Putting The Reign Back In Rainbow

Sporting News, The, June 11, 2001 by Jim Gilstrap

With the tumult of the last two seasons behind him, Jeff Gordon finally has the pieces in place for another run at the top

Nothing against Jeff Gordon, but the reigning cover boy in Winston Cup--Richard Petty calls him "the head honcho"--looks like he should be sitting atop a horse, not inside a 3,400-pound racecar. Looking down at Gordon--he's 5-7 and weighs 150--I ask myself this question: Why doesn't somebody squash this guy like a bug and be done with it?

This slick-talking, baby-faced California boy would've been a greasy spot on Petty's sunglasses. Gum on the bottom of Bobby Allison's shoe. The cigarette butt David Pearson flipped out the window.

Or so you might think. Dale Earnhardt, were he here today, would tell a different story. Though it would be difficult for Earnhardt to admit, Gordon was the burr in his saddle. Gordon, more than anyone, is the reason Earnhardt didn't set the career record for championships he so badly wanted. Earnhardt, who won his last title in 1994, tied Petty with seven.

Gordon, unlike others, didn't let The Intimidator get inside his head on the racetrack. In their eight full seasons of combat, Gordon won 52 races, 33 poles, three Winston Cup championships and finished in the top five 129 limes. In the same period, Earnhardt won 23 races, nine poles, two Cup rifles and posted 101 top-five finishes.

"Even when Earnhardt was here, Jeff was still the dominant driver," Petty says. "But Earnhardt met the criteria the fans wanted in excitement. They could bond to him. That's what carried him. There's not a charismatic person like Earnhardt out here now. Gordon is not that kind of person."

But racing needs him--or someone, and Gordon certainly is the best candidate--to be "that kind of person."

Petty says the group of drivers he raced with elevated the sport to a new level. "Earnhardt picked it up from there and took it to another level," he adds. "Somebody else will pick it up and take it to another level. It might be Gordon because Gordon, to me, is the head honcho."

Not so fast, King Richard. Yes, Gordon was the head honcho in 1998, when he tied the modem-day record Petty established in 1975 with 13 victories in a season. Most folks in the garage say that number won't be touched again. Gordon was pretty dam good the two seasons before that, too, winning 10 races each year and one points championship.

Then along came 1999, when Gordon slipped to seven wins, lost his points title to Dale Jarrett, and, near the end of the season, lost his security blanket and crew chief, Ray Evernham, to Dodge. After the season, Gordon also lost most of the Rainbow Warriors, considered the best crew in the pits. They went to Jarrett, too.

So it was no surprise Gordon struggled last season, winning three races--his worst effort since 1994--and posting just 11 top-five finishes in 34 events. Worse than that, he wasn't competitive many weeks, especially the first half of the season.

Why, then, do many think Gordon is ready for a revival? Let's start with his performance last Sunday, when he led 381 of 400 laps in a dominating victory at Dover. That gives him two wins and three second-place finishes after 13 races. Pssst When he won 13 in '98, he had only three wins alter 13 races. More to the point, though, was his flash of the old Gordon flair--winning The Winston, the sport's non-points all-star event, in a backup car after crashing his primary car on a wet track.

Is that what all the fuss is about? Gordon, because he pulled a rabbit out of his hat that night in Charlotte, is capable of performing magic the rest of the season--the way he did in '98?

"The Friday before The Winston, nobody wanted to interview me, nobody wanted an autograph," Gordon says. "After Saturday (when he won), all of a sudden, now we're like we were in '98--and we're not--but it's like people are getting that perception. That's great. I want that because we certainly feel like this year we have the team and we have the cars. But we haven't put all the pieces in place yet."

But wouldn't it be fun if he did? Admit it. You miss the old Jeff Gordon--who was just a little too slick and just enough better than everyone else--and want him back. Certainly it can be argued the sport misses the old Gordon and needs him right now.

The Gordon everyone, including Dale Earnhardt--especially Dale Earnhardt--wanted to beat.

The Gordon we tuned in to watch because we knew he could win every week, and we were afraid he just might.

The Gordon who was loved or hated--but never accepted as just a nice guy.

Every sport thrives when there is one team at the top for everyone else to be measured against, and Gordon's constant success provided that.

Admit it. You miss that, don't you?

Brian Whitesell is an engineer, a graduate of Virginia Tech. He has been with Gordon's No. 24 team since Day One. He says he knew that last season, because all the personnel changes came at the same time Monte Carlo rolled out a new model, would be difficult--"just not that difficult." There were many weeks the team Whitesell manages showed up for races with cars that weren't capable of winning.