When Jeff Gordon arrived on the NASCAR scene in the 1990s, he took the sport by storm. Piloting the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, the youngster out of Vallejo, California quickly became a dominant force on the racetrack.
It did not come easy, however, as Gordon had to top Dale Earnhardt, who claimed a record-tying seventh championship in the former’s second full-time Cup Series season.
With Earnhardt at the top and Gordon on the rise, it made for one of the greatest rivalries NASCAR has ever seen.
Gordon on Earnhardt rivalry: ‘Never met anybody like that’
Gordon recently appeared as a guest on the “Racin’ With The Boys” podcast and was asked about the rivalry with “The Intimidator.” Off the racetrack, Gordon said Earnhardt was “good to him” and appreciated the business side of the sport.
Earnhardt saw the sport growing, Gordon said, and had an eye on how he could contribute to it.
“I think he saw something in me that was like, ‘OK, I don’t want to race him on the racetrack, but off the track, he could be helpful,’ so he was really good to me in that standpoint,” Gordon said.
On the racetrack, it was a different story for Gordon and Earnhardt. While there were moments during driver introductions where Gordon felt he and Earnhardt bonded, that changed when the green flag dropped.
“You go down in the first turn and he’d just bodyslam you. It didn’t matter if it ended your day or if it was just a little love tap or whatever it was. You come to realize when you race against Dale as much as I did. … He was just grinning from ear to ear inside that car when he did stuff like that. I’ve never met anybody like that before. I’ve never raced against anyone like that,” Gordon said.
In his first few years of NASCAR Cup Series racing, all Gordon was focused on was winning. He did not care for getting into rivalries and the “politics” of the sport. All he wanted was to be the first driver across the finish line at the end of the race.
Earnhardt, meanwhile, knew what the rivalry between himself and Gordon could do for the sport’s growth.
The one question Gordon would ask Earnhardt today
On his way to winning his first of four Cup Series titles in 1995, Gordon had to shake off Earnhardt, both on and off the racetrack.
Throughout that year, Gordon recalls Earnhardt taking jabs at him in the media, giving him the nickname “Wonder Boy” and joking that if he were to win the championship, they would serve him milk at the end of season banquet instead of champagne.
Gordon admitted that Earnhardt’s comments would get to him. At the time, however, Gordon said he did not understand Earnhardt’s tactics.
Was Earnhardt’s constant poking a way to add fuel to the fire of their rivalry?
If Gordon had the chance to talk to Earnhardt, who was tragically killed in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, he would ask how much of the rivalry was real, and how much of it was manufactured.
“I think about that often. If I had time with him again before we lost him, what would I have said to him? What would I have asked him? I definitely would have said, ‘Hey, ‘95 when we were going for the championship, how much of that was just total bull****?’ Because it was getting under my skin,” Gordon said.
Whether the animosity was real or played up for the fans, the Gordon/Earnhardt rivalry was a thrilling period for NASCAR that got more eyeballs on the sport than ever before.
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