CART passing on Gordon the greatest error in racing

CONCORD, N.C. -- Oh, how they blew it.

He was right there, racing in their capital city, and they never gave him a chance. The marketable, photogenic, media-savvy, star American driver that open-wheel racing so desperately needs grew up almost in the shadow of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and somehow they let him get away. It's a mistake they should regret each time he slides behind the wheel of a stock car, and another chapter is added to Jeff Gordon's indelible legacy in NASCAR.

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In the long history of auto racing in the United States, there's never been a more egregious oversight or a more conspicuous example of narrow-mindedness. Gordon, the Northern California kid whose stepfather moved the family to Indiana to further his stepson's racing career, was born and bred to compete in the Indianapolis 500. That he never will serves as yet another example of why NASCAR has resigned Indy-car racing to a struggling, parochial afterthought.

The open-wheelers are supposed to be the sophisticated ones, the technological savants, the motorsport elite looking down their noses at stockers toiling with carburetors and push-rod engines. But when it comes to developing American drivers, they're idling in the Stone Age. Gordon won three U.S. Auto Club championships before he could legally drive on the street, was the youngest driver ever to win midget and silver crown titles, was a terror on Midwest short tracks before he finished high school. And he was ignored.

That seems impossible to believe today, as Gordon charges toward his fifth championship on NASCAR's premier circuit, climbs up the series list in all-time victories, counts his $83 million in career winnings, and remains the most bankable driver in America not named Earnhardt. He's had plenty of offers to drive open-wheeled cars, both at home and abroad, and turned them all down. But in the early 1990s, team owners in Championship Auto Racing Teams -- CART, which has since morphed into Champ Car -- decided he didn't fit the mold.

No, they didn't want oval-track drivers, even open-wheeled ones like Gordon who dreamed of racing in the Indianapolis 500. This was before the 1996 split, before the advent of the Indy Racing League, when most open-wheel races in North America were on road and street courses. They wanted drivers who climbed up a developmental ladder comprised of obscure road-course circuits like Toyota Atlantic and Super Vee. And much like today, they wanted drivers who could also bring a sponsor or a boatload of cash along with them. (Continued)