Pittsboro, Indiana welcomes emotional four-time NASCAR champion
PHOTOS: Hometown honors Gordon with parade
PITTSBORO, Ind. — There’s a sign on the Subway storefront proclaiming “Chicken Salad is Back” and the Cork & Cap package liquor establishment is nearby.
Across the street, there’s the Dollar General with the sign “You Make Us Proud Jeff” out front. Next door is the Pittsboro Veterinary Clinic and Big Tuck’s Feed & More sits on the corner of Main and Maple Streets.
A single traffic light is all that’s required in this tiny town of 3,000 residents.
A helicopter buzzes overhead as hundreds of folks crane their necks, looking down the street. It’s high noon and the parade has begun.
Jeff Gordon, five times a winner of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a four-time NASCAR champion, is being honored here. The town’s most popular son, by way of California, has come home.
RELATED: Photos, recaps of Gordon’s 21 Brickyard 400s
The Hendrick Motorsports driver is winding up an incredible career in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, and this weekend’s Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, IMS, SiriusXM) will be his last at the legendary facility as a driver. His 92 career wins is most among active drivers and third on NASCAR’s all-time win list. At season’s end, he’ll be Jeff Gordon the racer no more.
The procession slowly makes its way down Main Street, led by a Pittsboro Police Department cruiser. Members of the Tri-West Marching Band are close behind, with a Boy Scout troop, members representing American Legion Post 426, various dignitaries, Little League players, soccer players (state finalists, the banner proclaims), representatives from IMS and state officials parade past the crowd.
Eventually, the white Chevrolet convertible eases down the street, with Gordon seated in back, smiling and waving to the crowd.
Less than 20 minutes after it starts, the parade ends.
But Jeff Gordon Day in Pittsboro is only beginning.
Fans are seen carrying die-casts, pieces of sheet metal and one even has a racing tire in tow. Most here at Scamahorn Park have their attention turned to the stage, where various dignitaries are speaking on behalf of Gordon.
It’s Jeff Gordon Day “not just here in Pittsboro,” Indiana Gov. Mike Pence tells the crowd, “but … I declare (it) in all 92 counties.”
Pence presents Gordon with the Sagamore of the Wabash award, the highest honorary award given by the state.
There were proclamations, plaques and a badge — Gordon is now an honorary member of the Pittsboro Police Dept. — as well.
“My parents had a lot of reasons why we came here,” Gordon told the crowd, “but racing was a big, big part of it; maybe the primary reason.
“But they found this nice home … in Pittsboro. They wanted to be here. They found that home, and we lived there for a very long time and just loved being here in Indiana. I’ve got some of my best friends that I’ve ever had in life that I still stay in touch with that are still living here in Pittsboro or right around here.”
Gordon was honored. He was also emotional.
“This to me today has been one of the best days of my life,” he said as the crowd cheered. “I say that sincerely … because I get to see what Pittsboro not only meant to me but what it means to you guys. And it’s an awesome town and the way you guys came out and supported me and what I’ve done in racing, what the Brickyard has meant to me and what this town has meant to me … thank you guys, this means the world to me, it really does.”
They could have lived anywhere. In fact, Pittsboro wasn’t the first stop for Gordon and his parents, John and Carol Bickford, when the family looked to move from Vallejo, California.
“In 1985 when we came back to race (in the Midwest), we lived in Findlay, Ohio,” John Bickford said. “We knew a guy in quarter midget racing that lived in Findlay … He said, ‘Hey you can work out of my shop if you want, I’ve got an apartment here with two rooms I don’t use, you can stay in here this summer.’ So we lived in Findlay, Ohio for the summer of ’85.”
But Findlay proved too problematic. It wasn’t centrally located, it wasn’t close to those that built Gordon’s sprint cars and it wasn’t close to the tracks where he competed each weekend.
If one were to draw a line at a 45-degree angle or so, beginning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the line heading northwest would go through Brownsburg, Pittsboro, Lizton (where Gordon attended Tri-West High School) and eventually Jamestown.
Pittsboro was perfect.
“It was close to the car manufacturers, close to the people we know, close to the school he’s got to go to,” Bickford said. “We’ve got a piece of property that’s five acres so we can build a shop with no restrictions. … So all the boxes were checked.”
It made perfect sense to Gordon, who said he was “100 percent all in” for the move.
His racing career “really only became a serious reality because of Lee Osborne out in Jamestown who built our first sprint car,” Gordon said.
“And also the Stanley family that lived out in Brownsburg and used to build my quarter midgets, that are now building my kids’ quarter midgets.
“Those two families really were responsible for us first coming to Indiana and recognizing that we needed to be here if we wanted to take racing seriously.”
Northwest of the famed speedway, out past Clermont and Brownsburg, the cornstalks are tall and green. Just down County Road 100, the brick ranch sits back off the highway.
“It picks up quite a bit when the race is in town,” Michael Lang says.
Folks stop by, unannounced and uninvited, but Lang says he’s used to it.
Jeff Gordon grew up here. Raced out of here. Laid the foundation for his legacy here.
The race shop out back is now home of Fluid Transfer Products, a company that Lang says “builds hoses and fittings” and similar products.
He and his wife, Sherry, have been the owners of home and business here since 2000.
Before that, Lang raced. He won seven consecutive Midget titles at Indianapolis Speedrome. He raced with and against Gordon, Tony Stewart and a host of others.
“Just about anybody that’s been down there and tried to run, maybe not in the last 10 years, but a little longer, I raced against them. Raced against them all,” Lang says.
Eventually, his car owner began to scale back and Lang “took a year and a half off.
“I came back, ran an indoor show, won the race and then got bit (by the racing bug) again. But then we had some problems and I thought ‘this is exactly why I got out before.’
“I had young kids at the time, had just moved in here. I had a good run, won 76 midget races and had a lot of fun. I had ambitions just like anyone, but unfortunately didn’t have the money.”
He had already decided to move away from the city — he previously lived near the speedway — when “I picked the USAC newsletter up one day,” he says.
“And there was an ad for this place.”
“You have no idea how deep here it goes for us,” Gordon says. “We’re very proud to call Pittsboro our home.
“I tell everybody it really started here in Pittsboro and I would never be where I am today if it weren’t for Pittsboro, this town and what it meant to me.”
The two-lane road leads past the fields of corn and across the railroad tracks. Up ahead, the highway sign indicates the end of Mitchell Avenue and the start of Wall Street.
A turn, out of Pittsboro, leads back to the Interstate.
The name of the road is fitting — Jeff Gordon Boulevard.
