View Chase Chronicle: Jeff Gordon
Chase Chronicle: Jeff Gordon
By Gregg Leary
Category:NASCAR -> Sprint Cup
Jeff Gordon must have a LOVE/HATE relationship with the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. It’s the old optimist/pessimist… “Is the cup half empty or half full?” scenario. In Jeff’s case the Cup “spilled” on two occasions. If the Chase for the Cup did NOT exist Jeff would be a SIX TIME Cup Champion. With the Traditional Points carried through the 36 race season Jeff would have won the Championship in 2004 (by 47 Points) and 2007 (by a whopping 353 Points). However, he would NOT be in the 2008 Chase. He would have ended the “regular season” 657 points back with NO chance of taking the title. “The Chase giveth and the Chase taketh away.”
Gordon currently ranks 11th in the Chase points after a lackluster 14th place finish at New Hampshire. Can he climb the charts and capture his fifth/seventh Cup Title? The numbers would suggest he has a good chance. How good?
Gordon is currently #1 among active drivers with 81 Wins. (6th All Time)
His Winning % is the best of all active drivers at 15%. (8th All Time)
If he continues at that rate he will surpass Cale Yarborough (83 Wins), Darrell Waltrip (84 Wins), and Bobby Allison (85 Wins), within a year and will be #3 on the All Time Win List behind Richard Petty’s 200 and David Pearson’s 105. To pass Pearson’s total, Jeff would have to drive for five more years… which is quite plausible. Petty’s record is untouchable.
Gordon’s Top Five % is best among active drivers at 45%. (15th All Time)
Jeff’s Top Ten % is best among active drivers at 61%. (12th All Time)
Gordon’s Average Finish of 12.4 is 2nd among active drivers. (19th All Time)
Jeff’s 65 Poles are the most of active drivers. (4th All Time)
He is best among active drivers in Average Start at 9.65. (24th All Time)
Gordon is first among active drivers in Laps Led with 19,743. (8th All Time)
He is third all time in Lead Lap Finishes. (Behind only Mark Martin and Richard Petty.)
The numbers are impressive but one number is even more surprising. Jeff is winless so far this year…the first time since his rookie season of 1993! Will he break the drought? His stats would say “YES.”
How has Gordon done in the Chase?
He has 3 wins in 41 Chase races. (The 7% Chase Winning Percentage is less than HALF of his Career Winning percentage of 15%.)
His 18 Top Fives in 41 Chase races equals 44%...only 1% below his career average.
His 27 Top Tens in 41 Chase races equals 66%...5% ABOVE his career average.
Jeff Gordon: A Brief Bio
Cup Champion 1995, 97, 98, 2001
Daytona 500 Winner (1997, 1999, 2005)
USAC Midget Champion 1990
USAC Silver Crown Champion 1991
Won 4 Karting Titles
Won 3 Quarter- Midget National Championships
Jeff Gordon’s Talladega win in 2007 was his 12th Restrictor Plate Win…Most All Time (Passes Dale Earnhardt’s11)
ALL TIME WINS
Richard Petty 200
David Pearson 105
Bobby Allison 85
Darrell Waltrip 84
Cale Yarborough 83
Jeff Gordon 81
Born: August 4, 1971 (37)
Vallejo, CA
Married: Ingrid Vandebosch
Children: Ella
81 Wins
65 Poles
536 Starts (17 Years)
15 Full Seasons
243 Top 5
329 Top Ten
Average Start: 9.7
Average Finish: 12.4
Has Driven over 199,000 race miles
Gordon has driven for only ONE Cup owner: Rick Hendrick
Dale Earnhardt drove for 9 CUP owners: Ed Negre, Walter Ballard, Johnny Ray, Henley Gray, Will Cronkite, Rod Osterlund, Jim Stacy, Bud Moore and Richard Childress.
Rick Hendrick was impressed with Jeff Gordon the first time he saw him…at a Busch race at Atlanta in 1991…”Jeff Gordon was smoking all four tires in every turn on every lap. I thought it was just a matter of time until he’d crash. He didn’t crash. He just kept smoking those tires and leading those laps. I was impressed.”
Rick also said, “Jeff Gordon came in and really revolutionized the sport.”
Ray Evernham remembers when he and Gordon first tested a Busch car at Charlotte in 1990. “Jeff was so sideways at one point in turn three, you could see the markings on the hood as if they were coming straight at you. That’s how far sideways the car was. I knew right then this kid had some talent as a race car driver.”
Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR Cup start was Richard Petty’s last…11-15-92 at Atlanta. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another.
1993: Jeff Gordon won his Twin 125 Qualifying Race (non-points) in only his SECOND start (Age 21) He led the first lap of the Daytona 500…and finished fifth
1993 Coke 600 at Charlotte. When Jeff finished 2nd to Dale Earnhardt, Rick Hendrick said, “He (Jeff) has a lot of Dale in him.”
1994 Brickyard 400 Win: “I took an extra victory lap to wipe the tears from my eyes.”
1999 Daytona 500 Win: “Beating Earnhardt like that in the Daytona 500 is probably the biggest single thrill I’ve had. I want to thank Dale for a great race…and for what he’s taught me the last couple years. That’s the only way I kept him behind me.” (Jeff won over Dale by a car length (.128 Second) Dale was on Jeff’s bumper the last 25 laps.)
“Give Gordon credit. He beat me.” Dale Earnhardt (who would have won his 2nd Daytona 500.)
Jeff Gordon Fast Facts:
1. John Bickford, Jeff’s step-dad must be a great salesman. Jeff was riding BMX bikes at age 5 and John brought a pair of quarter midgets home and convinced Jeff’s Mom that the race car was safer than riding a bike.
2. John took Jeff’s Mom to a racetrack for their first date.
3. In 1979 Jeff won 52 National Quarter Midget races…sleeping in the backseat of the car. No “silver spoon” there. Quite a contrast to the corporate jets and motor homes of today.
4. By age 12 he’d won over 200 races in quarter midgets and carts…then he wanted another challenge…water skiing.
5. In 1985, he read about a 13 year old kid running sprint cars in Indiana. To race them in California Jeff would have to be 16. To go from a 3 Horsepower Quarter Midget to a 700 HP Sprinter must have been a quantum leap Imagine being 13 years old and competing against the likes of Steve Kinser at Speed Weeks in Florida with the All Stars.
6. Jeff didn’t win that first year but he WAS competitive, with a best finish of 2nd. His family decided to move to Pittsboro, Indiana…just 20 miles from the Brickyard…so Jeff could race sprint cars at Age 13.
7. The next year at Speed Weeks went better…he got a great compliment, “Kid, you’re going to be a good one.” From none other than Steve Kinser!
8. In 1990 Jeff was the USAC Midget Champ…at 19, the youngest to win the title…but, he had an experience that changed his life…at Rockingham…The Buck Baker School. He decided to race stock cars!
9. Gordon qualified 2nd for his first Busch race with Hugh Connerty in 1990.
10. In 1991 he hooked up with Bill Davis and won Busch “Rookie of the Year” but NO races.
11. In 1992 he took 11 poles and 3 Wins… with Ray Evernham His first win at Atlanta impressed another car owner…Rick Hendrick.
12. Jeff’s debut for Hendrick in Cup at Atlanta in 1992 was the last race for Richard Petty. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another.
13. In 1993 Gordon won Cup “Rookie of the Year.”
14. In 1994 Jeff’s first win was NASCAR’s Longest Race…the Coca Cola 600 (less than 2 miles from the Hendrick race shop). Then he won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in his adopted state of Indiana.
15. In 1995 Gordon won his first Championship…and went on a run where he nearly won four titles in a row. (It would have surpassed Cale Yarborough’s three titles in a row from 1976-78.) Gordon won Championships in 1995, 1997, 1998 and was second in 1996.
16. In 1999 he lost Ray Evernham and the entire “over the wall gang” pit crew. Pundits said he was finished…but Gordon regrouped to win his 4th Cup title in 2001.
17. He is NASCAR’s all time leading money winner. His supposed “rivalry” with Dale Earnhardt was probably media hype. Earnhardt called him…”Wonderboy.” Jeff got Dale back by toasting with milk instead of Champagne at the Victory Banquet at theWaldorf. Earnhardt got his dig in when he went on Letterman in 1995 and said he was the first MAN to win the Brickyard 400. (Jeff had won it the year before.) It was good natured teasing from a friend.
18. After Dale’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500? Jeff wrote, “you have to live every minute as if it could be your last…no one is promised tomorrow. If something like this can happen to Dale Earnhardt, it can happen to any of us.”