AFTER SOME 800 RACES, NEARLY 100 WINS, 80 POLES and more than 300 top five finishes, Jeff Gordon is still a contender. In the early 1990s, when Jeff Gordon first got behind the wheel of a Busch series car, NASCAR was not yet a household word. Stock car racing was still considered a regional Southern phenomenon but that was soon to change. Jeff Gordon played a big role in NASCAR’s huge growth in popularity and its expansion into a national pastime. Young, handsome, charismatic, daring - not to mention a winner - Gordon drew a new flock of fans, including many women, into the NASCAR audience.

Gordon, driving his rainbow striped No. 24 Chevy, burst on the Sprint Cup (then Winston Cup) scene, winning the NASCAR Cup Championship in 1995, just his third year in top level competition. He went on to win the Cup three more times, in 1997, 1998 and 2001, bringing glory to the Hen-drick Motorsports team. Gordon’s career winnings top $113 million.

Nearly born on a racetrack in 1971, Jeff began driving at age five on a makeshift track in Vallejo, Califor-nia, converted by his step dad from a former fairgrounds. At age 6, he won 35 events and set five track re-cords behind the wheel of a quarter midget. After winning all 25 of the karting races he entered at age 11, the hotshot kid with the growing reputation was ready to move on to bigger things.

First stop was sprint car racing in open wheelers, with Jeff one of the youngest drivers ever allowed to compete in the All Star Florida Speedweeks. Always a champion, he scored top place in the USAC National Midget Series in 1990 and USAC Silver Crown Series in 1991. Then it was time to move on again.

Gordon has said that after his very first lap in a stock car, he knew where his future lay. In 1991, Jeff began racing in the NASCAR Busch Series full time, driving for Bill Davis. He immediately began to rack up impressive wins, and was named Rookie of the Year that first season. In 1992, he wowed the crowd - and the racing industry - by winning the pole and then the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in the first Busch Series competition on that challenging oval.

Two days after that Atlanta win, Gordon signed with Hendrick Motorsports to drive the No. 24 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series, one of the youngest drivers ever to compete at the top level of the sport. Some of the racing’s biggest names thought he was too young but he earned the title of Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year in 1993. In 1994, he won his first Sprint Cup race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next year, he was first to the check-ered flag at Rockingham, Atlanta, Bristol, Daytona, New Hampshire, Darlington and Dover, winning his first Sprint Cup championship. And the rest is history.

Jeff Gordon’s career in the No. 24 car has featured many, many milestones. Among them: three wins in the Daytona 500, six wins in the Southern 500, three wins in the Coca-Cola 600, three wins in the Sprint All-Star Race, four wins at the Food City 400, and five wins (including last year) in the Brick-yard 400. He’s tied for the most Sprint Cup wins in a season (13 in 1998), and holds the record for most consecutive Cup seasons with a pole (22), most restrictor plate wins (12) and most road course wins (9). In 1997, the young driver secured the Winston Million for wins that year at Daytona, Char-lotte and Talladega, three of NA-SCAR’s four “crown jewels.” Gordon is ranked first among the NASCAR Cup drivers to race in the sport’s modern era beginning in 1972.

Jeff Gordon hasn’t missed a Cup race since his debut back in 1992 in the Hooters 500, racking up 790

STORY AND INTERVIEW BY RENÉE WRIGHT

Jeff Gordon

Career Wins and TiTles

N A S C A R C U P S E R I E S

92 Career Wins

4 Career TiTles

1995, 1997, 1998, 2001

468 Top Ten finishes

80 poles

790 raCes

24 Years raCinG

firsT raCe

1992 hooTers 500(aTlanTa)

firsT Win

1994 CoCa-Cola 600(CharloTTe)

lasT Win

2014 aaa 400 (dover)

2014 finish

6Th plaCe overall

3rd MosT aCCoMplished

driver all-TiMe Behind

# 2 david pearson

#1 riChard peTTY

consecutive starts and counting. He’s continued to compete in Busch Series races as well, scoring sweeps with wins in both Sprint and Bus-ch races at Darlington, Talladega, Dover and twice at Martinsville. It all adds up to a lot of miles.

Now 44, Gordon has announced that 2015 will be his final season as a full-time driver. In a crowd-pleas-er, he brought back the iconic rainbow hued paint job for his No. 24 car, racing this year for the Drive to End Hunger, and sponsors Axalta Coating Systems and Pepsi Max. Gordon started the 2015 season with a bang, winning the pole at the Daytona 500 (and adding an additional half-million dollars to his winnings), followed by poles at the Kobalt 400 and Geico 500. Although his season hasn’t seen any

wins as yet, he remains in the Chase for the Cup, competing in October’s Contender Round in Charlotte.

In recent years, Jeff, along with his wife Ingrid Vandebosch, has turned increasingly to humanitarian con-cerns, establishing the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation in 1999 to help children with life-threaten-ing and chronic illnesses. The Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital opened in 2006 in Concord, NC, near Charlotte Motor Speedway, site of so many of his wins. Gordon is one of the founders of Athletes for Hope and teamed with AARP beginning in 2011 in support of its Drive to End Hunger, a program aiming to reduce hunger among senior citi-zens.

Thanks to his philanthropic efforts, Jeff Gordon has been named NA-SCAR Illustrated Person of the Year

three times. One of his proudest accomplishments is receiving the 2012 Heisman Humanitarian Award for his work for children’s causes, the first NASCAR driver to be so honored.

On October 8, the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte will unveil its newest exhibit, “24: A Tribute to Jeff Gordon.” The museum’s Great Hall will be filled with nine of the iconic race cars driven by Gordon from his open-wheeled racing days through his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. As part of the celebration, kids 5-12 will be admitted for $2.40 on Saturday, Oct. 10, to see the exhibit and also to meet Champ the Cheetah, the new NASCAR Hall of Fame mascot. The 24 Gordon Tribute exhibit, free with Hall of Fame admission, runs through Jan. 10, 2016.

R AI N BOW WAR R IOR continues

On Oct. 7, the NASCAR Hall of Fame debuted its newest exhibit “24: A Jeff Gordon Tribute” honoring the career of one of the sport’s finest. Gordon himself, along with his wife Ingrid and their two children, were on hand for the opening.

The unveiling of the nine race cars from every phase of his career was an emotional moment for Gordon. “In 35 years of racing, I’ve never seen this many memories in one place,” he said. “This is where it all started for me - on a dirt track.”

For the Gordon children, Ella, 8, and Leo, 5, the race cars were excit-ing as well. Their dad had to let them sit behind the wheel of several cars, throwing a wrench into the event’s planned timeline but delighting the assembled dignitaries and mem-bers of the press. “It doesn’t get any better than this,” one muttered while filming footage of Leo in the driver’s seat of his dad’s dirt track racer.

One at least of the younger Gor-don’s plans a future in racing. “I drive a quarter midget,” Ella told Prowler’s reporter. “I just got my license.” It’s the same kind of car her father got his start in.

Although he’ll be retiring from the track at the end of the season, Jeff Gordon won’t be a stranger to NASCAR. He’s been recruited as a full-time analyst on Fox Sports for the 2016 season and will be helping out at Hendrick Motorsports on the business side of things.

“And of course I have a lot of work to do on the foundation,” he told Prowler. It was a pretty good day for Gordon’s Children’s Foundation. During the exhibit opening, Fifth Third Bank presented a $24,000 check to Gordon to help with the fight against pediatric cancer. Gordon has raised over $15 million to help find new treatments and provide life extending care for children.

JEFF GORDON TRIBUTE EXHIBIT OPENS AT CHARLOTTE’S

N A S C A R H A L L O F F A M E

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