Gordon-Earnhardt rivalry wasn't really a rivalry at all

They are the two greatest drivers of the modern era, the perfect personifications of old and new NASCAR, an irresistible clash of personalities, styles and wills. But when it comes to Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon, the timing was all wrong.

Gordon earned his 76th career victory on NASCAR's premier circuit Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway, tying him with the Intimidator for sixth on the sport's all-time list. It was a night that dripped with symbolism, complete with Gordon carrying a No. 3 flag on his victory lap, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. personally congratulating the man generally considered to be his late father's greatest rival on the track.

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Except he wasn't. The Kid and the Killer, as they were once referred to in the early 1990s, were fierce competitors who shared a mutual respect for one another. They were popular champions who occasionally found themselves on opposite ends of an accident or an issue. But rivals? Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were anything but.

It's a simple matter of the calendar. Gordon and Earnhardt competed directly against each other for only eight full seasons, from Gordon's arrival on what was then known as the Winston Cup tour in 1993 until the year before Earnhardt's untimely death in the 2001 Daytona 500. Their careers during that span stood in stark contrast -- the man with the mustache was struggling though a low point, while the kid with the mullet was becoming NASCAR's best. The 20-year gap in their ages stood out like a car with a neon paint scheme.

Head to head, from the beginning of the 1993 season to the end of the 2000 campaign, Gordon won 52 times and Earnhardt 23. When Gordon won his 10 races en route to his second championship in 1997, Earnhardt was suffering through his first winless season in nearly two decades. The next year, Gordon won 13 races as car owner Richard Childress swapped crew chiefs in an attempt to get Earnhardt and his No. 3 Chevy back to the front.

The move worked, re-energizing Earnhardt, who rallied to finish second to Bobby Labonte in the 2000 championship standings at the same time Gordon was slipping back toward the pack. As the 2001 season dawned, the playing field between the two competitors never seemed more level. Then came Feb. 18, and Daytona, and the fourth-turn accident that made the sport stand still.

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.