Know Your Driver: Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon

Name: Jeffrey Michael "Jeff" Gordon

            Nickname: "Wonder Boy", "Big Daddy"

Date of Birth: August 4, 1971 (age 44)

Hometown: Vallejo, California

Family: Ingrid, wife; Ella, daughter; Leo, son

First Career Start: November 15, 1992 (Atlanta)

Car Number and Make: #24 Chevrolet SS

Primary Sponsors:

• Drive to End Hunger
• Axalta
• 3M
• Pepsi
• Panasonic

Team: Hendrick Motorsports

Teammates: Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Best Career Points Finish: 1st (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001)

Career Victories: 92

Notable Wins:

• Daytona 500 (1997, 1999, 2005)
• Brickyard 400 (1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014)
• Southern 500 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2007)
• Coca-Cola 600 (1994, 1997, 1998)
• All-Star Race (1995, 1997, 2001

Description: It's hard to believe that Jeff Gordon's racing career will come to a close at the end of the 2015 season. In a career that has spanned 22 years, Jeff Gordon has cemented himself as one of the greatest drivers that the sport has ever seen.

Gordon started out racing quarter midgets at the age of five and simply dominated races he participated in until the age of 12. By the time he was 16, Gordon was granted a sprint car license, the youngest person to do so at the time. California did not allow racers that young to drive sprint cars, so Gordon and his family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana to further his career.

It didn't take long for Gordon to start tearing up the sprint car scene, leading to offers from Formula 1 over in Europe, however, Gordon decided to take a different approach. Gordon scored an XFinity (Busch Series then) ride in 1990 and turned enough heads to make that ride become a full-time one in 1991. Gordon won Rookie of the Year in 1991 and ran one more season in the Busch Series in 1992, winning three races and scoring a record 11 pole positions that year.

By the time 1993 rolled around, Jack Roush had attempted to sign Gordon since he ran Fords in the Busch Series, but wouldn't sign Gordon's crew chief Ray Evernham as well. So that led Gordon to being signed by Rick Hendrick, where he began driving the now iconic #24 DuPont Chevy in its traditional rainbow colors. After that, the rest, as they say, is history or at least it will officially be at the conclusion of this season.

It would take a book at this point to go into all of the success Gordon has achieved in his 22 year career, so I'll sum it up as best as I can. Gordon has the 3rd most wins in NASCAR all-time with 92, only trailing Richard Petty with 200 and David Pearson with 105, both of whom are Hall-of-Famers. Gordon has four championships which puts him 4th all-time behind Petty and Dale Earnhardt with seven a piece and his current teammate Jimmie Johnson who has six. He has the record for most consecutive seasons with a pole position at 23 years (aka he's won at least one every season in his career). He has won all of the biggest races in NASCAR multiple times. And perhaps the most impressive thing of all is that Gordon has managed to win in every form of car that NASCAR has dealt out over the last 20 years. 

Gordon may not have had the smashing success he had in the 90s and early 2000s over the last eight years or so, but his focused has shifted considerably you could say. He now has two children who he wants to spend time with, something that was not a part of his life back when he was dominant.

Despite Gordon's impending retirement, he will still be around NASCAR, serving as a commentator for FOX beginning at Daytona next February. But it will be odd to see NASCAR's final remaining driver from the 1990s bow out. At least he's doing it while he's still a damn good racer.

Fun Facts: Jeff Gordon is arguably the reason NASCAR is now in the public eye to this day, and his list of things done outside of racing makes it easy to see why. He's the only NASCAR driver to ever host Saturday Night Live. He's hosted Live! With Regis (now Michael) and Kelly ten times. He's been on too many other television shows to name. He's appeared in films such as Looney Tunes, Taxi, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and Cars. He's done so much philanthropic work, including having his own foundation, The Jeff Gordon Foundation and donating tons of money to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis. That's all I'll name here, but you can find a full list on his Wikipedia page.