Leaving as a Legend: Jeff Gordon Retiring on Top Despite Falling Short of Title
Back in the 1990s, when Jeff Gordon was dominating NASCAR as few men ever have, Bobby Allison told me Gordon was the smartest driver he'd ever seen.
"I never thought I'd ever say that about anyone but David Pearson," Allison said, "but I believe Gordon is smarter than Pearson."
It's a shame those two, Gordon and Pearson, never raced together. Gordon won 93 races and four championships. Pearson won 105 and three. It's also a shame Gordon didn't race with all the other titans of the past—Allison, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, etc.—because his future place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame is just as assured and deserved.
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So he failed to win it all one more time. Kyle Busch won his first, and in spectacular fashion. Gordon's exit wasn't perfect. It sure was impressive, though.
Most athletes in general, and race drivers in particular, show up in whatever league is big because something brings them there. Then they ride their career out, and most step aside because a door is locked behind them in one form or another.
Not Gordon. He knew when to say "when." He and owner Rick Hendrick made their match in heaven, and it changed NASCAR forever, like Bill Russell and Red Auerbach changed the NBA.
As Allison noted, he's smart.
Gordon said to NBC Sports, "To drive for one of the best car owners, if not the best, and drive the best race cars and work with the best people, that's why I have the wins and the championships that I have, and why we did what we did in the final race, battling for the championship...and all the love I've gotten from the fans and everybody in the sport, there's nothing better than that."
| Season | Laps Led | Victories | Avg. Finish |
| 1995 | 2,610 | 7 | 9.4 |
| 1997 | 1,647 | 10 | 9.6 |
| 1998 | 1,717 | 13 | 5.7 |
| 2001 | 2,320 | 6 | 11.0 |
| Career | 24,929 | 93 | 12.5 |
No, Gordon didn't win a fifth championship in his final race. He gave it a good shot and wound up sixth in the Ford EcoBoost 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and third in the final standings of his career. It took a victory, Kyle Busch's fifth of the season, to win the Cup, and Kevin Harvick's 13th second-place finish wasn't enough.
Gordon's reputation will only be enhanced by his timing. In his prime, he dominated NASCAR with a verve that has seldom been attained. He won 40 races in a span of four years, and 47 in five. He won championships in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001. Fourteen years after the last one, he was within one race and five positions of winning a fifth.
"I told everybody before the race that, no matter what, we were going to be happy and celebrate," Gordon said. "That is exactly what we are going to do."
Gordon's rookie season was also mine. The first season I was a full-time NASCAR beat reporter was 1993. He didn't win a points race that year, but it was coming. The next year he won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and then the first Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Beginning in his third season, 1995, he succeeded Earnhardt as the greatest of an era.
Just as Petty's final championship (1979) had been the year before Earnhardt's first, Earnhardt's last (1994) was the year before Gordon's first. The two finished 1-2 in four races. Gordon won three. During the 258 races in which they both competed, Gordon collected 52 victories to Earnhardt's 23.
Many have suggested it was Gordon who ushered NASCAR into a golden era in which it reached the mainstream of American sport, and yet Gordon, at age 21, wasn't dynamic. No driver so young had previously been thought capable of climbing right into the very best of equipment without an informal apprenticeship in the school of hard knocks. Gordon seemed overwhelmed by the attention, and many resented him for no good reason.
When Gordon won a championship at age 23, it paved the way for dozens of other bright young drivers, some of whom made it big, including Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, first Kurt and then Kyle Busch, Harvick, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.
That's how Gordon changed the sport.
Another rare gift of Gordon's is his ability never to make the same mistake twice. Gordon learned from his rare mistakes. He responded to hatred—yes, there was a time when fans booed Gordon as lustily as Richard Petty was ever cheered—with dignity.
At 21, Gordon was a fantastic talent who seemed clueless, who relied on a brilliant crew chief, Ray Evernham, in ways that spanned far beyond the cockpit, and whose every public remark seemed predictable and rehearsed.
He goes out as an absolute master of the art of driving of race cars at this point in history.
"I love the fans, and I love the media," Gordon said on Friday, "and I'm having the time of my life."
It's almost perfection. The only tiny flaw was in the ending, and even it was a triumph in its way. Gordon is going home to his wife, Ingrid, and his kids, eight-year-old Ella and five-year-old Leo.
Gordon will now master the art of being an expert analyst on television, but he'll find more leisure time there.
"Gosh," he said. "The end. It's, like, the end, man. Let's see."
Then he referred to his children.
"I don't know if they truly understand what it means. They know this is my last race, and there's lots of family and friends and people here who aren't typically at a race," Gordon said. "They've heard us talk about it, certainly, but I don't know if they truly know and understand what that means and how it's going to change life.
"I hope they realize that one of the reasons I'm doing it is to spend more time with them."
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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