The Coronation of the New King

On Nov. 15, 1992, a Winston Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway might have been the defining moment in NASCAR’s 50 years.

That was the day that Richard Petty, whose charisma helped the stock car racing organization shed its reputation as a bunch of moonshiners racing each other on Sundays in backwoods Southern towns, retired after 35 years, 200 victories and seven championships.

That was the day that Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki, possible heirs to Petty’s mantle, were battling for the series crown.

Both were killed in aircraft crashes the following year.

Bill Elliott won that race, the 1,666th in Winston Cup history, and Kulwicki finished second, winning the championship by the narrowest margin ever.

That was also the day that a 21-year-old rookie from Vallejo, Calif., by way of Pittsboro, Ind., drove in his first Winston Cup race, the Hooters 500.

Jeff Gordon started 21st, the fastest second-day qualifier, and finished 31st in the No. 24 DuPont Paints Chevrolet. That was four spots ahead of Petty.

Gordon won $6,285. He was so conscious of his youth that he wore a Charlie Chaplin-like mustache in hopes it would make him look older. It didn’t fool anybody.

As fate would have it, Petty’s last was Gordon’s first. Out with the old and in with the new.

There were 165,000 fans on hand at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and probably there are 10 times that many today who claim they were there to witness the passing of the torch.

Since that day nearly six years ago, Gordon has won three Winston Cup championships, 41 races, 23 poles, the Daytona 500, the inaugural Brickyard 400, the inaugural California 500, finished in the top five in 17 consecutive races, won three $1-million bonuses in the last two years and more than $22 million in purses.

And he is only 27.

Sunday, he will be back at Atlanta as champion, for the third time, of America’s most successful racing series. He clinched his title by winning Sunday at Rockingham, N.C. It was his 12th victory this season, the most since Darrell Waltrip won a dozen in 1982 and only one shy of Petty’s modern record of 13 in 1975.

How good is he?

Look at it this way: When Dale Earnhardt, the Intimidator with seven championships, was 27 he had not yet won a race. And Petty, King Richard who grew up in a family of champions, did not win his first championship until he was 27.

When Gordon won the Daytona 500 last year, at 25 years, 6 months and 12 days, he was the youngest winner of NASCAR’s most prestigious race. Petty and Mario Andretti had won at 26.

“I’ve never thought of age as a factor,� Gordon says. “I guess because I started racing at such a young age. When I stepped up to sprint cars when I was 13 1/2 years old, everybody else was talking about age, but me and my stepdad were looking at experience, just trying to get experience enough to move to the next level.�

Maybe he’s too good.

He is handsome, he doesn’t smoke, drinks Pepsi instead of the hard stuff, goes to Bible study the night before races, never bad-mouths the opposition, races with a quote from scripture taped to his steering wheel, and is happily married to his wife, Brooke.

Oh yes, he is also the most booed driver on the circuit.

Heard often at tailgate parties in the infield, or along the fence where fans peer into the garages, are comments such as, “I don’t want to see him get hurt, but I’d sure like to see that pretty face wreck on the first lap. And see that fancy No. 24 of his all beat up so it wouldn’t run.�

Gordon isn’t the first driver to hear the boo birds. Earnhardt was the villain when he was surpassing Petty’s seven championships and Waltrip raised the hackles of old-time fans when he was winning all those races in the early ‘80s.

But it was easier to understand why they were booed. Earnhardt seemed to wear a perpetual scowl, his typical response a snarl. Waltrip had an in-your-face, smart-aleck attitude that prompted Cale Yarborough to call him “Jaws.�

Gordon responds to the boos with a smile, says how nice it is for NASCAR to have such loyal fans, and walks off into the sunset hand-in-hand with Brooke.

“How can I complain when people boo?� he says. “Actually, it’s a good thing because it means I’m winning. If I wasn’t winning, you wouldn’t hear any of that, so like I say, how can I complain? I’m not bothered by it, really. I just kind of smile, wave back at them and walk away.�

That can be more galling to the boo birds than Earnhardt’s stare or a quip by Waltrip.

Even after a number of fans had cheered when Gordon crashed his Chevrolet while practicing at Michigan Speedway, he refused to bristle.

“When Dale and Darrell and Rusty [Wallace] were winning all the time, fans cheered when they had something go wrong,� Gordon says. “It’s the nature of our sport. It’s just something that happens. And you know, there are a lot of cheers mixed in there with the booing.�

One NASCAR journalist says that the booing is louder because “all the women in the crowd cheer Jeff and the guys boo to try and drown them out.�

Ford fans with long memories have an extra booing interest in the driver they derisively call “Wonder Boy,� because when teenager Gordon made the move from U.S. Auto Club open-wheel racing to NASCAR’s Busch Grand National in 1991, he was being groomed by Ford as its next superstar.

Gordon drove a Thunderbird for Bill Davis’ Busch team, and his career was being charted by Michael Kranefuss, then head of Ford Motorsports, when suddenly Gordon signed a long-term contract with Hendrick Motorsports to drive a Chevrolet.

“I know it was a mind blower,� he recalls. “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but looking back, I’d say it was the best thing I could have done. . . . “

He is still with Hendrick, part of a three-car team that also includes Terry Labonte, who beat out Gordon for the 1996 championship, and Wally Dallenbach Jr.

Also not a fan of Gordon is Jack Roush, owner of Mark Martin’s Ford which has run second to Gordon most of the season. Roush has accused Gordon and his crew of cheating.

The accusation arose after Gordon had twice taken on only two tires late in races when Martin had taken on four. The strategy enabled Gordon to get out of the pits first and get track position, but Roush claimed that his car, with four new tires, should have been able to run down a car that had only two new ones.

He intimated that crew chief Ray Evernham must have doctored Gordon’s tires.

An exhaustive test by NASCAR officials uncovered no such thing.

“I don’t think Jack [Roush] realized that it just gets Ray and the crew more pumped up, and more determined than ever to bring me home in front,� Gordon says.

Martin, Roush’s driver, steadfastly refused to accuse Gordon or his crew of cheating.

During one confrontation along pit row, after Roush claimed that there was something different about Gordon’s tires, Evernham snapped, “It’s just air, Jack, just air.�

Petty, whose famous remark of years ago, “If you ain’t cheating a little, you ain’t likely to be winning,� became a NASCAR idiom, dismissed the accusations as nothing new.

“Shoot, when me and David [Pearson] and Bobby [Allison] and some of them other cats was winning, we was always being accused of stuff like that. It’s just something that goes with the territory.�

Derrike Cope, 1990 Daytona 500 winner, says the edge comes from Gordon, not from trick tires.

“I don’t think you can take anything away from Jeff and his talents,� Cope said at a recent race. “Somebody asked me that if I could have one single aspect of that team, Gordon, Ray Evernham, the Hendrick organization, pit crew, what would I take? I said, ‘I’ll take Jeff.’ I think he is outstanding.

“Take those two-tire pit stops where he’s gone on to win. I think when Evernham makes a two-tire call, he’s putting it in the hands of Jeff at that point. They know they’re going to get out first and have a clear race track to work with those two tires. A lot of other teams could make that two-tire pit stop and not get the results they want.

“Gordon and his team have that belief they can make it happen. They put him out in front and he has free rein. Jeff does the job.�

Evernham compares his driver to the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan.

“Somebody else could win in that car, the way the Bulls might win without Jordan, but not the way they do it.�

*

Gordon’s endorsements--Pepsi, milk, Ray-Ban sunglasses, Edy’s ice cream and Close-Up toothpaste--are indicators of his lifestyle. Also his bank account. According to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, Gordon made $6.5 million last year in off-track earnings.

Beer being a staple among stock car fans, Gordon has been approached by a number of breweries asking his endorsement. Even though it would bring in about $500,000 annually, he has turned them down.

“I’m image conscious, especially since I got married, and doing beer commercials, that’s just not me,� he says. “I know people have criticized me as being phony, but that’s not true. I have a happy life, a wonderful wife and I try not to do things that go counter to that atmosphere.

“I thank God every day for blessing me and all the people around me.�

Behind the scenes, when he can find time away from racing, testing and public appearances for his sponsors, Gordon works with ill and handicapped children.

During one recent period, he entertained 35 children from the Toledo Children’s Hospital, visited a young girl with spine curvature that is causing her lungs to collapse, spent some time with the son of a man who was killed in the grandstand accident last summer at Michigan Speedway, and made several visits to children who wanted to see their hero face-to-face for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“I wish I had more time to do things like that,� he said. “It really gives me a good feeling. Nobody participates in charities for recognition. We do it because it brings a smile to somebody’s face and helps somebody who is less fortunate.�

He is also active in promoting the Marrow Foundation’s bone marrow drive, a cause close to the heart of his boss, Ray Hendrick, who is bedridden in North Carolina with leukemia, unable to attend races.

“Winning championships is one thing, but winning races is where the thrill, the satisfaction, comes from,� Gordon says. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a bigger thrill than when I won the Daytona 500, not only because we had won the biggest race there is, but because it meant so much to Ray.

“I was on the phone with him before I got to victory circle, and it was just so great to know what our winning meant to him. It couldn’t have been a more emotional moment.�

*

This year’s third championship, Gordon says, has been the team’s most impressive.

“In the first year [1995] we just started winning races and leading a lot of laps, and before we knew it we were running for the championship,� he said. “The next year was the first time we went into the season with the goal of winning the championship and had some DNFs [did not finish] and weren’t all that competitive at the end of the season.

“Then last year was a real battle down to the end with Martin and [Dale] Jarrett and we could have lost it just as easily as we won it. Once again, we weren’t very strong at the end of the season.

“This year we’ve been more consistent than we’ve ever been. We’ve been amazed at what we’ve accomplished. I never would have dreamed that we would be able to get 10 wins again, let alone 12.�

Most impressive was his string of finishing in the top five for 17 consecutive races, missing by one Pearson’s record of 18 set in 1968. During that stretch, Gordon’s record was 3-2-1-3-1-1-1-1-5-1-1-2-2-2-5-2-1.

The streak ended Oct. 25 in Phoenix when rain halted the DuraLube/Kmart 500 with 55 laps remaining and Gordon in seventh place.

“I think we had a top-five car at Phoenix,� he says. “We were getting set to make a move to the front when it started raining, but 17 is pretty amazing.

“Everybody loves to talk about those statistics. I don’t know that I’ll really comprehend what it all means until later in life, when I can sit back and look at everything we’ve accomplished.�

Which by then may be more than seven championships and more than Petty’s 200 victories. Petty’s record was once thought to be as unassailable as Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games streak, and you know what Cal Ripken Jr. did to that.

And don’t think that, just because he’s won another title, Gordon will take it easy Sunday.

“What would cap this season off would be to run good at Atlanta and close out the season that way,� he says. “That to me would be the icing on the cake for 1998.�

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GORDON’S VICTORIES

Date Race

Feb. 22: GM 400

March 29: Food City 500

May 24: Coca-Cola 600

June 28: Kragen 350

July 26: Pennsylvania 500

Aug. 1: Brickyard 400

Aug. 9: The Bud at the Glen

Aug. 16: Pepsi 400

Aug. 30: Farm Aid 300

Sept. 6: Southern 500

Oct. 17: Pepsi 400

Nov. 1: ACDelco 400

1998 WINSTON CUP VICTORIES

Driver No.

1. Jeff Gordon: 12

2. Mark Martin: 7

3. Dale Jarrett: 3

4. Bobby Labonte: 2

4. Jeff Burton: 2

6. Dale Earnhardt: 1

6. Bobby Hamilton: 1

6. Terry Labonte: 1

6. Jeremy Mayfield: 1

6. Jeff Burton: 1

6. Ricky Rudd: 1

6. Rusty Wallace: 1

MONEY LEADERS

Driver Total

1. Gordon: $6,011,417

2. Martin: $3,212,020

3. Jarrett: $3,268,335

4. B. Labonte: $2,604,895

5. Earnhardt: $2,565,075

POINTS LEADERS

Driver Total

1. Gordon: 5,143*

2. Martin: 4,799

3. Jarrett: 4,444

4. Wallace: 4,398

5. Burton: 4,255

* clinched title

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A Fast Start

Comparing jeff Gordon with past royalty--Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt--at the age of 27.

*

Starts

Richard Petty: 279

Dale Earnhardt: 9

Jeff Gordon: 188

*

Wins

Richard Petty: 36

Dale Earnhardt: 0

Jeff Gordon: 41

*

Poles

Richard Petty: 25

Dale Earnhardt: 0

Jeff Gordon: 23

*

Top Five

Richard Petty: 130

Dale Earnhardt: 1

Jeff Gordon: 99

*

Championship

Richard Petty: 1

Dale Earnhardt: 0

Jeff Gordon: 3

*

Money

Richard Petty: $307,483

Dale Earnhardt: $27,630

Jeff Gordon: $22,713,879

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Moving Up Fast

Where Jeff Gordon ranks among the winningest drivers in NASCAR Winston Cup history, 1949-1998*:

Driver Victories

1. Richard Petty 200

2. David Pearson 105

3. Bobby Allison 84

(tie) Darrell Waltrip-x 84

5. Cale Yarborough 83

6. Dale Earnhardt-x 71

7. Lee Petty 55

8. Ned Jarrett 50

(tie) Junior Johnson 50

10. Herb Thomas 48

(tie) Rusty Wallace-x 48

12. Buck Baker 46

13. Jeff Gordon-x 41

14. Tim Flock 40

(tie) Bill Elliott-x 40

* In the Winston Cup modern era (1971-1998), Gordon ranks eighth in number of victories.

x-active driver