Toughest driver in garage may not be who you think

Tony Stewart can toss a wicked one-liner, and looks like he could toss a haymaker or two if the circumstance called for it. Kevin Harvick seems like he could do a little more than shoving if push came to shove. Carl Edwards has the upper body of a mixed martial arts fighter. With his steely eyes and iron jaw, Bobby Labonte looks like the kind of guy you want on your side if something bad is going to go down.

While we're well past the era -- at least we hope so -- when NASCAR drivers settled on-track altercations later with their fists, the Sprint Cup garage still is a place populated by tough guys who chose a tough way to make a living. There are men with short fuses, men with hot tempers, and men with smoldering countenances who you just don't want to mess with at the wrong time.

No more back talking

Someone might ask. But Jeff Gordon won't be listening. He's done talking about his back.

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Oh, sure, the rewards are copious; top drivers make lots of money, date beautiful women, and we assume have little trouble getting good tables at fine restaurants. But let's be honest: this is a dog-eat-dog sport that almost demands a willingness to put your grandmother into the wall, and point a finger in her face afterward. The cockpit of a NASCAR race car is no place for the meek.

So yes, the sport is full of tough drivers. But right now, there's one tougher than any of them. And it's not who you think.

It's Jeff Gordon.

OK, OK, I hear you. Here we have a slight-of-build guy who has his own wine label and is married to a supermodel. Terribly fortunate, of course. Living the high life, no question, and deservedly so. But tough? The same guy who once cried at the postseason banquet? The driver who dropped out of racing in IROC and the now-Nationwide Series? The dude whose matinee-idol visage looks like it's never taken a punch? The guy who'd rather spend the upcoming off week on a beach in the Caribbean rather than in a dirt car in the middle of nowhere?

Yes, that Jeff Gordon. He's the toughest son of a gun racing, no question. Because he's in pain right now, people. He has a lower back that goes into spasms every time he's involved in a bad wreck. After Monday's terrible accident at Watkins Glen International, where Sam Hornish Jr. hit a tire barrier and spun like an airplane propeller back into the path of Gordon's onrushing No. 24 car (watch video), he was hurting so badly you could see it in his face. There's nothing they can do, he said. He just has to manage it and hope to avoid bad accidents, which is like asking a telemarketer to avoid hang-ups.

"My back can't stand too many hits," he said. (Continued)