If this is it, Gordon is going out on top

At 43, Gordon has nothing left to accomplish as a driver.

He wasn’t going to stick around long enough to equal or surpass the seven championships won by only two other drivers — Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. He is a four-time champion, and how many drivers can say that?

Heading into ’15, his 92 career victories trail only two other legends in the series — Petty (200) and David Pearson (105).

Many of his wins came in the sport’s biggest events, known for so long as the “crown jewels” of NASCAR. Through the years they have consisted of the season-opening Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500 and the spring event at Talladega. Gordon won them all, on multiple occasions. In ’97, he became only the second driver to win the Winston Million, capturing three of the four that made up the program in its final season.

And when NASCAR found its way to the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in ’94, who better to christen it with a win than Gordon, a product of the West Coast, but one who cut his teeth in the rough-and-tumble open-wheel sprints of the Midwest.

Gordon won the inaugural Brickyard 400, and hasn’t stopped winning there yet, claiming a record fifth victory at IMS this past year.

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Gordon’s name can be found among the top five in just about every statistical category that carries any weight in NASCAR, from championships and wins to top-fives and top-10s. His talent behind the wheel has never been questioned, and rarely has it been matched.

Petty, Pearson and Earnhardt are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Gordon will be too, as soon as his name appears on the ballot.

His impact on the sport, however, goes far beyond championships and victories. Gordon was a guiding force that helped others, many that knew little about the sport of stock-car racing, look at NASCAR in an entirely different light.

In 2003, he hosted the popular NBC show “Saturday Night Live.” He has co-hosted the morning entertainment program “Live with Regis and Kelly” several times and he has made numerous appearances on late-night programs such as “The Tonight Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman.”

His success on the track may have opened the door to such invitations, but it was his polished, confident delivery and comfort in front of the camera that kept the lines to the entertainment world buzzing.

If timing truly is everything, then Gordon arrived on the scene at precisely the right moment, making his first career start in the series just as Petty was bidding goodbye at the close of the ’92 season.

The need to jump from ride to ride in search of a competitive advantage was never an issue — from his first start with team owner Rick Hendrick, it became clear that the former open-wheel racer was exactly where he needed to be. Each of his 761 career starts (a streak that has continued without interruption) has come in Hendrick Motorsports equipment.

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Others have come and gone, but Gordon’s place behind the wheel of the familiar No. 24 Chevrolet has been a constant for many who follow the sport.

This past season, Gordon proved that the competitive fire hadn’t subsided and the talent hadn’t diminished. He won four times and qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 10th time in his career.

Such accomplishments don’t seem to reflect the abilities of a driver on the downside of his career. They don’t indicate a driver that has overstayed his time in the sport but rather one who remains at the top of his game.

And yet the time has come, he says. One more year. One more season to slide into his seat, grip the wheel, stare down the competition and say, “OK fellas, let’s see what you’ve got.”

We know what Gordon’s got. We’ve seen it all along.