GORDON, JEFF

born Aug. 4, 1971, Vallejo, Calif. American race-car driver who dominated the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s. His aggressive driving style and knack for publicity helped popularize stock-car racing in the United States. As a child, Gordon raced BMX bicycles before being given a quarter-midget go-cart. He won the national quarter-midget championship at age eight and again two years later. He soon advanced to more powerful go-carts and routinely beat boys nearly twice his age. When Gordon was 13, his family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana, so that he could legally drive a 650-hp sprint car in a race circuit that did not have a minimum-age requirement. By the time he was 18, Gordon had decided to take up stock-car racing, and during the next two years, he gained invaluable experience at a number of driving schools, including that run by the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame race-car driver Buck Baker. Gordon competed in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's (NASCAR's) Busch Grand National Series (a level below Winston Cup competition) before signing with Rick Hendrick, owner of a Winston Cup team, in 1992. In 1993, his first full year of racing on the Winston Cup circuit, Gordon earned Rookie of the Year honours. The following year he won the inaugural Brickyard 400, the first major stock-car race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and in 1995 claimed his first season points championship. During the 1997 season Gordon became the youngest driver to win the sport's premier event, the Daytona 500, and the first to win the Southern 500, NASCAR's oldest race, three times in a row. He also became the first driver since 1985 to win the Winston Million, a prize awarded to a driver who wins three of the sport's four most difficult races in one season. In 1998, at age 27, Gordon became the youngest driver to win three consecutive season point championships en route to tying Richard Petty's record of 13 victories in one season. Known popularly as "the Kid," Gordon had a clean-cut image that differed sharply from the rough-and-tumble persona traditionally associated with the sport.