Jeff Gordon's Effect on NASCAR Reaches Far Beyond the Track

I think as NASCAR fans we have forgotten something. Jeff Gordon has done more than win championships. He has broadened NASCAR's visibility.

Yes, after last year the expectations for Gordon were extremely high, and even unfair.

Every driver has one spectacular year in which everything seems to go well. Sometimes it ends up in a championship and other times, even without a championship, you can look back to find great accomplishment.

For Gordon, that was the case. Setting the modern day record for most top 10's and top fives in a season is an impressive feat.

Ryan Newman had that type of year in 2003. He had eight wins and didn't win the championship finishing sixth. What looked like a promising Jeff Gordon-type career has turned disappointing year after year. Now Newman is leaving Roger Penske to join Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas racing in 2009.

So yes, expectations are one thing. Often we set our own expectations as fans way too high, expecting one man to carry the hopes of an entire fan base. And falling short is unacceptable.

He takes it personally, he knows that his fans expect him to win, expect him to be up front, and anything short of that is not success. He knows the media will scrutinize every win and every race in between. He knows this and accepts the fact that his success has sometimes become his own worst enemy.

That's unfortunate, because what we seem to be forgetting is that what Jeff Gordon has done for this sport goes beyond what happened in 2007 and what will happen in 2008.

His charity work with the Make a Wish Foundation and the Jeff Gordon Foundation contributes to pediatric research regarding life-threatening diseases and raises money for life-saving equipment.

Holding countless charity events, both at and away from the track, makes giving back to the same people who are rooting for him in the stands and from home all the more important.

He has an articulate way of speaking, and is always politically correct, whether in his interviews or in his analysis of the sport. He knows his standing in this sport as a seasoned pro. He knows when to speak out and when to fall in line. To the anger of many NASCAR fans, it seems unnatural that a driver in this sport would not be outspoken.

But if you look at the changing trend, more and more of today's drivers are following Gordon and are not so willing to speak out at any given chance. They are picking and choosing their battles. With the exception of a few, Gordon's influence goes well beyond the four turns of a race track.

He takes his leadership in the garage very seriously. It's the same role his mentor Dale Sr. carried. He knows what is expected of him, he knows he can't throw fits, he knows he can't bash NASCAR in the media, and he knows they need him as much as he needs them.

Introducing new fans to a sport that has been tagged by many in the media as "redneck," Gordon introduced generations of fans, particularly in a region of the U.S. in which NASCAR was unknown, to a new brand of competition.

He made NASCAR the every man's sport, and even the New York stock broker could relate to this man. He made clear that just because on Sundays he is strapped into a 3400-pound monster, doesn't mean that same night he can't be attending social gatherings with Hollywood's heavy hitters.

While to the core of NASCAR fans this is completely unrelatable, he opened NASCAR up to a completely new demographic and even age group.

In doing so he has changed the persona of NASCAR in the North and even West with his wineries in the Southern California Valley. He seems to take the media and fans' scrutiny of his Hollywood appeal in stride, knowing that results speak louder than words. And that's exactly what he has done, winning 81 times and four championships.