Jeff Gordon
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Jeffrey Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American race car driver. He was born in Vallejo, California, and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a four-time NASCAR Winston Cup (now NEXTEL Cup) Series champion and driver of the #24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. His primary sponsor is DuPont, though he occasionally drives a Pepsi-themed car. His other sponsors include Quaker State, Haas, GMAC, Georgia-Pacific, Sparkle, and Nicorette. He is also the owner of the #48 team, driven by Jimmie Johnson.
Racing career
Jeff Gordon began racing at the age of five [1] and according to his step-father, John Bickford, racing was Jeff's idea. It may have been his idea, but his family fully supported him. Gordon's family moved from Vallejo, California to Indiana just for the racing opportunities available for drivers in general but especially for minor-aged drivers. 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. The next year Gordon won the USAC Midget title. In 1991, Gordon moved up to the USAC Silver Crown and at the age of 20 became the youngest driver to win the title. Gordon then went on to spend two successful years in the NASCAR in 1991 and 1992, driving for Bill Davis Racing Busch Series (he set a NASCAR record by capturing 11 poles in one season). Coincidentally, Gordon's first NASCAR Winston Cup Series race, the 1992 Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, was also the final race for Richard Petty. In 1993, Gordon raced his first full season in the Winston Cup for Hendrick Motorsports, where he won the Rookie of the Year award and finished 14th in points. In 1994, Jeff Gordon collected his first career victory at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Coca Cola 600. Additionally, Gordon scored a popular hometown victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the inagural Brickyard 400. Finally, in 1995, at the age of 24, Gordon won the first of four NASCAR Winston Cup Championships. There are only two other drivers with more than four Cup titles: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt (both had seven titles). In 2004, Gordon also became the only NASCAR driver with four Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one of only four drivers to have four victories at the historic track.
Gordon is regarded as one of the best active drivers in NASCAR because he achieved so much through sheer talent at such a young age. Through the 2005 Nextel Cup season Gordon accumulated 73 Nextel Cup victories, third to Dale Earnhardt's 76 wins and Darrell Waltrip's NASCAR-recognized Modern-Era record of 84, and seventh on the all-time list. It is also thought by many that he opened NASCAR up to the rest of the nation; before Gordon's success in NASCAR, the sport and organization was not popular outside of the Southeast United States. Gordon is still one of the best known drivers in NASCAR, often finishing 2nd in the Most Popular Driver Award. 1/4 threw the 2006 season Jeff Gordons best finish came at Darlington and Martinsville where he finished 2nd.
Public image and personal life
Fan reaction to Gordon's continuing success has been sharply divided. Gordon remains popular in his home state of Indiana and his birth state of California, and as indicated by the success of merchandising of #24 products, outside the Deep South, but is often booed by fans in traditional NASCAR venues. Part of this schism in popularity is attributed to Gordon's "Madison Avenue" appeal, his apparent rivalry with Dale Earnhardt during the 1990's, and the resentment in the Deep South of perceived "Yankees." NASCAR for years had been a predominantly Southern sport, and many fans today attribute NASCAR's changes, not all of which are popular, to the influence of corporate sponsorships and the media.
Rumors of Gordon's alleged homosexuality, which have not been substantiated, have been the subject of parody songs, comic web sites and blogs. In the Internet journal Slate.com, an article speaks to the rumors, which have largely been fueled by supermarket tabloid The Globe:
- NASCAR star Jeff Gordon also gets drawn into the Globe's web of gayness. Gordon's recent split from his wife has reportedly "reignited inflammatory talk that the racing hunk is gay." His wife, Brooke, is said to have complained that her husband was a "cold fish" who didn't satisfy her in the bedroom. And a friend explains that "because he's good-looking and dresses well, he's an obvious target to pick on." Obvious. As if the nice clothes weren't enough, the story further explains that "Gordon's slight build and soft-spoken manner also sparked the gay gossip, not to mention that here was a clean-cut California kid kickin' butt in a Southern sport." [2]
In his memoir, Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front, the driver actually addresses the rumor, which he denies. Part of the rumor was fueled by a comment by Dale Earnhardt, Sr. intended as a joke. At the time Gordon had been dating Miss Winston, Brooke Sealy, but because Sealy worked for Winston the couple was required to keep the relationship a secret. When they finally went public with the relationship, Earnhardt, making a joke, said "Whew, I'm glad to see you've got a girlfriend. Some of us were beginning to wonder if you liked girls." Gordon's response to the rumors is both classy and diplomatic: "I'd like to think if I were gay, I would be comfortable enough to say so and get on with my life. The fact is I'm not, and I never quite understood why so many people want to believe otherwise." Gordon married Brooke Sealy in 1994. Their marriage ended in a very public and bitter divorce in 2003, fueling the rumors all over again. Since his divorce, Gordon has publicly dated runway model Amanda Church, and is currently seeing aspiring actress and model Ingrid Vandebosch.
Since his last NASCAR Championship
Gordon has also participated in some off-road events, including a winning drive with Team USA at the 2002 Race of Champions. He was slated to run it again in 2004 against Formula 1 Champion Michael Schumacher but was sidelined by the flu, and Casey Mears took his place. In 2005, Gordon competed in the Race of Champions event again, this time held in Paris, France, where he was partnered with famed motocross racer/X Games winner Travis Pastrana. Gordon was unable to qualify for the finals, as his car had trouble starting up in the quarterfinal round of the competition.
On June 11 2003, at a special exhibition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gordon took laps in Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams BMW, while Montoya did laps in Gordon's Nextel Cup car. The exhibition was broadcast live by SPEED Channel, in a special called, Tradin' Paint.
On February 20, 2005 Jeff Gordon won the Daytona 500 for the third time. He previously won "The Great American Race" in 1997 and 1999. Also, Gordon won the Brickyard 400 on August of 2004, obtaining his 4th Indy win. He claimed wins at the famed raceway in 1994, 1998, and 2001.
Gordon even became a subject in Nelly's second hit song "E.I." A passage from the rapper's 2000 hit goes:
- I drive fastly, call me Jeff Gordon
- In a black S.S. with the navigation
In 2004, Gordon finished 3rd in the NEXTEL Cup points behind Kurt Busch and teammate Jimmie Johnson even though he scored the most total points throughout the whole season, a consequence of the new Chase system implemented in 2004.
Gordon started the 2005 season with a win in the Daytona 500, but inconsistency would plague him throughout the year. A late season run put him in position to qualify for the Chase, but in the last race before the Chase at Richmond, Gordon made contact with the wall and failed to qualify. Despite this disappointment, on October 23 Gordon won the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, his first win in 22 points races. He went on to finish 11th in the Championship and received a $1,000,000 bonus as the top driver finishing outside the Chase. It was Gordon's first time outside the top 10 in the point standings since 1993.
Effective September 14, 2005 Crew Chief Robbie Loomis resigned from #24 team. Loomis stayed on with Hendrick Motorsports as a consultant for Jimmie Johnson's #48 team through the Chase for The Nextel Cup in 2005. Steve Letarte, Gordon's car chief for most of the '05 season, replaced Loomis as crew chief effective at New Hampshire International Speedway on September 18th, 2005. Letarte began his first full season as crew chief for Gordon in the 2006 Nextel Cup Season.
In 2006, Jeff Gordon has 4 top 5 finishes and 6 top 10s, and currently sits eleventh in points (11 points out of 10th place) through fifteen races in the season.
Jeff Gordon in the movies
Gordon has made cameo appearances starring as himself in Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Taxi, and Herbie: Fully Loaded.
He was also referred to as "J. Gordon" in the Bernie Mac/Ashton Kutcher film Guess Who. In one scene, Simon (Kutcher) tells Percy (Mac) that he once worked in Gordon's pit crew, and he also discovers Percy is a huge fan of Gordon.
Trivia
- Jeff is the leader among active drivers with the most career victories (73).
- Jeff is the leader among active drivers with four Nextel Cup titles (1995, 1997, 1998, and 2001).
- Famous sports friends include golfer Tiger Woods, tennis player Andre Agassi, and former NBA star Charles Barkley.[3]
- Jeff became the first NASCAR driver to host "Saturday Night Live" in January 2003.
- Tied a modern era record with 4 consecutive wins in the summer of 1998.
- Jeff has won a Nextel Cup race on all but four tracks (Phoenix International Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway).
- In 2004, Jeff won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a record fourth time joining A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Michael Schumacher, and Rick Mears as the only drivers to do so.
- Jeff’s personal aircraft is a Raytheon Hawker 800 regestered N24JG.
- (The contents of this section have been taken from the Jeff Gordon fansite gordonline.com).
Lists
- List of Drivers for Hendrick Racing
- List of racing drivers
- List of people by name: Gor
- List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
- List of NASCAR teams
- List of Pepsi spokespersons
- List of people from Indiana