FANTASY NASCAR Racin

began racing at the age of five, racing quarter midgets. By the Age of six Gordon had won 35 main events and set 5 track records. By the age of 13 Gordon took an interest in the 650 horsepower sprint cars. Supporting his career choice, Gordon's family moved from Vallejo, California to Pittsboro, Indiana, where there were more opportunities for younger racers. Before the age of 18, Gordon had already won three short-track races and was awarded USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year in 1989. His first Xfinity race came on October 20, 1990 at Rockingham in the AC-Delco 200. Gordon drove the #67 Outback Steakhouse Pontiac for Hugh Connerty. Gordon ran the second fastest lap during qualifying and started on the outside of the front row of the field. Gordon would however, get involved in a wreck on lap 33. He ended up with a 39th place finish. In 1991 and 1992, Gordon went on to the Xfinity Series driving Ford Thunderbirds for Bill Davis Racing. In his first year as a Busch driver he won rookie of the year. In 1992, Gordon set a NASCAR record by capturing 11 poles in one season. His time with Bill Davis racing introduced Gordon to Ray Evernham as his crew chief. He was sponsored by Carolina Ford Dealers in 1991 and Baby Ruth in 1992. Gordon made his NASCAR Cup debut in the history-making 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta in the last race of that season; in addition to the race being Richard Petty's final race in NASCAR. This was Gordon's first start in the #24 DuPont Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports that he has driven for his entire Cup Series career. In 1994, Gordon collected his first career victory at the

Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca Cola 600, NASCAR's longest and most demanding race. Additionally, Gordon scored a popular hometown victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the inaugural Brickyard 400, passing Ernie Irvan for the lead late in the race when Irvan cut down a tire. Gordon finished eighth in the Cup point standings for the '94 season. 1995 saw Gordon win his first NASCAR Cup Championship. He won it by battling 7-time and defending champ, Dale Earnhardt into the final race of the season. Many see this as a symbolic passing of the torch, as Gordon collected his first championship the year after Earnhardt won his final championship. Gordon got off to a rocky start in 1996, but rebounded to win ten races, the series high. He finished 2nd to teammate Terry Labonte for the championship, losing by 37 points. Jeff Gordon won his first Daytona 500 in 1997, becoming the youngest driver in history to win the race; (until Trevor Bayne won the 500 in 2011 at the age of 20 years and one day.) He won the second race of the season at Rockingham the following week. That year for the Winston All-Star race they brought a radical new design to Charlotte to compete in the race. Hendrick Motorsports kept in close contact with NASCAR during the production of the car, keeping NASCAR up to date with the design. NASCAR approved the car for competition for the All Star event, and Gordon won easily. After post-race inspection, NASCAR told them "Don't ever bring this car to a race again". Hence the newly designed car was only allowed to compete in one event. They

called the car "T-Rex" as Hendrick has signed a one race deal with deal to have it sponsor the new upcoming movie "Jurassic Park". A very complete and interesting story can be found at this link. The following weekend in a completely different car, Gordon went on to win the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. Jeff Gordon claimed his second Cup championship in 1997. In 1998 Gordon set a modern era record with 13 victories, easily winning the Cup for the third time. In 2001 by winning 6 races (including a third Brickyard 400 win, and the inaugural event at Kansas Speedway) en route to his 4th NASCAR Cup championship. Jeff Gordon became the third driver to win four Cup championships in NASCAR history only second to Richard

Petty and Dale Earnhardt. In 2009, Gordon became the first driver to reach $100 Million in career winnings for the Cup series. He is tied for fifth with Cale Yarborough on the all-time victory list. He has won a total of 83 career races, second in the modern era behind Darrell Waltrip and was the fastest to reach 50 wins, requiring 232 starts, 46 fewer starts than second place Darrell Waltrip. Gordon, along with Rick Hendrick, are the co-owners of the #48 Lowe's sponsored team, driven by Jimmie Johnson, who won the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, and 2016 NASCAR Cup series championships. Gordon also has an equity stake in his own #24 team. Gordon retired at the end of 2015. But he returned to the drivers

seat briefly in 2016. While Dale Earnhardt Jr sat out with a concussion; owner Rick Hendrick convinced Gordon to come back and drive some of the 18 races that Earnhardt missed in 2016. Gordon ran eight races that season and posted a best finish of sixth; with all but one of the finished being inside the top 15. In his career he started 805 CUP races. 797 of them consecutively, from his first start in 1992 to his last (full season) start at the end of 2015 season (a record that will probably never be broken). Following his retirement Rick Hendrick came to him and asked him to fill in for several races. Dale Earnhardt Jr had a couple wrecks and was having side effects from a concussion. Earnhardt ran the first 18 races of the season and Gordon ran eight more. Alex Bowman drove the
other ten. Gordon was able to knock off the rust and seven of his eight races he finished in the top 16. Twice in

the top 10. For his career Gordon accumulated 93 wins (behind only Richard Petty and David Pearson), he has 325 top fives, and 477 top tens; with earnings of almost 154 million dollars. Gordon has always driven the #24 since he first started racing in the CUP series and has always had the same sponsor (Dupont). The only time he didn't drive the #24 was after he retired and came back to fill in for Earnhardt. So all the pics here are the same number, but show some of the more famous paint jobs. He has ran many years with the 'flames' paint scheme, but you also see the T-Rex paint scheme, along with a Pepsi Paint scheme, and the old yellow and white "throw-back" Pepsi scheme that was made famous by Darrell Waltrip. Since

the car only hit the track one time, I added this short video via YouTube so you can get a look at the car. In 2017 Gordon once again crawled behind the wheel of a race car to run in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Owner Wayne Taylor had contacted Gordon in late 2016 to see if he would be interested in being part of his four driver team to try and capture the win. The other drivers driving the #10 Minolta sponsored Cadillac DPi were Taylors sons Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli. Max was making his final start. It was the only win for Gordon in the 24 Hour race as he joined AJ Foyt, Mario Andrettiand Jamie McMurray as the only drivers to win both the Rolex 24 and the Daytona 500. Video of Brickyard 400 win here via YouTube, and a video via YouTube of Jeff at 15 years of age racing his sprint car. Info from WikiPedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JEFFERY MICHAEL "JEFF" GORDON - 08/04/1971