Gordon has paid his due respects, now it's his turn

I try to make certain I am not repetitive with this weekly column. There are more than 45 teams in the Nextel Cup garage, a zillion stories, and I would like to try and get to all of them. Of course, then I would never sleep. Unfortunately, last Wednesday I wrote myself into a corner.

I focused on Jeff Gordon because I like the way he has attacked the season. I liked the way he raced in the Car of Tomorrow. I liked the fact he had never won at Phoenix, because it was only a matter of time. All things being said, I thought Gordon would win this past Saturday night. He did. He tied Dale Earnhardt with 76 career wins. This Sunday, at Talladega, he could pass Earnhardt. Now I am compelled to write about Gordon again.

How could you not? Now I can tell you firsthand, it is tough to get Jeff Gordon to talk about Jeff Gordon. I have always found him to be humble, take the blame, share the credit, shy away from the premise that it is all about him.

Rick Hendrick is the car owner for Jeff Gordon and the rest of the teams at Hendrick Motorsports. He can tell you a lot about Jeff Gordon. He hired him, watched him wreck a ton of stuff as a rookie -- "I think we went through 17 front clips that first year, a lot of them in practice," Hendrick said -- and cheered him to the 76 wins and four championships.

The biggest key to the success of Gordon?

"He knows what to do and when to do it," Hendrick said.

That is the strength of Jeff Gordon. That and good cars, strong resources, outstanding personnel and, oh yeah, talent.

Gordon won the race at Phoenix, increased his lead in the point standings, paraded around the track with a flag to salute Dale Earnhardt ... and people booed, or reacted in other childish ways. Not all of them, actually, not a lot of them, just the ignorant ones. The people that think they are fans but are really just people who have tickets and go to races.

It is OK to boo the competition; it is OK to be disappointed if your No. 1 enemy wins. It's classy and impressive to know when to salute a true champion who wants to salute another one.

If you judged Gordon's career by fan reaction, it seems like the guy can't do anything right. Anything, that is, except win. (Continued)