Jeff Gordon Story

Item #6605

(September, 1994) The popularity of this young driver became clear to me on the morning I photographed him in front of my sculpting studio. Some friends who had come to visit me drove up and jumped out of their car yelling, “Jeff Gordon! It’s Jeff Gordon!” After meeting and photographing Jeff, it was a real thrill to watch him win, only six weeks later, his first NASCAR Winston Cup Race, the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Two events at the end of the race are revealing. Overcome with emotion, Jeff wept and wept – in his car as he drove to the checkered flag, as he met his crew in victory lane, and again at the awards ceremony. Altogether his payoff was $200,000, which he immediately split among his pit crew, or as Jeff calls them, “the guys who made it happen.” In August Jeff won the Brickyard 400, the inaugural NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 1994 continues to be a big year for the 1993 Rookie of the Year – over Thanksgiving weekend he got married. The pressure of fans, popularity and big-time motor racing has not changed this very likeable young man, and a longtime NASCAR staffer spoke for the entire racing community when he said, “Jeff’s a great person and his head is on straight.”

Dr. Thomas F. Clark