Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon are NASCAR's version of Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr. And that means we've officially reached the end of an era. With Gordon's retirement, next year's Daytona 500 will be the first Cup race in God knows how long without one of the sport's three giants. Sure, there are plenty of active drivers who are stars in their own right, but none are legends. There will definitely be a void. Jeff Gordon's absence will be noticed...and it will be felt. That's the impact he's had. And not just on NASCAR, either. On the entire sports landscape.
Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Jeff Gordon is one of the most important figures in NASCAR history. He was the transcendent star. The good-looking guy from Indiana who broke into a sport that was previously the exclusive domain of Southern good ol' boys. That's probably what brought about some of the resentment towards Gordon, but he was also exactly what NASCAR needed.
At a time when NASCAR was trying to find a place in the ever-expanding world of televised sports, Jeff Gordon showed up and gave them a marketable star who would be known as more than just a racecar driver. Everyone knew Jeff Gordon. He was either their favorite driver or the driver they loved to hate. Either way, they were either going to races or watching them to see him. It's because of Jeff Gordon that NASCAR became big time. It's because of Jeff Gordon that so many casual observers turned into bona fide NASCAR fans.
There's no debate about Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt's place in the NASCAR pantheon. They were among the charter members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame for a reason. Petty was the sport's first legend. The all-time leader in wins, he won the last of his record seven Winston Cup titles in 1979. That year, Dale Earnhardt won Rookie of the Year honors, before winning the first of his seven championships in 1980. Earnhardt's final Cup Series title was in 1994. Jeff Gordon won three of the next four. (Fun fact, the only race in NASCAR history to feature all three was the 1992 Hooters 500, which was Petty's last start and Gordon's first.)
Earnhardt's career intersected the end of Petty's and the beginning of Gordon's (and on that one memorable day, all three crossed over), but that doesn't do anything to dim the star of any of them. Just like the fact that Jeff Gordon didn't win a championship over the final 14 years of his career does nothing to diminish his accomplishments (it's kinda crazy to think that Gordon's last Sprint Cup title came in 2001, the year Earnhardt was killed in the Daytona 500). Because Jeff Gordon's career is about so much more than what he did on the track.
Gordon announced prior to the start of the year that 2015 would be his final campaign. And with that he became the sentimental favorite to even all of those who had been Jeff Gordon haters throughout his career. How well he did almost didn't matter. The 2015 season was Jeff Gordon's way to say goodbye to the fans, and the fans' chance to say "thank you" to Jeff Gordon.
Then it became about something else. Despite not having any wins, he had enough points after 26 races to qualify for the Chase in his final season. He still had enough points to survive the cut from 16 to 12, then again from 12 to 8. Suddenly, when he won at Martinsville, Gordon was guaranteed a shot at the championship in his final race. And he celebrated the win, which was his 93rd, as if it was his first, knowing that it would likely be his last.
As it turns out, there was no storybook finish. Gordon was a very respectable sixth at Miami, but he was behind Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, two of the other four drivers still eligible for the championship. Even still, if you'd said prior to the season that Jeff Gordon would finish third in the final driver standings, nobody would've believed you. But just like John Elway and Derek Jeter and so many others, the legends have a knack for going out in style.
This isn't the last we'll ever see of Jeff Gordon. Not by a long shot. He's already signed on to be a race commentator for FOX next season, and he's still one of the more marketable personalities in sports. (Who else can see him pulling a Michael Strahan?) It's also a pretty safe bet that he'll be a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
But things won't be the same, either. Come February and Daytona, Jeff Gordon will be retired and someone else will be driving the 24. One by one, the stars I grew up rooting for are riding off into the sunset (or, in Gordon's case, driving off into the sunset). Jeff Gordon's just the latest to hang it up.
He went out on his own terms. And he leaves his sport in a better place than when he started. A lot of that is due to him, for which the entire NASCAR universe owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude.
No comments:
Post a Comment