NASCAR Cup

Indianapolis: Jeff Gordon preview

Gordon to make 350TH Winston Cup start in Brickyard 400 SPEEDWAY, Ind. - Jeff Gordon will be driving 'four' history in this Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With a win in his 350th NASCAR Winston Cup start, Gordon would ...

Published: Jul 30, 2003, 1:00 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Gordon to make 350TH Winston Cup start in Brickyard 400

SPEEDWAY, Ind. - Jeff Gordon will be driving 'four' history in this Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With a win in his 350th NASCAR Winston Cup start, Gordon would become only the fourth driver to notch four victories in Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 93-year history. Al Unser, Sr., Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt each won the Indianapolis 500 four times.

Gordon, the only three-time Brickyard 400 winner, grew up in the shadows of The Brickyard in nearby Pittsboro dreaming of racing on the 2.5-mile track. As with many kids who grew up in the area, he knows all about the tradition of the famed speedway. He also knows what the number 'four' represents in speedway lore.

"A.J. was the only four-time winner when I first understood the magnitude of winning here," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet. "Every May, we all wondered if anyone would ever match that feat. It was great seeing Al Unser, Sr., and Rick Mears tie the mark, especially Rick since I was a huge fan of his and was lucky enough to get his autograph.

"It seemed like we drove by the speedway every other day when I was growing up. It's just a great racing facility with so much history and tradition. Just to win here once is very special.

"I'm excited that we have a chance to win a fourth Brickyard 400 and tie those guys, but I really don't think you can put us in the same category if we win. It's difficult to compare the two series and I think you need to keep their impressive accomplishment separate."

Along with three victories, Gordon has three poles, five top-fives and seven top-10's in nine Brickyard 400's. He has also led 306 laps of the 1,440 laps (21 percent) run in the annual event, 120 more than any other driver.

"Track position is crucial here and there's no better place to be than out front," said Gordon, who started 27th en route to his 2001 victory. "In 2001, the car was awful when we were deep in traffic. My crew chief Robbie Loomis made some great calls in the pits to give us track position and the difference was like night and day. The car was great in clean air."

In his 11th year on the circuit, Gordon has already captured four NASCAR Winston Cup championships, 62 victories and 43 poles. He has accumulated 167 top-fives (48 percent), 220 top-10's (63 percent) and has led 14,913 laps 0x2022 only 87 shy of 15,000 0x2022 in 349 races.

"I'm not the type of person to get caught up in all the stats and records," Gordon said. "I'm sure one day I'll sit on a porch and look back at what we've accomplished as a team, but right now we need to concentrate on leading laps and finishing in the top five.

"We've lost a lot of points the past few weekends and, with our past success here, we can get back on track. This DuPont team doesn't give up and we're not out of the championship hunt just yet. We've dug ourselves a hole, so now we need to begin climbing out.

"We can't erase that deficit in one race, but a strong run can start the process."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Indianapolis: Michael Waltrip preview

Next article Indianapolis: Ford - Crew chiefs' interview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Jorge Martin hopeful of racing in Malaysia after "not complete" fracture diagnosis

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Malaysian GP

6 min

Jorge Martin hopeful of racing in Malaysia after "not complete" fracture diagnosis

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 13 h

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts