Gordon on Ella Sofia driving: 'It terrified me'

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Staff Report

Four-time Cup champion discusses watching his daughter get behind the wheel

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There isn’t a lot that scares Jeff Gordon. When one makes his or her living driving 190-mph rockets nearly every week in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, that’s not exactly a revelation.

But it seems there is one thing that can put the four-time champion a bit on edge — watching his 6-year-old daughter, Ella Sofia, climb behind the wheel of a quarter midget kart and turn laps on the track.

Gordon spoke about his daughter’s first effort, which took place April 20, while testing this week with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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"It terrified me," he said. "From a parent’s standpoint, it’s kind of tough to watch them go around there and not have any control of what’s going on and know that it’s all on them now.

"It’s amazing the focus they can have at such a young age, to go on and do that, but at the same time you know all the things that can go wrong and that’s kind of scary."

Jeff Gordon began his racing career as a 5-year-old, eventually progressing through the open-wheel ranks in USAC. He made his NASCAR debut, in what is now known as the Nationwide Series, in 1990 as a 19-year-old. His 89 career wins in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series is most among active drivers and is third on NASCAR’s all-time list.

"I wouldn’t say she’s gotten the bug," Gordon said of his daughter. "She’s around it so much that it’s hard for her not to be influenced by it and we don’t want to keep her away from it if she wants to (race).

"But living in my house, horseback riding, gymnastics, soccer or whatever, there’s just stuff going on all the time and driving the race car, so far, has been the same as those other things. It’s not like it stands out, but it was fun from the sideline and we’ll see if it continues."

Gordon and his wife, Ingrid, also have a son, 3-year-old Leo.

Following in the footsteps of a successful, well-known parent carries with it a certain amount of expectations and pressure, in addition to the "positives that come with it," Gordon said.

Such concerns might need to be addressed at a later time. For now, Gordon said he and his family are willing to let Ella determine her level of interest.

"Honestly I think the only reason she’s interested in it is because I’m her dad and she just wants to please me and wants to do something that I do," he said. "And again, that’s not all bad. It can be good as well.

"It’s just how you handle it and how you go about it. You have to handle it properly because it could go really good or it could go really bad."

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Posted on June 5, 2014 by Staff Report

‘Your Hero’s Name Here’ initiative honors U.S. Army Sergeant John Wayne Walding

This year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been named the Crown Royal Presents the John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com.

The announcement was made during Wednesday night’s CMT Music Awards program.

Walding, a native of Little Elm, Texas, is an Army veteran. During his 12 years of active service, he completed tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He lost part of his right leg while involved in a firefight in 2008.

He has been awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Infantry Badge.

The 2014 Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, scheduled for July 27, will be the third Cup event at the track to be sponsored by Crown Royal and named in honor of a member of the military. From 2007 through 2011, the brand was involved in a similar initiative at Richmond International Raceway.

"The fact that Crown Royal cares enough to say ‘thank you’ for what I’ve done is a true validation for my sacrifice," Walding said following the announcement. "The magnitude of those two words goes above and beyond."

Walding became the first amputee to graduate the Special Forces Sniper School, and competed in the Army 10 miler as well as the Boston Marathon (the latter in 2009 while utilizing a hand cycle). He is the founder of Five Toes Custom, which produces handcrafted precision rifles and provides support and direction for wounded veterans.

He and his wife, Amy, have four children.

Joining Walding as this year’s five finalists were James Bailey (Pamplin, Virginia); Bryce Boyer (Wanship, Utah); Tara Hulett (Albany, New York); and Tyler Whisenhunt (Gentry, Arkansas).

Nominations for the annual program were submitted to CrownRoyalHeroes.com with the winner determined by consumer vote.

"The sacrifices that have been made by John Wayne Walding and countless heroes across the country serve as an inspiration to all of us at Crown Royal," said Abby Wise, Brand Director for Crown Royal.

In addition to taking part in various pre-race activities, Walding will present the trophy bearing his name to the winner of this year’s race in Victory Lane.

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Zack Albert

New teammate Sauter calls 21-year-old a ‘ball of fire’

FORT WORTH, Texas — The veteran tandem of Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter has been a constant at ThorSport Racing since their initial full-time pairing in 2009. Enter into the mix a young buck in Jeb Burton and the chemistry naturally changes.

But to hear Burton tell it, the foundation for the new partnership was laid even before their three-truck merger officially began.

"Me, Matt and Johnny raced like we were teammates last year," Burton said Thursday from Texas Motor Speedway, site of Friday night’s WinStar World Casino and Resort 400 (9 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1). "We never had a fender touch each other, so we’ve got respect all of us together. Our personalities are a little bit different off track, but on track we’ve got the same goals — race each other clean, share notes and be good teammates. We’re still getting better every week, but hopefully we keep getting better, we can start winning some races."

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A solid starting point would be in the Lone Star State, site of Burton’s breakthrough victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series last June. That win came under different circumstances, during Burton’s time with the Turner Scott Motorsports team in a successful rookie season in which Burton topped the qualifying board seven times.

But when sponsorship woes left Burton empty-handed in the offseason, he found a soft landing place with ThorSport — first on a race-by-race basis, then full time with an infusion of sponsorship at the end of May. Though Burton was not on the sidelines long, the sudden shift to uncertainty was a reminder of his father, Ward, and how his racing career unfolded.

"He didn’t have to warn me really, because I saw the things that happened with him and his racing career," the 21-year-old Burton said. "He was with some good teams and was really loyal to some car owners and he didn’t get the same thing back. I know how the sport is — it can eat you up and spit you out. I know kind of what the deal is, and I just try to treat people like I want to be treated."

Thus far, Burton’s treatment has been an open-arms welcome from the Ohio-based team. Instead of upsetting the comfort of the Crafton-Sauter dynamic, Burton’s eager attitude has meshed well with his veteran teammates in a mutually beneficial relationship of information sharing and feedback.

"Jeb’s a really good dude," Sauter said. "Obviously, you see guys at the race track and you talk to them, but you don’t really get an opportunity to know them until they’re a teammate. I’ve been teammates with Matt now for five years or so, so I pretty much know the ins and outs of how all that works as far as working together at the race track. But Jeb’s been, he’s a ball of fire, there’s no question. He’s a pretty motivated young man, which is cool. I don’t know that he totally reminds me of myself, but I feel like I thought about things a lot the way that he does, 10 years ago.

"It’s cool to see. He adds some enthusiasm to the organization, there’s no doubt, and I look for the rest of the season to be pretty fun."

The first order of business is the return to the 1.5-mile Texas track, which brings back fond memories for the former NASCAR Next driver. Burton took command on the final restart and fended off Ty Dillon‘s last-ditch charge in the final laps to score his first national series win.

Since then, victories have been hard to come by, but Burton said he knew even then on that memorable night that there was more work to be done.

"Right when I left this chair last year, I knew I needed to win some more," Burton said from the front-and-center seat on stage in the Texas Motor Speedway media center. "That’s been a frustrating part of what happened with the sponsor leaving, but the way I look at it is that everything happens for a reason. If that would have never happened, I wouldn’t be with this new sponsor in Estes Express Lines, which is a great company and I’m excited for the future with them. But … winning one time doesn’t get the job done. I need to get better as a driver and win some more races."

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