A career is born thanks to impressive LMS victories

Jeff Gordon knew he had arrived in NASCAR when veteran driver Dale Earnhardt began to tease him in the garage area.

"He came by and asked how fast I was running," Gordon said. "I told him, and Dale said, 'Boy, you better get faster than that or I'm going to run your butt down.' When I was behind Dale, I really wanted to pass him. When I did, I waved bye."

Gordon

The year was 1992 and Gordon was a fresh-faced 20-year-old just starting his second full season in the Busch Series. But after winning at Atlanta earlier in the year, the open-wheel star had already caught the attention of the Intimidator when the circuit stopped at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Champion 300.

If Gordon seemed intimidated, he didn't show it, winning the pole with a lap of 170.638 mph. On the first lap, Mark Martin took the point and held the lead through much of the first half of the race. But when he burned a piston -- and Earnhardt went out with engine troubles -- the two best cars left of the track were those of Gordon and Dick Trickle.

Gordon stayed in Trickle's tire tracks lap after lap, looking for the most opportune time to pass. But the veteran held the upper hand, running in the same groove as Gordon, daring him to try something risky. That opportunity presented itself on Lap 163. As Trickle went to pass the lapped car of Phil Parsons, Gordon made it three-wide. The two leaders bumped wheels but Gordon kept his foot in the gas.

"My car was real loose running behind Trickle," Gordon said. "If I hadn't taken the chance there, the race probably was over. That was the key. I needed to get in front of Trickle to break the draft, because my car worked better in the corners by itself.

"I didn't call it a pass. I called it a slam," Gordon said. "It was racing. We definitely touched. It was a rub, and rubbing's racing."

The win was worth $113,844, Gordon's first six-figure payday. And it took some of the spotlight away from his controversial decision earlier in the month to jump from Bill Davis' Ford operation to the Chevrolets campaigned by Rick Hendrick.

"There's no way the controversy was going to affect me in the race car," Gordon said. "It was out of mind.

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"I thank Bill Davis for keeping me in the ride after all this. He told me on the radio that I did a good job, and that means a lot. I think we can win some more races and the championship."

For a young driver with a minimum of experience in stock cars, beating veterans like Martin, Earnhardt and Trickle on a track like Charlotte might have been a major turning point in Gordon's career.

"Everything's going our way, but to win this race boosts your confidence level up to another level," Gordon said.

Gordon returned to Charlotte that fall and completed the sweep, ultimately finishing fourth in the points. And "Wonder Boy," as Earnhardt later tagged him, pulled off a shocking upset in his first Cup competition, winning his Daytona 500 qualifying race. The eventual rookie of the year didn't repeat that performance in a points race during the season, although Charlotte factored heavily into things when he finished second to Earnhardt in the Coca-Cola 600.

However, hopes were high that Gordon would break into the win column when 1994 rolled around. And not surprisingly, it would be Charlotte that played center stage for Gordon's first victory.

In a bit of deja vu, Gordon won the pole. And while veterans like Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Geoff Bodine and Ernie Irvan traded the lead, Gordon bided his time, remaining in contention on the lead lap. And like two years before, it was a calculated gamble that paid off for Gordon, but this time it was in the pits instead of on the track.

With less than 20 laps remaining, the leaders all headed for their final green-flag stops. But while the other contenders all pitted for fuel and four tires, crew chief Ray Evernham chose to only change right-side tires on Gordon's car. Because of that, Gordon's stop was nearly 10 seconds faster than the others, and with that cushion, he was able to hold off Wallace's late charge by four seconds at the line for the first of what would turn out to be many Cup victories.

"In hindsight, we should have changed two and we would have won by a ton," Wallace said. "But it was a pretty savvy move on their part. They did a good job."

"I'd have to say Gordon outfoxed everybody," Jarrett added.

While Gordon admitted he had no idea what Evernham was planning to do on that final stop, the veteran crew chief had it in his mind all along.

"I had pretty much planned on just two the whole time," Evernham said. "And then they went ahead and took four and made it a pretty easy decision for us."

Since then, Charlotte has remained as one of Gordon's favorite tracks. He added two more 600-mile victories to his resume in his championship-winning seasons of 1997 and 1998. After retiring with handling issues in the 1999 Coca-Cola 600, Gordon rallied to win the fall race later that season. And after five consecutive Charlotte races in which he failed to finish -- four of those involving accidents -- Gordon returned to Victory Lane in the 2007 Bank of America 500.

Not counting his three all-star victories, Gordon has five wins, 15 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 32 career Charlotte starts -- and has taken home nearly $4 million in purse money. Not bad for a guy who had the audacity as a 20-year-old to wave goodbye at Dale Earnhardt on his way to victory.

GREAT MOMENTS IN CHARLOTTE HISTORY
Monday, May 11: Financial gamble pays off for 'greatest driver alive'
Tuesday, May 12: Pearson career soars after Dieringer contract dispute
Wednesday, May 13: NASCAR loses one of its stars in 1964 World 600
Thursday, May 14: Earnhardt's LMS debut a modest 22nd-place finish
Friday, May 15: Wheeler's legacy created in three decades at Lowe's
Monday, May 18: Guthrie opens NASCAR to a whole new World in 1976
Tuesday, May 19: Petty scores controversial win at Charlotte in 1983
Wednesday, May 20: Waltrip loses race, gains friends in '89 The Winston