Gordon, Jeff

Jeff Gordon, (born August 4, 1971, Vallejo, California, U.S.), American race-car driver who dominated the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s. His aggressive driving style and knack for publicity helped popularize stock-car racing in the United States.

As a child, Gordon raced BMX bicycles before being given a quarter-midget race car. He won the national quarter-midget championship at age eight and again two years later. He soon advanced to more-powerful go-karts and routinely beat boys nearly twice his age. When Gordon was 13, his family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana, so that he could drive a 650-hp sprint car in races that did not have a minimum-age requirement. By the time he was 18, Gordon had decided to take up stock-car racing, and during the next two years, he gained invaluable experience at a number of driving schools, including that run by the National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of Fame race-car driver Buck Baker.

Gordon competed in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing’s (NASCAR’s) Grand National Series (a level below Cup Series competition) before signing with Rick Hendrick, owner of a Cup Series team, in 1992. In 1993, his first full year of racing on the Cup circuit, Gordon earned Rookie of the Year honours. The following year he won the inaugural Brickyard 400, the first major stock-car race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and in 1995 claimed his first season points championship. During the 1997 season Gordon became the youngest driver to win the sport’s premier event, the Daytona 500, and the first to win the Southern 500, NASCAR’s oldest race, three times in a row. These victories helped him capture his second NASCAR championship. In 1998, at age 27, Gordon became the youngest driver to win three season point championships en route to tying Richard Petty’s record of 13 victories in one season. He won his second Daytona 500 in 1999, and he took a fourth season points title in 2001, which at that time was the second-highest career total in NASCAR history behind Dale Earnhardt and Petty. In 2004 Gordon won his fourth Brickyard 400. He again won the Daytona 500 in 2005, though he finished that season 11th in NASCAR’S point standings, his lowest final ranking in 12 years.

Gordon returned to form in 2007, finishing second to teammate Jimmie Johnson in that year’s Cup standings. The close loss was somewhat mitigated by the fact that Gordon was part owner of the car that Johnson drove to five consecutive Cup titles (2006–10). In 2008 he posted zero Cup Series victories for the first time in 15 years, and he had another winless season in 2010, but he still managed to garner enough points to finish each season in the top 10 of the standings. Gordon continued to place among the top 10 drivers in each of the four following seasons, and in 2013 he set a NASCAR record by winning at least one pole position in a race for the 21st consecutive season. In 2015 he won just one race but nevertheless finished third in the final drivers’ standings; Gordon retired from NASCAR at the season’s end.