Love him or hate him, Gordon leads the pack
CONCORD, N.C. – After a decade of proving he’s among the best to ever drive a stock car, Jeff Gordon still triggers an intense and divided reaction from NASCAR fans – something fellow driver Kasey Kahne knows firsthand.
“I rode with Jeff Gordon in the back of his truck a couple times around parade laps at racetracks,” Kasey Kahne said. “It’s pretty wild to see some of the stuff that gets thrown or pointed at him.”
It’s a comment that makes Jeff Gordon burst with laughter. “I’ve been seeing it for so long I just smile and wave,” he said. “I’m just like, yep, cool, thank you. But sometimes guys who ride with me go, ‘Wow.’ ”
As Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and 41 other Nextel Cup drivers returned to suburban Charlotte for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon is again stoking fans’ emotions by mounting a charge for a fifth Cup championship.
If he wins it, the Hendrick Motorsports driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet would become only the third driver with five titles in NASCAR’s premier series. Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt each had seven.
Jeff Gordon has won three of the last four races this season, and has nine top-five finishes in 11 races this year. That has given him a whopping 231-point lead in the standings, virtually assuring him a berth among the dozen drivers who will compete in the late-season Chase for the Cup that determines the champion.
Nothing has changed about Jeff Gordon’s intensity to win another championship to add to his titles in 1995, ’97, ’98 and 2001.
“Every year I won the championship there wasn’t a Chase and I want that Nextel Cup so bad,” he said after winning two weeks ago at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, referring to the Chase format that started in 2004.
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