Gordon shows skill in F1 demonstration at Indy

Gordon swaps cars with Montoya in special event

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Jeff Gordon is visibly nervous. He's soon to dive feet-first into a lifelong fantasy that could instantly turn nightmarish, and his lone preparatory solace comes courtesy of X-Box.

There it sits, a premier Formula One racing machine, complete with $300,000 brakes and a $50,000 steering wheel, and in minutes Gordon will slide his sinewy frame into the cockpit for a joyride at his own personal Mecca.

He can hardly contain his glee. He can hardly hold his lunch down.

	Jeff Gordon got closer and closer to competition speed as the day wore on. Credit: Autostock

Gordon's only previous exposure to an F1 ride came the weekend before, when he successfully negotiated the 13-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in one minute, eight seconds -- on a video game during the Saturday washout at Pocono.

This was the real thing -- $1 million of precision engineering that pushes 900 horsepower at a mind boggling 19,000 rpm. There is the very real chance Gordon could back it in the wall.

Mr. Cool is sweating like Whitney Houston.

"Oh God yeah (I was nervous)," said Gordon, on hand at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wednesday for a highly-publicized car-switch with Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya. "I didn't want to embarrass myself, one, by crashing it because I mean -- that would have been bad. It's an expensive piece of machinery.

"When I first got here it was so many emotions, like, 'Man this cool, this is exciting, but I'm really kind of nervous.'

"But then once I actually got into driving the car, I didn't think about the nerves so much. But they were definitely there before I went out on the track."

Gordon's timidity indeed was recognizable, but only briefly.

As he exited the garage for the first time -- seated low in Montoya's BMW/Williams F1 rocket, -- Gordon puttered out into Turn 1 and eased down the front stretch, apparently feeling out, or fiddling with, the car's vast technological gadgetry.

After a few warm-up laps, the second of which resulted in a brief off-road trek through the grass after entering a backstretch corner too hot, Gordon returned to the garage for a tune-up before the final stretch run.

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Giggling like a schoolgirl and pumping his fists in approval, Gordon exited the car like a kid on Christmas.

"I haven't seen him with a smile on his face this big in a long time," said Gordon's mother, Carol Bickford.

He had reason to smile. On the second-lap of the second segment, having mastered the luxury of traction control and precision braking, Gordon laid down a lap just 1.3 seconds slower than Montoya's best of the day in the same car.

Those among the F1 contingent were impressed with how quickly Gordon adjusted to the unique machine, despite only logging some seven laps.

And they say Americans can't excel in F1.

"It's a shame he didn't get more time in the car," said Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 champion and multiple winner in Formula One. "I'm sure he'd be as competitive as anybody in F1."

Regardless his prowess, Gordon wasn't out to make a point. For years, folks have debated whether Gordon's future was in open-wheel machines, but he reiterated Wednesday that there are no plans for defecting to Formula One or any other open-wheel series.

He knows where his proverbial bread is buttered.

"I have far too much respect and appreciation for what these guys do to know that Winston Cup is where it's at for me, and that path is sort of chose for me and I'm very thankful for that," said Gordon, a three-time Brickyard 400 champion.

	Gordon lost control of Montoya's Williams BMW only once on Wednesday. Credit: Autostock

"But to get the opportunity here today to do this fulfills really every desire and dream that I had. My goals coming in were just to go out there, and I wanted to push the car enough to feel what it was capable of and feel good about myself that I didn't just go out there and drive around, that I actually drove the car at speed enough to really get a feel for it, and I'm happy with that.

"I didn't know what to expect. I think the car probably exceeded my expectations in its braking capabilities and accelerating and just everything that it was able to do.

"My neck is going to be so sore tomorrow, I've certainly got an appreciation for him holding his head up in that car."

Gordon was one second slower than Montoya -- winner of the Monaco Grand Prix just 10 days ago -- on a course he'd never run in his life.

It seems he can hold his head high in that car, too.