The top NASCAR driver of the late '90s and early 2000s, and the driver who did the most to make NASCAR respectable to
middle America, Jeff Gordon was born in 1971 and with the encouragement of his stepfather, John Bickford, started racing quartermidgets as early as age five. He rapidly climbed the open wheel racing
ladder with a goal of participating in IndyCar. He moved to Pittsboro, Indiana to gain greater opportunities in open wheel racing. He won the 1990 USAC Midget title and the 1991 USAC Silver Crown title,
becoming the youngest USAC Silver Crown champion ever. However, despite his promise in open wheel, CART (the IndyCar sanctioning body at the time) was not as interested in American sprint racers as USAC
had been when it was the body sanctioning Champ Cars (because CART owners formula-style road racers at that time), and there were rumors that several CART team owners would have hired Gordon but only if he
had brought sponsorship money, buying a ride. It is also true that some drivers since have done greater things in sprint cars, such as Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler, and J.J. Yeley, but they too (apart from
Stewart) found trouble gaining rides, and Stewart only reached the big time because the IRL formed with the express goal of bringing USAC sprint racers to the professional level. Gordon therefore sought
other opportunities in other forms of racing, and became drawn to stock car racing after participating in a Buck Baker driving school. He made a Busch Series start in 1990, where he qualified second, thus
showing some promise in NASCAR. He landed a full-time Busch Series ride in 1991 for Bill Davis, being named Rookie of the Year but failing to win.
In 1992, Gordon, with assistance by crew chief Ray Evernham, exploded onto the NASCAR scene with three victories and a Busch Series record
eleven poles. He was only the second driver to win in the Busch Series in a Ford, following Mark Martin, as Chevrolet had a stranglehold on the series in its early years. At the spring Atlanta race, he
managed to win with a very loose race car, impressing car owner Rick Hendrick, who expected him to crash as wildly as he was driving. Gordon was expected to join Bill Davis Racing in Winston Cup, but it
was a "handshake agreement" and did not have a written contract. Roush Racing also made a bid for Gordon's services, but Gordon chose Hendrick because Hendrick allowed him to bring his then-
unheralded crew chief Ray Evernham, while Roush would have selected its own crew chief for Gordon, which would not necessarily have been Evernham. This meant after being one of Ford's poster boys, Gordon
entered the series driving the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, one of the most famous NASCAR cars of the '90s and 2000s. Gordon's hiring was in some ways unprecedented. He was 21 years old when he made his first
NASCAR Winston Cup start in the 1992 Hooters 500, where Richard Petty ran his final race, and Alan Kulwicki won in a classic championship battle. He came from California, by way of Indiana, and neither
state was well-represented in NASCAR at that time, which was still primarily a southeastern sport. It was also rare for drivers with primarily an open-wheel background to cross over to stock cars full
time, although certainly not unprecedented (as Tim Richmond andKen Schrader preceded him). It was also unusual for such a new driver to be aligned with a major team, as Hendrick had won frequently with
Geoff Bodine, Richmond, and Darrell Waltrip among others. After Gordon's success, NASCAR drivers were hired from all regions of the country at increasingly younger ages, and many other USAC sprint car
drivers gave up on IndyCar dreams to follow Gordon to NASCAR.
Gordon's transition into Winston Cup was not a smooth one, as he perhaps
was too young to go straight to Winston Cup. Although he had flashes of brilliance, such as winning his first Daytona 125 qualifying race, the first rookie since IndyCar legend Johnny Rutherford to do so,
winning the pole for the fall Charlotte race, and finishing second to Dale Earnhardt in his first Coca-Cola 600, Gordon had eleven DNFs, and crashed frequently as he was attempting to gain a foothold into
the sport. Gordon was in the top ten in the points standings for most of 1993, but a bad finish to the season dropped him to 14th. Gordon's rookie season was still a good one by those standards, as he
finished highest in points of any rookie since Rusty Wallace finished 14th in 1984 (although Davey Allison won in his rookie season, while Wallace and Gordon did not). However, more was expected from
Gordon as he signed with a major team, while most rookies in that era did not, and he had some of the best equipment even then. 1994 started slowly for the #24 team, and there were even rumors Evernham
might be sacked since the expected success had not come as quickly as Hendrick had expected. However, 1994 was his breakthrough season as he scored his first two victories in major events, the Coca-Cola
600, and the inaugural Brickyard 400. In an era when CART's Indy Car World Series dominated national racing attention, NASCAR gained major media exposure with its first race at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, as only Indy Cars had raced there for decades. Many new fans who had not paid attention to NASCAR were drawn in by this race, and Gordon's victory, sealed afterErnie Irvan cut a tire, was a
fairy tale ending given his Indiana residence. Even then, before he was a week-in, week-out threat, he came to define the new NASCAR era with his corporate, politically-correct image that was widely
marketed to middle America, even though he has proven over the years he is just as aggressive as drivers of the past.
In 1995, the
stage was set for Gordon's era to begin. He developed great chemistry with his crew chief Evernham. Evernham borrowed ideas from Wallace's crew chief Buddy Parrott such as having a pit crew trainer,
which was a novelty at the time. The #24 pit crew, later known as the "Rainbow Warriors" because of Gordon's rainbow-colored pit scheme, was by far the fastest on the circuit. Evernham had an
unusual knack for determining the best times to take two tires or four, even when other crew chiefs did not, which helped Gordon finish better than he ran in the race on many occasions, and claim many
unexpected wins. Gordon, who had finally learned most of the tracks, became a threat on every type of track, winning a wide variety of races. In 1994, he had been joined by a major teammate, Terry
Labonte, who also aided the team. Gordon won seven races in the 1995 season, and dominated the title chase in the second half, although Earnhardt made the championship close. The following year, the #24
team started with a whimper instead of a bang with 42nd and 40th place finishes. Many wondered whether the team were one-year wonders. Following those results, he then earned six straight top-five
finishes, proving his previous championship was hardly a fluke. In 1996, Gordon won ten races and led the season in poles, laps led, and almost every major statistic, except the championship, which went
to his teammate Labonte, who only won two races, because Labonte did better in races he finished outside the top ten. In 1997, the team won ten races again and a second championship, including many of the
major races. He became the youngest Daytona 500 winner ever despite nearly falling a lap down. He and Hendrick teammates Labonte and Ricky Craven drafted past Bill Elliott just before a late-race caution
ended the race. He added a second Coca-Cola 600 win and became the first driver to win three straight Southern 500s. On the basis of these three wins, he became the first driver since Elliott to win the
Winston Million, and was ultimately the last, as the program was replaced with the "No Bull 5" for 1998. After thoroughly dominating the previous three seasons, all eyes were on Jeff Gordon for
1998.
Gordon's 1998 campaign started slowly, as the new Ford Taurus dominated initially, and three of Gordon's first four races were
outside the top fifteen. The exception was a win at Rockingham where Evernham brought an unusually weak car and Gordon was nearly lapped, but then adjusted the car perfectly and Gordon beat six Fords to
the finish. The first half of the season was much like Gordon's previous three seasons, contending for the points lead, with a frequent win every four races or so. He had just taken the points lead with
another win at Charlotte when Wallace spun him at Richmond in retaliation for Gordon pulling a bump-and-run on Wallace at Bristol in 1997. After that race, the 24 team recovered and was untouchable,
scoring seventeen straight top fives (including four wins in a row), and thirteen wins in the season, tying Richard Petty's modern era record, albeit in two more races. He was the first driver to win a No
Bull 5 bonus which he did twice, at Indianapolis, where he became the first driver to win twice, and Darlington, where he scored his fourth straight Southern 500 win. He became the first driver to sweep
the road course races in a season since Tim Richmond in 1982. He also closed the season well with three wins in the last four races, something which had eluded him in the past, in winning his third
championship with ease. Evernham won some races by taking two tires, and others by taking four tires. He claimed his fourth consecutive win at Michigan after being twenty seconds behind with twenty laps
to go and a win at New Hampshire where he pulled away despite only taking two tires and seemingly had a much worse car than Jack Roush's stars Mark Martin and Jeff Burton. These two wins in particular
irked the Roush team, and led Roush to investigate whether the #24 team was cheating with its tires, but nothing was ever found.
The
1999 season was a season of transition for the #24 team. The lucky breaks that fell their way en route to three championships in the previous four years no longer fell their way. Gordon still had the
dominant car for many races, and still led the series with seven wins, including the Daytona 500, where he made his most aggressive pass, a four-wide pass on the apron of the racetrack entering a turn with
Ricky Rudd on the inside and Wallace andMike Skinner on the outside, but this time in addition to his wins, he had many DNFs, particularly early in races, including his first 43rd place finish at Texas,
probably Gordon's worst track. Gordon remained in the top five for much of the 1999 season, but fell out after Evernham announced he was leaving the team to lead Dodge's re-entry to NASCAR in 2001 after
it was bought by Daimler Benz. Surprisingly, Gordon won the next two races after Evernham left, at Martinsville and Charlotte, but was unusually mediocre at the tail end of the 1999 season. Many
observers now questioned whether Gordon could win out Evernham. Compounding the problems, most of the Rainbow Warriors, which had been so dominant in the late '90s, left to join the #88 Robert Yates team
and driver Dale Jarrett. Although Gordon's pit crew would remain top-notch, it was no longer a world-beater. The loss of Evernham was reflected in one of Gordon's most mediocre seasons in 2000. The 24
team and replacement crew chief Robbie Loomis from Petty Enterprises were not able to build strong cars on intermediate superspeedways on a week-in, week-out basis, but continued to excel on specialty
tracks. Gordon won at Talladega starting from 36th, his worst starting position in a race he won, then at Sears Point, his sixth consecutive road course win, setting an all-time NASCAR record, and at
Richmond, he won with an illegal intake manifold, and the team lost 100 points, the stiffest penalty in Gordon's career, but kept the win. The team scored ten top tens in eleven races at the end of the
season, and seemed to be jelling at the end of 2000. This momentum led them to the 2001 championship in Loomis's second season, and although more mediocre than Gordon's 1995-98 dominance, Gordon still won
six races, led over 2000 laps, and dominated the second half of the title chase (other contenders were not as strong in 2001 as Jarrett had been in 1997 or Martin in 1998). After Earnhardt's death at
Daytona in 2001, Gordon clearly became the dominant veteran on the scene. Despite his struggles late in 1999 and 2000, Hendrick continued to have faith in Gordon, giving him a lifetime contract, which
included equity in his team, and listed ownership of a future fourth Hendrick team. In 2002, that Hendrick team, the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet, began full-time competition with Jimmie Johnson driving.
Johnson, like Gordon, is a media-friendly California driver, and although he had proven little in Busch in 2000 and 2001, when given some of Gordon's championship-winning chassis for 2002, his team was
essentially equal to Gordon's from the get-go. While Gordon dropped to only three wins in 2002, Johnson too won three races, and became the first rookie ever to lead the points. Johnson was ahead of
Gordon for most of the season, but Gordon eventually finished fourth in points, eight ahead of Johnson. Neither seriously contended for the championship in the last few races, as Tony Stewart won.
In 2003, Matt Kenseth won the title based on his consistency, and while many drivers including Gordon ran second in the points, nobody
other than Kenseth really contended for that championship, even though Kenseth only won once, and Gordon won three times. In 2004, Gordon scored the most points over the entire season, and won five races,
including a fourth Brickyard 400. However, NASCAR was debuting the Chase for the Championship "playoff", and Kurt Busch was slightly more consistent in the last ten races, winning the title.
Busch, Johnson, and Gordon had the closest title chase in history, although it was artificially close. Gordon, like Busch, was mainly in contention due to his consistency, while Johnson was wildly
inconsistent, having four mediocre to bad runs followed by four wins and a second-place finish in has last six races. Busch eventually beat Johnson by eight points and Gordon by sixteen in the closest
championship race ever, although the chase points system should not be compared to the 1975-2003 Latford-era points system. In 2005, Gordon lost his consistency and shockingly missed the chase after
finishing in the top ten in points eleven straight years. Although he did win four races, including a third Daytona 500, Gordon's lack of consistency and struggles on intermediate superspeedways again led
the #24 team to replace Loomis with Steve Letarte, the car chief for Gordon. 2006 was a relatively quiet year, with Gordon winning only two races (including his first win at Chicagoland after spinning
Kenseth late in the race) and finishing sixth in points. In 2007, he had his most consistent season since 1998, earning a mind-boggling 30 top 10s, including six wins. However, once again, his late-
season struggles bit him, as Johnson, who won four straight races during the chase, claimed his second straight championship. In 2008, Gordon was still reasonably consistent, but failed to reach victory
lane for the first time since his rookie season, snapping a fourteen-year streak. He won four pole positions and still scored fourteen top fives, but struggled at times and did not dominate races like
Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch did. Gordon's best shot at winning came at the summer Daytona race, where he led coming to the green flag on a final restart, but then spun out almost immediately
thereafter. Many wondered whether Gordon had lost his fire after the birth of his daughter Emma, as Johnson claimed virtually all the Hendrick accolades by this time. In 2009, Gordon showed strong early
-season consistency and scored a dominant and long-overdue win at Texas, leaving Homestead as his one winless track. However, despite how strong Johnson and new Hendrick arrival Martin were, Gordon didn't
contend for many race wins, with the Texas win being his only win of the season. Nonetheless, he was more consistent than his competitors and scored the highest average finish, even in an "off
season". If Martin at age fifty can win five races in a season for Hendrick, it is likely that Gordon can still do so as well. Due to his recent struggles, many speculated that Gordon would retire
as soon as 2010, but in 2009, he extended his contract to 2013.
In addition to his NASCAR successes, Gordon has occasionally competed
in other forms of racing. In 2002, he, Johnson, and motorcyclist Colin Edwards won the Nation's Cup for the United States (a series pitting many drivers across racing disciplines in unfamiliar equipment),
with Gordon defeating future two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso and future four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais. Gordon appeared again in 2005, again defeating Bourdais. He
also finished third at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2007 co-driving a Pontiac Riley with Jan Magnussen and 2005 winners Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor for SunTrust Racing, one of the best teams in the Grand
-Am Rolex Series.
