

0

0

$6,285

1993

30

0

7

11

$765,168

1994

31

2

7

14

$1,779,523

1995

31

7

10

16

$4,347,343

1996

31

10

21

24

$3,428,485

1997

32

10

22

23

$6,375,658

1998

33

13

26

28

$5,158,392

1999

34

7

18

21

$5,121,361

2000

34

3

11

22

$2,703,590

2001

36

6

18

24

$10,879,757

2002

36

3

13

20

$6,154,475

2003

36

3

15

20

$6,622,002

2004

36

5

16

25

$8,431,192

2005

36

4

8

14

$7,930,830

2006*

36

2

14

18

$5,746,803

TOTALS

473

75

206

280

$75,457,149

*Gordon continues to race beyond 2006.

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CHRONOLOGY

1971 1979 1981 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993

1994 1995

1996 1997

1998

1999

Jeff Gordon is born on August 4 in Vallejo, California. Wins first national championship, in quarter midget cars. Repeats as quarter midget national champion. Drives sprint cars in Indiana and on the winter circuit in Florida. Wins USAC national midget championship. Named Grand National Rookie of the Year driving stock cars. Signs with Rick Hendrick; wins 11 Busch pole positions and three races. Becomes youngest driver ever to win a Daytona qualifier; wins Rookie of the Year on the Winston Cup circuit. Wins Coca-Cola 600, his first Winston Cup race; marries Brooke Sealy; wins Brickyard 400. Wins seven races and a record $4,347,343 on his way to becoming the second youngest driver ever to win a Winston Cup championship. Finishes second in Winston Cup competition. Becomes youngest driver ever to win Daytona 500; wins California 500; wins Winston Million; wins second Winston Cup championship; becomes first driver to post $6 million in earnings for a season. Becomes the first two-time winner of the Brickyard 400; wins third Winston Cup championship. Wins Daytona 500. 69

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Jeff Gordon

2000

2001

2003 2005

2006

2007

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Wins only three races, his lowest total since 1994; becomes youngest driver in the history of Winston Cup to reach 50 wins. Wins the 2001 Winston Cup championship; becomes first Winston Cup driver to win more than $10 million in prizes for a single season. Divorces wife Brooke Sealy Gordon. Wins the 2005 Daytona 500, becoming a threetime winner of the historic race; finishes eleventh overall in points standings. Wins two races and finishes sixth overall; co-owns car of NASCAR Nextel Champion Jimmie Johnson; marries model-actress Ingrid Vandebosch. Becomes a father for the first time when daughter Ella Sofia is born.

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GLOSSARY

Apron—The flat, low portion of a racetrack used for exiting and entering the pits. Cars cannot race on this portion of the track. Bank—Racetrack turns are usually banked, meaning they slope upward from the infield to the outside wall. By tilting up on the turns, cars stick to the track better and can go faster. Generally, the higher the banking, the faster the racing. Circuit—A planned schedule of car races for a racing organization. Drafting—Two cars running nose-to-tail can move faster than one car alone at high speeds. To get around a track such as the Daytona International Speedway, where speeds reach nearly 200 mph, cars must draft to be successful. Horsepower—A unit for measuring the power put out by an engine. One horsepower equals the amount of power it takes to move 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute. Most NASCAR engines have upwards of 700 horsepower. Engines in street cars usually have 200 horsepower or less. Loose—When the front tires grip the track more than the rear, drivers describe the car as being loose. To them it feels as if the rear will spin around. NASCAR—The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is the governing body for major stock car racing events in the United States. NASCAR oversees the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the premiere series, the NASCAR Busch Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and several others. 71

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Jeff Gordon

Pole position—The inside position in the front row that affords the driver an immediate lead at the start of the race. Qualifying round—Before every race, drivers must qualify for their starting position by running a series of laps at full speed. Stock car—A production-based car that is not custom built for racing, but can be modified. Sprint car—A high-powered race car designed mainly to be driven on short dirt or paved tracks.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Branham, H.A. The NASCAR Vault: An Official History Featuring Rare Collectibles from Motorsports Images and Archives. Bellevue, Wash.: Becker & Mayer Books, 2004. Golenbock, Peter. NASCAR Confidential: Stories of the Men and Women Who Made Stock Car Racing Great. Osceola, Wisc.: MBI Publishing, 2004. ———, and Greg Fielden. NASCAR Encyclopedia. Osceola, Wisc.: MBI Publishing, 2003. Gordon, Jeff. Jeff Gordon: Burning Up the Track. Champaign, Ill.: Sports Publishing, 2003. ———, with Steve Eubanks. Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front—My Memoir. New York: Atria Publications, 2003. ———, and Joe Garner. Speed, Guts and Glory: 100 Unforgettable Moments in NASCAR History. New York: Warner Books, 2006. Jensen, Tom. Cheating: An Inside Look at the Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do in Pursuit of Speed. Phoenix, Ariz.: David Bull Publishing, 2004. NASCAR Record & Fact Book 2006. St. Louis, Mo.: Sporting News, 2006.

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FURTHER READING

Allison, Liz, and Darrell Waltrip. The Girl’s Guide to NASCAR. New York: Center Street Publishing, 2006. Cothren, Larry. Jeff Gordon: The NASCAR Superstar’s Story. Osceola, Wisc.: Motorbooks, 2005. Fielden, Greg. NASCAR Chronicle. Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.: Publications International, 2005. ———. NASCAR: A Fast History. Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.: Publications International, 2005. Fresina, Michael, and Brian France. A Week in the Life of NASCAR: A View from Within. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2005. Gordon, Jeff, with Steve Eubanks. Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front—My Memoir. New York: Atria Publications, 2003. Hammond, Jeff, and Geoff Norman. Real Men Work in the Pits: A Life in NASCAR Racing. Emmaus, Pa. : Rodale Press, 2005. Martin, Mark, and Beth Tuschak. NASCAR for Dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: For Dummies, 2005. McLaurin, Jim. Then Junior Said to Jeff : The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told. Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books, 2006. Thompson, Neal. Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR. New York: Crown, 2006.

WEB SITES www.nascar.com NASCAR’s official site. www.jeffgordon.com Jeff Gordon’s official site. www.thatsracin.com An all-round racing site from The Charlotte Observer and McClatchy Interactive. 74

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Further Reading

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www.espn.com Sports broadcaster ESPN’s home site. www.speedtv.com The Web site for the cable network Speed Channel. msn.foxsports.com Sports news and information. www.nbcsports.com Sports news and information.

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PICTURE CREDITS

page: 8: © AP Images 10: © AP Images 11: © AP Images 12: © AP Images 15: © AP Images 18: © AP Images 21: © AP Images 24: © Focus on Sport/Getty Images 27: © AP Images 32: © George Tiedemann/GT Images/CORBIS 35: © AP Images 39: © AP Images

40: 44: 47: 50: 51: 53: 55: 57: 59: 61: 62: 63: 66:

© AP Images © AP Images © George Tiedemann/CORBIS © AP Images © AP Images © AP Images © AP Images © AP Images © AP Images © AP Images © NBC/Photofest © AP Images © AP Images

Cover: Jeff Gordon greets the crowd during driver introductions before the NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 in Fontana, California on February 25, 2007. (© AP Images)

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INDEX

A Allison, Bobby, 12, 37, 63 Allison, Davey, 26 Allison, Donnie, 22, 37

B Baker, Buck, 19 Bickford, Carol (mother), 14 Bickford, John (stepfather) and racing, 14, 16–18 Bodine, Brett, 37 Bodine, Geoff, 31, 33, 37 Brickyard 400, 34–35, 38 Busch Clash (Bud Shootout), 26, 29–30 Busch, Kurt, 9

C Checkered flag, 32, 52 Coca-Cola 600, 30–33

D Darlington Raceway Southern 500 at, 48–49 Davis, Bill, 20 Daytona 500, 26 crashes at, 7, 9, 43, 58 qualifiers, 28–29, 54 winners, 7–13, 23–25, 31, 34–36, 52–53, 56, 62–64

E Earnhardt, Dale, 9 career, 24, 26, 34, 43–46, 49–50, 52, 63

death, 43, 45, 58–60 races against, 20–21, 55–56 Earnhardt, Dale, Jr. races against, 9 Evernham, Ray, 51 crew chief, 26, 28, 31, 34, 37–38, 56–57

G Gant, Harry, 20–21 Go-karts, 16 Gordon, Brooke Sealy (wife) divorce, 60–61 engagement, 28–29 marriage, 41–42 Gordon, Ella Sofia (daughter), 67 Gordon, Ingrid Vandebosch (wife), 66–67 Gordon, Jeff birth, 14 charities, 51, 67 childhood, 14–19, 41 chronology, 69–70 fame, 27, 40, 52, 60–61, 67 rookie of the year, 25–28, 34 sponsors, 40, 52, 60 statistics, 68 wins, 7, 10–13, 18–19, 21–24, 30, 32–34, 42, 45–46, 48, 54, 56, 58–59, 62–63 Gordon, Kim (sister), 14

H Harroun, Ray, 41 Hendrick Bone Marrow Foundation, 51 Hendrick, Rick, 51 team owner, 7, 9, 20–23, 56, 58, 60, 65

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I Indianapolis 500 winners, 17, 25, 41 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 17, 34–35, 41 Irvan, Ernie races against, 22, 36–38

J Jarrett, Dale, 42 races against, 31, 33, 46, 58, 64 Jeff Gordon Foundation, 51, 67 Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front— My Memoir, 57 Johnson, Jimmie, 60, 65

K

P Pearson, David, 63 Penske, Roger, 16 Pepsi 400, 12, 45–46 Petty, Richard career, 12, 24, 31, 43–45, 53, 60, 63 Philbin, Regis, 61 Pittsboro, Indiana, 17 Pocono International Raceway, 46, 48 Pole position Busch, 23 wins, 22, 26, 30, 48, 59

Q Quarter midget race cars, 14, 16–17

Kulwicki, Alan, 22

L Labonte, Bobby, 16, 27, 49 Labonte, Terry, 16, 53 Loomis, Robbie, 58

M Marlin, Sterling, 49 Miller Genuine Draft 500, 46

N NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) annual awards, 25, 42 championships, 8–9, 16, 34, 41, 48–49, 53, 59–60, 62, 64–65 first win, 21 hall of fame, 19 history, 7, 13, 34–36, 39, 45, 63 officials, 9 series, 20, 23, 34–35, 38, 42, 45 Nemechek, Joe, 30

O O’Neal, Shaquille, 60

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R Rexford, Bill, 52 Richmond, Tim, 22, 26 Roberts, Fireball, 49 Rudd, Ricky, 54 Rutherford, Johnny, 25

S Smith, Bruton, 33 Sprint cars, 18–19 Stewart, Tony races against, 7, 9

T Texas Motor Speedway, 56 TranSouth 400, 48–49 Turner, Curtis, 49

U United States Auto Club (USAC) midget championship, 19

V Vallejo, California, 14

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Index

W Wallace, Kenny races against, 25, 27 Wallace, Rusty career, 23 races against, 31, 33, 54 Waltrip, Darrell career, 29, 34, 48, 63

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Waltrip, Michael, 58 Weatherly, Joe, 49

Y Yellow flag, 9, 31

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

DICK BRINSTER has been covering stock car racing since 1980 as a sports writer for the Associated Press. He lives in New Jersey. RICHARD HUFF is a deputy features editor for television and a motorsports writer for the New York Daily News. His previous books include Behind The Wall: A Season on the NASCAR Circuit, Stock Car Champions: Running with NASCAR’s Best, and Reality Television. He has also contributed articles to national magazines, including Stock Car Racing, Old House Journal, Do! Magazine, Circle Track and Drill. He lives in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, with his wife, Michelle, and children, Ryan and Paige.

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