The “New” Jeff Gordon Gets First Win at Chicagoland
Career win number 75 for the guy many used to call “Wonder Boy” came near the town where Michael Jordan worked his magic with the Bulls of the NBA. Jeff Gordon, like M.J., is used to winning. Winning at the highst level.
Championships.
But his “Drive For Five” has been a difficult proposition to date. He didn’t even make the Nextel Cup “playoffs” last year, leading to a replacement at the crew chief position.
After his dismal finish at Daytona last week, Gordon fell out of the all-important top 10 in the Nextel Cup Series point standings, and he was once again being written off by some, who thought he would miss the Chase for the second straight year.
But this is Jeff Gordon we’re talking about. Not only that, this is the new Jeff Gordon. All of the talent and much less patience than in his Rainbow Warrior days. The old Jeff probably wouldn’t have dumped Matt Kenseth with four laps to go in a race.
He would have more than likely made the pass cleanly, waved, and pulled away for the win.
Granted, Matt was going to run out of fuel anyway. And, yes, he checked up in front of Gordon as they both passed a slower car on the inside. But, as Gordon himself said after the race, “I drove right in the back of him…I didn’t mind moving him out of the way. If we can get the win, we are going to go really hard to get that win.”
Sounds pretty intentional to me, although NASCAR didn’t see it that way.
Are there still some ill feelings between these two hanging on from their incident at Bristol? I was personally about 10 feet from the famous shove when it happened, and I can tell you that was a Jeff Gordon people rarely, if ever, see.
Yes, we’ve all seen the ‘bump and run’ from Gordon over the years (especially at Bristol), but this seems to be a different guy. The days of Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham winning, almost at will, are long gone. Gordon is scrapping like he’s afraid his best days are behind him, and he better do all he can to get to victory lane, even if it means running through somebody in the closing laps.
Jeff Gordon used to be a big fish in a small pond. Now he’s just one of many fish in the ocean, and who knows if he’ll be able to swim to the top again for that 5th championship before he decides to hang his gloves up for good. Much less for a 6th like Jordan–
–or a 7th like Petty or Earnhardt.