Jeff Gordon: His Dream, Drive & Destiny

by Joe Garner

  Today, Bristol is even more special to me. For years, I’d go to different tracks and see a driver’s name on the grandstand, and I hoped that one day I’d do something significant enough to earn that. At my final race there in August 2015, they honored me by dedicating a terrace at Bristol as the Jeff Gordon Terrace. I’ll get to enjoy that honor for years to come.

  FOOD CITY 500—APRIL 13, 1997

  It was the perfect storm: Bristol, Rusty Wallace, and our silent rivalry. I say silent because it really wasn’t well-known. In fact, I didn’t even know about it until Dale Earnhardt told me.

  It started with my first Cup win at the 1994 Coca-Cola 600. Rusty dominated that race. He led the most laps, and in his mind, he thought he should have won it. But I ended up winning and he came in second, so I think he kind of felt like we stole his thunder there. He hated me, literally hated me. Rusty and Earnhardt were pretty good buddies, and he had a lot of respect for Dale. Rusty felt like, “Hey, I’m Earnhardt’s rival. I’m the guy who’s supposed to battle Earnhardt. I have my fans and sell my merchandise and I get my sponsors because of that, and I’m going to win my share of races and championships up against Earnhardt.” Then I came along and he didn’t like it. So he brought that attitude to Bristol.

  In the day race of 1997, Rusty dominated. But on the long runs, I was actually better, and that’s what happened. We finally had a long run, and he wore out his tires. I was running second and getting heat from Terry Labonte behind me in third. I got close to Rusty, but he blocked me. I thought, man if he blocks me again, I’m not going to check up. So in the closing laps, I could see Rusty’s car was getting loose. He was freaking out. He had to be thinking, “Man, I had this race won, what is going on here?” Then he started putting some decent laps together. I couldn’t get close enough to get underneath. Then he hit lap traffic and the gap closed in the first turn, and I was ready to make my move. Coming out of turn two, my front bumper was right on him, so entering turn three, I went for it. I just got my nose under him and bump he’s out of the way. I didn’t wreck him, I moved him just enough to swing under for the win. To me that’s acceptable racing. Apparently Rusty didn’t agree. A year later, in 1998, I was racing him at Richmond and he just flat out wrecked me. For years after, I’d say “I know you wrecked me at Richmond” and he’d deny it, saying it wasn’t intentional.

  SHARPIE 500—AUGUST 24, 2002

  Four years later, I used the bump ’n’ run again on Rusty, this time under the lights. Just like back in 1997, I felt Rusty had that race won. I was being young and aggressive and kind of not giving a crap. I stalked him and really put pressure on him. I had a run with ten laps to go, and he cut me off. So I thought, okay, if I get another shot at him, I’m going for it. In typical Rusty fashion, his cars always turned the middle really well at Bristol, which made him fast. But his car was always loose on the exit. I focused on getting my car to drive off the corner really well and straight. Again, he hit lap traffic at the worst possible time, so I decided to take him right then. I didn’t hit him hard—but I hit him hard enough.

  He never said anything to me. It’s hard to get too pissed off at the guy behind you if he’s actually faster than you and you’re at a one-groove racetrack like Bristol. But just a few years ago, Rusty finally admitted, “Yeah, I deliberately wrecked you at Richmond back in ’98.” So now when I watch the 2002 Bristol replay, it was worth it.

  FOOD CITY 500—APRIL 19, 2015

  As a dad, this moment is definitely a highlight: my kids giving the “start your engines” command. One of the reasons I continued to race as long as I did was so Ella and Leo would get to see what I love doing. In this case, they got the chance to be a part of it.

  It had been raining that day and we were waiting for the track to dry. So Ingrid and the kids stayed in the bus until it was time to come over. We asked for an estimate on the time and NASCAR said they’d have the track dry by 3:00 p.m. Well, it was 1:45 and all of a sudden they were calling drivers to the cars. So we were scrambling, trying to call Ingrid and get the kids to the track. I was freaking out because at that point NASCAR was on a schedule: “National anthem at this time, command to start the engines at that time.” So they started the national anthem and the kids weren’t there. I had to get in the car. I climbed in and then boom, Ella and Leo were there.

  As their dad, I was nervous because I wanted it to go well for them. I wanted them to enjoy the experience and just have a great time with it. They stepped up to the microphone and got the cue, and they just nailed it. I mean the whole thing, from the timing, how they did it, and then Leo ad-libbed “Vroom!” at the end. I’ll never forget the smiles on their faces. You couldn’t see my reaction because of my helmet, but I was so excited. I was clapping and giving them a thumbs-up. I just absolutely love that moment.

  CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

  LOCATION: Concord, North Carolina, 13 miles northeast of Charlotte

  MILE AND SHAPE: 1.5-mile quad-oval track

  TRACK FACT: This is a motorsports complex with a spectator capacity of 94,000.

  CHARLOTTE WILL ALWAYS BE A SPECIAL PLACE FOR ME. It’s one of the racetracks that launched my career. I first drove by it in 1990 when I was headed to the Buck Baker Racing School at Rockingham Speedway, and I was blown away. I thought it was spectacular then and it hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s more modern and impressive than most tracks. I like the way they covered the back of the grandstands and built a whole section of condominiums. It’s probably one of the most challenging and physically demanding courses, considering the g-forces you pull through the corners. It’s one of those tracks that I put in the category of nearly perfect from the standpoint of transitions—the challenges in the banking in turns one and two versus the multiple grooves that run on turns three and four.

  COCA-COLA 600—MAY 29, 1994

  Charlotte’s been my home track for over twenty years. I have a career full of memories at that track, including five Cup wins and three All-Star victories. But my very first victory, the Coca-Cola 600, stands at the top. You never know what you are capable of until you accomplish it. It’s one of the toughest races to win, especially because of its length. It’s the only 600-mile event on NASCAR’s schedule.

  In that race, I remember Ray Evernham called for a two-tire pit stop late in the race. A lot of people thought it was a gamble. But we actually had tested it in practice. Ray knew exactly how far two tires would take me, which, that day, was all the way to Victory Lane and one of the greatest days of my life.

  NASCAR ALL-STAR INVITATIONAL—MAY 16, 2015

  At my final All-Star Race, NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway had a surprise waiting for me during the driver introductions. They brought me out last. It was so cool. As I took the stage, my first surprise was seeing Ray Evernham there to greet me against a backdrop of fans holding up “24” signs. Then out came Ingrid and the kids, and my mom and my stepdad. I was overwhelmed. It was funny because I saw my parents earlier and I asked them, “Why are you guys here? I never see you at driver introductions.” I’m so glad we got to experience that as a family. It was something I’ll never forget.

  SONOMA RACEWAY

  LOCATION: Wine country about 50 miles north of San Francisco

  MILE AND SHAPE: Includes a drag strip and a 2.52-mile road course

  TRACK FACT: Sonoma Raceway was formerly Sears Point Raceway and Infineon Raceway.

  IN A WAY, SONOMA IS ALSO A HOME TRACK, yet I never laid eyes on it until I was a Cup driver. I’d heard of it when it was called Sears Point, and I had driven by it once or twice. But I never gave it much thought because it was a road course and a drag strip. It wasn’t anything I raced on at that time.

  Yet it’s significant to me not only because of how close it is to Vallejo, my childhood hometown, but also because of the success I’ve experienced there. It went from being one of the most challenging places in the beginning of my Cup career to one of my best tracks.

  Racing at Sonoma is all
about finesse. It’s about being aggressive but not too aggressive, finding grip in the tires and trying to maintain that grip. So you have to be mindful of tire management and just remain smooth and consistent. Unlike the other big tracks, where aerodynamics play a huge role and the way a car is set up changes so much, the setup for Sonoma has stayed very constant.

  SAVE MART/KRAGEN 350—JUNE 25, 2000

  I started fifth and stayed in the top ten most of the race. I knew we had a faster car that day, but that doesn’t always mean you’re going to win. There were about twenty-five laps to go when I passed Kenny Wallace and got back into the lead. It was right then when Robbie Loomis got on the radio and told me I was going to have to be really careful to manage the fuel. He said, “You probably have enough to make it to the finish line but not enough to get back around, so save me some.” I did . . . and we won. This race gave me my third straight win at that track and my sixth consecutive road-course win—a streak that began at Watkins Glen back in 1997.

  DARLINGTON RACEWAY

  LOCATION: Near Darlington, South Carolina

  MILE AND SHAPE: 1.366-mile oval track

  TRACK FACT: Darlington Raceway has a spectator capacity of 75,000.

  IT’S BEEN CALLED “TOO TOUGH TO TAME,” and while tracks will adopt nicknames for marketing purposes, this one lives up to its reputation. It was always tough for me, a challenging track with a very narrow groove right up against the wall. It reminds me of Winchester Speedway, a fast and dangerous track in Indiana where I raced midget cars and sprint cars. The reputation of both tracks intimidates you before you ever get there. Drivers say, “Oh man, have you been to Darlington yet? You’re going to get a Darlington stripe, good luck there.” Well, it’s hard not to get so close to the wall that you get that stripe when you’re racing for 500 miles. The place is crazy fast. The same thing happens to drivers at Winchester, but I won my first race I ever ran there. The same thing happened at Darlington. I was thinking, okay, I’ll go see what this is like. Then I strapped on the helmet and started driving and thought, this is cool, this place is awesome. Yeah, it was difficult and lived up to a lot of the hype, but I can’t say it intimidated me. It challenged me, but I liked it.

  MOUNTAIN DEW SOUTHERN 500—SEPTEMBER 3, 1995

  SOUTHERN 500—SEPTEMBER 1, 1996

  SOUTHERN 500—AUGUST 31, 1997

  PEPSI SOUTHERN 500—SEPTEMBER 6, 1998

  The year 1995 was a very special one. It was a year of being strong, building confidence, and winning big races. We had gone from being a team that won a couple of races and showed some glimmers of hope to becoming the team to beat. It was also the year we got the first of four consecutive Darlington Southern 500 victories, which pretty much underlined the dominance of the No. 24 team. Capturing what would be the last Winston Million prize after the 1997 Southern 500 was icing on the cake.

  THE DODGE AVENGER 500—MAY 13, 2007

  We really shouldn’t have won this race. We were a third-place car that day and had to overcome a lot of obstacles. We struggled with the handling, and the car started to overheat with sixty laps to go. Plus, we were at Darlington, a track that eats up tires. On top of all that, I was questioning Steve Letarte’s strategy. Steve’s a great poker player, and I think one of his strongest suits is not being afraid to gamble. But that’s exactly what we did on pit stops that day. Everybody else came in to get fresh tires, and he decided we should stay out. The rest of the team was thinking, “Are you crazy?” We also didn’t think we were going to make it because the engine was overheating. That was partly because I was behind other cars so there was less air getting to the radiator. If I came down pit road and stopped, the temperature would go higher. But this is Steve’s genius. His strategy that day was to stay out so the car would be in front. His strategy worked, and we won the race. Then, of course, once we stopped in Victory Lane, the engine overheated and the radiator just exploded and water shot out everywhere. Meanwhile, my stepfather, John, decided, “Oh, Jeff’s engine isn’t going to make it. Let’s beat the traffic and go home.” My sister, Kimberly, had never seen me win a Cup race, but they left before the race was over. They were listening to it on the radio and my sister was yelling, “I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen Jeff win a race and now you decide to leave and he wins!” John felt terrible.

  DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

  LOCATION: Daytona Beach, Florida

  MILE AND SHAPE: 2.5-mile high-speed tri-oval

  TRACK FACT: This track was built by NASCAR’s founder, William “Bill” France Sr.

  THIS IS AN IMPRESSIVE TRACK, both for its size and its place in the history of the sport. It’s the home of NASCAR’s Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, and if you could ever choose a track and a race, this is the one you want to win. Without winning the Daytona 500, your career will have an unchecked box. I’m very proud that I won three times. Watching from the grandstands or on TV, you almost can’t believe forty-three cars are racing three wide, inches apart at 190 to 200 miles per hour. I always thought the big, long grandstands on the front straightaway were impressive. My first time on the track was to test with Bill Davis. I remember being so excited just driving through the tunnel. I was familiar with Daytona from watching the races on TV, and I’d driven by it heading to sprint-car races in Florida. So to finally get to drive on the track was very cool. I’d never been on a track that size and didn’t know what to expect. Mark Martin, who used to drive for Bill Davis, told me to just “hold it wide open.” What? It made no sense. “Yeah,” he said, “you just keep it floored.” I couldn’t comprehend that. I laugh about it now because going wide open at Daytona is the easiest thing you do all year. Driving the track doesn’t take the same skillset as it takes to drive at Charlotte or Bristol or a road course. Those tracks are “driver tracks” and this is more of a “car track.” I went from being excited to race there at the beginning of my career to dreading it the last few years. Being competitive at Daytona is really more about the performance of the car, drafting, and a little bit of luck to not get caught up in the wrecks.

  DAYTONA 500—FEBRUARY 16, 1997

  We didn’t have the fastest car, but we made the best of it with some great teammates. With twelve laps to go, I dropped below Dale Earnhardt and passed him to be in second. He got a little loose and slid down with Dale Jarrett, which flipped Earnhardt on top and over Ernie Irvin. After the track was cleared, there were seven laps to go. I was behind Bill Elliott, but my teammates, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven, were behind me in third and fourth. It took about two laps for them to push me past Elliott, and then they both passed him. The Hendrick Motorsports team was in first, second, and third. Then there was another big wreck, so the race ended under the caution flag but I had my first Daytona 500 win. When I got to Victory Lane, someone handed me a cell phone so I could call Rick Hendrick, who was too ill at the time to attend. “This one’s for you,” I told him. It was great that we could include him in the celebration.

  DAYTONA 500—FEBRUARY 14, 1999

  By the second half of the race, my car was decorated with big black doughnuts on the sides, indicators of how rough it got during that race. I was soaked in sweat, and my hands were beginning to cramp from correcting the car after taking so many shots. I remember we got into the late stages of that race, and Ray Evernham just laughed. Everyone in the race was doing all they could to make sure that I wasn’t going to win, but here I was, running up in the top five the hard way. With eleven laps to go, I was second behind Rusty Wallace, who really wanted to win his first 500. Dale Earnhardt and his teammate Mike Skinner were moving into position to draft by me, but I split them apart and used that to stay behind Rusty. I had a run on him and tried to get to his inside to make the pass. Rusty was protecting the inside lane like he should have and forced me down to the apron. I could see that Ricky Rudd was running very slowly down there and my brain was doing a lot of math real quick. There are races where things happen almost in slow motion. You can remember every little bump, mov
e, and thought you had. What happened on that lap happened so fast, I look back and figure that it was just pure instinct.

  At the last possible instant, Ricky eased a few feet to the left. I forced my way to the right and Rusty hesitated just long enough for me to slip by, up the banking and into the lead. It was an awesome finish.

  DAYTONA 500—FEBRUARY 20, 2005

  Tony Stewart led more than half the laps that day and was the car to beat. So except for the fact it was the first Daytona 500 with a green-white-checkered, it was a pretty typical race. On the last restart, my future teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. got behind me for a lap. But then Kurt Busch had a run and went to the high side. I had to move up in front of him and was able to hold him off to the finish. Besides becoming only the fifth driver to win at least three Harley J. Earl trophies, the win was my first since the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash just a few months before. It was an emotional Victory Lane ceremony, and I dedicated the win to the memories of those we lost and their families.

  INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

  LOCATION: Speedway, Indiana

  MILE AND SHAPE: 2.5-mile oval track

  TRACK FACT: The start and finish line of this track is 36-inches of original brick from the old Brickyard track.

  WHEN I THINK OF DREAMS COMING TRUE, I THINK OF RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. In fact, it was a dream so large it seemed almost unattainable. This track is unique in so many ways. It has seating on both sides so you get the feeling of being in a tunnel, and that adds to the sensation that it’s a historic place. Then to see 100,000 people on the front stretch gives you chills. I went to the Indy 500 as a kid and visited the museum. Now all these years later, being in the museum is a bit surreal. As a teenager living in Pittsboro, Indiana, about fifteen miles from Indianapolis, my goal was to drive an Indy car like my heroes A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Al Unser, and Johnny Rutherford. Although that didn’t happen, I never could have imagined that twenty years later I could say I have five wins at Indy. It’s not easy to win these races, and it’s even tougher to win races that you really want to win.