Gordon-Earnhardt rivalry wasn't really a rivalry at all (cont'd)

It's impossible to compare Gordon and Earnhardt by their seasons racing against one another, a duration that offers only incomplete results. Earnhardt's most dominant days, like his 11-win season of 1987 or his hat trick of back-to-back championships, had passed before Gordon reached his peak. At the time same, Gordon's phenomenal run of 33 race wins from 1996-98 came as Earnhardt was searching for ways of resuscitating his career. In the long view of NASCAR, they were two champions who intersected only for a relatively brief period of time.

And although they had their share of contentious moments and racetrack encounters, each battled others who better fit the definition of a rival.

You want rivals? Try Gordon and Tony Stewart, who have clashed too many times to count, and once chased each other through the garage area after a wreck at Watkins Glen.

You want rivals? Try Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace, who threw water bottles at one another, hid steering wheels from one another, and played endless head games all underscored by friendship.

Any rivalry between Gordon and Earnhardt existed only in the eyes of others.

"I think there was a lot of respect there. I never remember a rivalry where they leaned on each other or ever had a situation where they had to go in the garage area. Definitely, they didn't have to go to the NASCAR hauler about problems on the racetrack. I actually never remember any problems. I think there was a lot of respect there," said Rick Hendrick, Gordon's car owner.

"I think when you've got two popular drivers, different fan bases, I think a lot of times the fans create the rivalry. I don't think it happens on the racetrack sometimes. I think in that case, it was just that Earnhardt fans didn't want to see Jeff win, and Jeff's fans were against Earnhardt. I think that was more fan-driven than it was actual. In order for there to be a rivalry, something's got to happen on the track, some kind of confrontation. I don't ever remember seeing that happen."

Their disparate ages and personas belied a relationship closer than many realized. Long before Gordon came along, it was Earnhardt who shook down the first NASCAR vehicle Hendrick's race team ever built. It was Earnhardt behind the steering wheel of the No. 15 Wrangler Pontiac when Hendrick won his first race as a car owner, in a Busch event at Charlotte in 1983. And it was Earnhardt who would sometimes approach a young Gordon in the garage area, and ask him about how he raced.

"Jeff and Dale were always good friends," Hendrick said. "I never saw any kind of conflict between them. They always wanted to beat each other. I mean, that's why they raced. There was a tremendous amount of respect both ways."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.