Jeffery Green was born on September 6th of 1962 in Owensboro, Kentucky, which is the same place three time Champion Darrell Waltrip, his brother Michael Waltrip, and Jeremy Mayfield was born and raised; his two older brothers, Mark and David, are also successful NASCAR drivers. He currently resides in Davidson, North Carolina with his wife Michelle.
Jeff started his fruitful career by winning the historic Nashville Speedway track championship in 1990. In the 22 races he entered, he won 15 of them and only finished below 3rd once. After the Nashville schedule was over he entered the Autolite Platinum 200 Busch (Nationwide) series race at Richmond International Raceway. He started 23rd and finished 22nd, John Boatman the team owner was very pleased because his goal was only to qualify. He raced 2 more races that year.
From 1991 to 1994 he raced from time to time in the Busch (Nationwide) series with random car owners, and in 1994 he made 3 Winston (Sprint) cup series races driving for the Sadler brothers and Junior Johnson.
He started driving in the Busch (Nationwide) series full time in 1995 driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
In 1996 he made a couple Winston (Sprint) cup starts with DEI.
In 1997 he raced for Diamond Ridge Motorsports in the Busch (Nationwide) series part time in the unsponsored #8; he won his first NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He also made 19 Winston (Sprint) cup series starts in the #29 Cartoon Network Chevy, finishing second in the Rookie of the year battle only to his brother David.
Green returned to the Busch (Nationwide) Series full time in 1999, it was the first time he had run a full time season in the Busch (Nationwide) series since 1996. He raced in the #32 Kleenex Chevrolet for Progressive Motorsports, and finished second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the points even though he had one DNQ (Did not qualify).
In 2000, his team was changed to be the #10 Nesquick Chevrolet and was renamed PPC racing; his biggest competition in the Busch (Nationwide) series, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth left to drive in the Winston (Sprint) cup series so everybody thought he was the only person left to win, which of course happened, he won the championship by 616 points which is the most ever up until 2006, his PPC teammate Jason Keller finished second that year. Him and the 1994 champion David Green are the first brothers to win championships in the Busch (Nationwide) series.
Green participated in the International Race of Champion’s (IROC) 25th season in 2001.
In 2002 he raced his first full time season in the Winston (Sprint) cup series driving the #30 Richard Childress Racing ride with American Online as his sponsor; in this year he finished a career high second, and also a career high 17th in points. Jeff and Mark Green founded The Green Foundation in 2002, a non-profit charity assisting people with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses.
Jeff’s 2003 season started off as good as it can get, he won the pole for the Daytona 500. At Richmond there was an incident with his teammate and longtime rival Kevin Harvick, which led to Jeff being fired by Richard. Two days after being fired, Dale Earnhardt Inc. asked him to drive the #1 Pennzoil Chevrolet for them; Steve Park, the driver who was replaced by Green started driving Green’s old #30 for RCR. After 12 races Jeff didn’t finish any better than 16th so he was replaced by John Andretti. He missed 3 races before Petty Enterprises picked him up to drive the rest of the season.
Petty Enterprises asked Jeff to drive for them full time in the Winston (Sprint) cup series for the 2004 season and he agreed. He had 11 DNF’s (Did not finish) which is the most in his career, and finished 30th in the points, which was his worst points finish in the Winston (Sprint) Cup series in his career.
He had a very public feud with Michael Waltrip during the 2005 season that some believe led to his being fired at the end of the season. Him and Michael spun each other on several occasions during the season but never got penalized.
At the end of 2005 Petty Enterprises replaced Green with Bobby Labonte, which left him without a ride; Haas CNC Racing hired him to drive the #66 Best Buy Chevy for 2006 with Bootie Barker as his crew chief. He ended up 2006 28th in the points.
Green returned to Haas in 2007, and had three sixth-place finishes but was released with four races to go in the season. He finished 32nd in the points even though he missed those four races.
In 2008, he attempted four Cup races with Wood Brothers Racing and Front Row Motorsports respectively, but did not qualify for any of those races. He did qualify for three races in the Nationwide Series in the #31 Key Motorsports Chevy with a best finish of 28th, and ran eight races with their #40 truck team. His best finish was a seventh at Las Vegas.
In 2009, Green continued his part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series, running for Day Racing, and MacDonald Motorsports. His best finish was 21st at Nashville Superspeedway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Green_(NASCAR)
http://www.racingone.com/driver.aspx?driverid=142&seriesID=1&subID=2
http://www.edu.pe.ca/sourishigh/Pages/Cmp6-03/Jacob/homepage/index/drivers/bios/green.htm
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Derrike Cope
Derrike Cope grew up in Spanaway, Washington; he currently drives the self-owned #73 FlipNBags.com Dodge Charger in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He owns a part-time entry in the Camping World Truck Series and also co-owns Cope/Keller Racing which fields the #75 BluFrog Energy Drink Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series.
When Cope was growing up racing was just a hobby he enjoyed, while he was a very good catcher on the Bethel High School baseball team; he attended Whitman College to continue his baseball dreams. Cope was such a good baseball player that he was being recruited by major-league teams such as the Chicago Cubs and the Baltimore Orioles, but the dream of being in the big league was crushed when he suffered a knee injury in 1978. Forced out of baseball Cope dedicated himself to racing full time.
Cope soon progressed through the short-track ranks in the Northwest, and later made his Winston (Sprint) Cup debut at Riverside International Raceway in 1982. Cope's #95 car finished 36th because he had an oil leak, he won $625. After that race he ran a part time schedule for the rest of the season.
He attempted the Rookie of the Year battle in 1988 with owners Jim Testa and Dave Fuge until he gave up on that goal due to bad finishes mid-season.
In 1989, he signed with Bob Whitcomb to drive the #10 Purolator Pontiac which mid-season changed to Chevrolet, posting four top-10 finishes.
In 1990, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was well on his way to winning his first Daytona 500 when on the third turn his tire blew due to debris and Derrike passed him and won his very first race, becoming only the fourth driver to get their first Winston (Sprint) cup race in the Daytona 500. At Dover later on in the season he won again. He ended up winning twice and finishing 18th in the points in 1990.
At the end of the 1992 season Bob Whitcomb shut down his team forcing Derrike to move on. In the 1993 season he drove for Cale Yarborough in the previously #66, #98 Bojangles Ford.
During the 1994 season Jeremy Mayfield took Cope’s ride forcing Derrike to move on to another team in just short notice, T.W. Taylor let him drive one of his car until Bobby Allison offered him the #12 car he owned and of course he accepted. In this year he won his first and only career Busch (Nationwide) series race while he was driving the #82, Ford Thunderbird for Ron Zock at Loudon, New Hampshire.
In 1995 he had eight top 10 finishes, and finished 15th in points, his best year so far. He was also featured in a commercial for a NASCAR credit card with drivers such as the greats Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Rusty Wallace.
Allison’s team shut down prior to the 1997 season, and Cope signed on to MB2 Motorsports; he drove the #36 Skittles Pontiac during the 1997 season to a 27th place finish in the points.
In 1998 he drove for Bahari racing #30 Gumout car, after getting replaced by Ken Schrader in the #36. He missed a few races due to injury, but still won the pole position at Lowes Motor Speedway.
Bahari got Cope back in 1999, except this year with Sara Lee as his sponsor. Cope failed to qualify for ten races which led to him being released from his contract. He made a couple random starts for a couple car owners until he signed on with Fenley-Moore Motorsports to drive the #15 Ford Taurus. He didn’t like that Fenley-Moore Motorsports only let him run a limited schedule so he quit after a few races and spent the rest of the year watching from the pits. At the end of the season he joined Impact Motorsports to drive the #86 R.C. Cola Dodge in the Craftsman (Camping World) truck series.
In 2001 Cope and drag racer Warren Johnson announced the formation of their new team, Quest Motor Racing. The team didn’t start a race all year, and Derrike’s first and only start of the year was with CLR racing. Also in that year he started four races in the #94 owned by Fred Bickford in the Busch (Nationwide) series. He also became an editor on FOX Sports Net when he wasn’t racing.
Derrike finally got his team qualified for 18 races in 2003 driving the #37 Friendly’s Ice Cream Chevy. He then merged his team with Arnold Motorsports.
After several starts with his newly merged team in 2004, he was released and he took back his equipment, he then signed a contract to drive the #49 Advil Ford for Jay Robinson in the Busch (Nationwide) series for the 30 remaining races.
In 2005 Cope was going to merge his team again with Larry Hollenbeck, but since he didn’t qualify for the Daytona 500 that chance was broken. He attempted a couple more races but failed. His only start in the NEXTEL (Sprint) cup series was at Martinsville driving the McGlynn Racing #08.
McGlynn ask Cope to drive for them full time in the #74 car in 2006, he agreed and signed the necessary contract; that ride was later cut down to a part-time ride.
He signed to drive for Means Racing in 2008 in the Nationwide Series. Mid-season he quit Means Racing and went to drive for James Finch and Jay Robinson, but later on he started driving his own team in the Nationwide and Craftsman (Camping World) truck series. He also began fielding his cars in the nationwide and truck series.
In the 2009 season Cope announced he would field cars in all three series with BluFrog Energy Drink coming aboard, and he would be a part of that in the top two series, Nationwide, and Sprint cup.
In 2010 Cope will team up with Dale Clemons as the co-owners of the new racing team Stratus Racing. The team plans to race all the races in the Nationwide and truck series with Derrike as the driver, and a limited schedule in the ARCA Remax series for his nieces Amber and Angela Cope, and will also run a part time schedule in the Sprint Cup series. Sponsorship is said to have already been wrapped up but will not be announced until later on.
When Derrike is not racing, he presents motivational talks to school age children on such subjects as the importance of staying in school and never taking drugs. He is also actively involved in the March-of-Dimes, the DARE program, and supporting various charities. Being a positive role model and setting a good example is very important to Derrike. Derrike also enjoys golfing in charity tournaments and racing remote control hydroplane boats during the summer. In the winter, he hunts duck and pheasant with his father.
Derrike also runs C2P Suspension. C2P is a company that sells shocks for motorcycles, dirt cars, ATV’s, midget cars, modified cars, sprint cars, snowmobile, and many more vehicles; they are also made for stock cars, but are not approved for the top three series of NASCAR, they are approved for most of the local tracks though.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-543-NASCAR-Examiner~y2009m12d17-Cope-Merges-Team-with-plans-for-full-NASCAR-Truck-Nationwide-schedule-in-2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrike_Cope
http://www.derrikecope.com/dc/default.asp
http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/dcope00/cup/bio.html
When Cope was growing up racing was just a hobby he enjoyed, while he was a very good catcher on the Bethel High School baseball team; he attended Whitman College to continue his baseball dreams. Cope was such a good baseball player that he was being recruited by major-league teams such as the Chicago Cubs and the Baltimore Orioles, but the dream of being in the big league was crushed when he suffered a knee injury in 1978. Forced out of baseball Cope dedicated himself to racing full time.
Cope soon progressed through the short-track ranks in the Northwest, and later made his Winston (Sprint) Cup debut at Riverside International Raceway in 1982. Cope's #95 car finished 36th because he had an oil leak, he won $625. After that race he ran a part time schedule for the rest of the season.
He attempted the Rookie of the Year battle in 1988 with owners Jim Testa and Dave Fuge until he gave up on that goal due to bad finishes mid-season.
In 1989, he signed with Bob Whitcomb to drive the #10 Purolator Pontiac which mid-season changed to Chevrolet, posting four top-10 finishes.
In 1990, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was well on his way to winning his first Daytona 500 when on the third turn his tire blew due to debris and Derrike passed him and won his very first race, becoming only the fourth driver to get their first Winston (Sprint) cup race in the Daytona 500. At Dover later on in the season he won again. He ended up winning twice and finishing 18th in the points in 1990.
At the end of the 1992 season Bob Whitcomb shut down his team forcing Derrike to move on. In the 1993 season he drove for Cale Yarborough in the previously #66, #98 Bojangles Ford.
During the 1994 season Jeremy Mayfield took Cope’s ride forcing Derrike to move on to another team in just short notice, T.W. Taylor let him drive one of his car until Bobby Allison offered him the #12 car he owned and of course he accepted. In this year he won his first and only career Busch (Nationwide) series race while he was driving the #82, Ford Thunderbird for Ron Zock at Loudon, New Hampshire.
In 1995 he had eight top 10 finishes, and finished 15th in points, his best year so far. He was also featured in a commercial for a NASCAR credit card with drivers such as the greats Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Rusty Wallace.
Allison’s team shut down prior to the 1997 season, and Cope signed on to MB2 Motorsports; he drove the #36 Skittles Pontiac during the 1997 season to a 27th place finish in the points.
In 1998 he drove for Bahari racing #30 Gumout car, after getting replaced by Ken Schrader in the #36. He missed a few races due to injury, but still won the pole position at Lowes Motor Speedway.
Bahari got Cope back in 1999, except this year with Sara Lee as his sponsor. Cope failed to qualify for ten races which led to him being released from his contract. He made a couple random starts for a couple car owners until he signed on with Fenley-Moore Motorsports to drive the #15 Ford Taurus. He didn’t like that Fenley-Moore Motorsports only let him run a limited schedule so he quit after a few races and spent the rest of the year watching from the pits. At the end of the season he joined Impact Motorsports to drive the #86 R.C. Cola Dodge in the Craftsman (Camping World) truck series.
In 2001 Cope and drag racer Warren Johnson announced the formation of their new team, Quest Motor Racing. The team didn’t start a race all year, and Derrike’s first and only start of the year was with CLR racing. Also in that year he started four races in the #94 owned by Fred Bickford in the Busch (Nationwide) series. He also became an editor on FOX Sports Net when he wasn’t racing.
Derrike finally got his team qualified for 18 races in 2003 driving the #37 Friendly’s Ice Cream Chevy. He then merged his team with Arnold Motorsports.
After several starts with his newly merged team in 2004, he was released and he took back his equipment, he then signed a contract to drive the #49 Advil Ford for Jay Robinson in the Busch (Nationwide) series for the 30 remaining races.
In 2005 Cope was going to merge his team again with Larry Hollenbeck, but since he didn’t qualify for the Daytona 500 that chance was broken. He attempted a couple more races but failed. His only start in the NEXTEL (Sprint) cup series was at Martinsville driving the McGlynn Racing #08.
McGlynn ask Cope to drive for them full time in the #74 car in 2006, he agreed and signed the necessary contract; that ride was later cut down to a part-time ride.
He signed to drive for Means Racing in 2008 in the Nationwide Series. Mid-season he quit Means Racing and went to drive for James Finch and Jay Robinson, but later on he started driving his own team in the Nationwide and Craftsman (Camping World) truck series. He also began fielding his cars in the nationwide and truck series.
In the 2009 season Cope announced he would field cars in all three series with BluFrog Energy Drink coming aboard, and he would be a part of that in the top two series, Nationwide, and Sprint cup.
In 2010 Cope will team up with Dale Clemons as the co-owners of the new racing team Stratus Racing. The team plans to race all the races in the Nationwide and truck series with Derrike as the driver, and a limited schedule in the ARCA Remax series for his nieces Amber and Angela Cope, and will also run a part time schedule in the Sprint Cup series. Sponsorship is said to have already been wrapped up but will not be announced until later on.
When Derrike is not racing, he presents motivational talks to school age children on such subjects as the importance of staying in school and never taking drugs. He is also actively involved in the March-of-Dimes, the DARE program, and supporting various charities. Being a positive role model and setting a good example is very important to Derrike. Derrike also enjoys golfing in charity tournaments and racing remote control hydroplane boats during the summer. In the winter, he hunts duck and pheasant with his father.
Derrike also runs C2P Suspension. C2P is a company that sells shocks for motorcycles, dirt cars, ATV’s, midget cars, modified cars, sprint cars, snowmobile, and many more vehicles; they are also made for stock cars, but are not approved for the top three series of NASCAR, they are approved for most of the local tracks though.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-543-NASCAR-Examiner~y2009m12d17-Cope-Merges-Team-with-plans-for-full-NASCAR-Truck-Nationwide-schedule-in-2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrike_Cope
http://www.derrikecope.com/dc/default.asp
http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/dcope00/cup/bio.html
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wendell Scott
Throughout his career Wendell Scott was continuously made fun of, discriminated against, and cheated on all because of the color of his skin, but he did not retaliate; he loved to race and he knew that if he did he would have to quit so he was very careful on what he did. His son Franklin recalls of one specific driver continuously wrecking him and holding a grudge towards him because of his race, so one day Wendell pulled up beside of him while the other driver was pointing a finger at him and pointed his gun at him, needless to say, they never had any more problems with that driver. That was the type of person Wendell was, if someone was messing with him, he wouldn’t do something that could cause trouble, he just did it his own way. Even though his career was short and he didn’t make too much money he made sure to put all six of his kids through college.
Wendell Oliver Scott was born on August 29, 1921; he drove the #34 Chevrolet most of his racing career. He is only one of six known black drivers to race at least once in the Sprint cup series; the others were Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, George Wiltshire, Randy Bethea, Willy T. Ribbs, and most recently, Bill Lester, who raced twice in 2006. Those six drivers have made a combined nine Cup starts. While Wendell had a total of 506 starts and won one race becoming the only black driver to win a race in the Grand National (Sprint cup) Series.
From boyhood, Scott wanted to be his own boss. He vowed never to work in a cotton mill or a tobacco plant which where the two dominant industries of his local town of Danville, Virginia. He began learning auto mechanics from his father, who worked as a driver and mechanic for two wealthy families. After Wendell started racing, all the people of the neighborhood would all say the same thing, “He's just like his daddy" who used to scare people half to death with the way he drove. Scott raced bicycles against white boys in his neighborhood. He said, "I was the only black boy that had a bicycle." He became a daredevil on roller skates, speeding down Danville's steep hills on one skate. He dropped out of high school, to become a taxi driver.
He was a mechanic in the segregated 101st airborne division in the Army in Europe during World War II in 1942.
In 1944, after his discharge, he and Mary Cole got married and later on had six kids.
After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop; and as a sideline, he started running moonshine, which is a good part of how NASCAR got started, with the first NASCAR driver driving their old moonshine running cars, from out of the hills of Virginia and North Carolina. The police caught Wendell only once, in 1949 because he had to dodge a group of people and slid into a house; he was sentenced to three years probation. Even with the probation he continued making his whiskey runs, and on the weekends, he would go to the stock car races in Danville, and he would have to sit in the blacks-only section of the bleachers.
In 1952 the officials at the track in Danville wanted to spice up there races, so they said they were going to put a Negro in with the old country boys. They wanted a fast Negro, not one that will just ride around, so they asked the local police who the best Negro driver was. The police told them of Wendell Scott, the bootlegger who they had chased and chased, but only had caught once. Wendell was invited to race and he jumped on it bringing one of his best moonshine running cars to the next race, which made him the first African-American driver in Southern stock car racing. His car broke down during the race as fans booed him, but he then realized he wanted his career to be racing. He attempted a couple NASCAR sanctioned races after that race, but at the time NASCAR did not allow colored people to race, so he stuck to local dirt track racing, and in a short heat at Lynchburg, Virginia in the amateur class Scott won his very first race.
In 1953 after gaining experience in auto racing and winning over 200 races and a couple track championships at local ½ to ¾ mile race tracks in rural Virginia and North Carolina, Wendell became the first African-American to obtain a NASCAR license; but the only reason he was granted one was because the steward at Richmond Speedway had the power to grant them, and he did; but not without anguish, when the NASCAR officials at Daytona Beach heard what Mike Poston the steward at Richmond speedway had done they were furious. Scott's career was affected by racial prejudice with NASCAR officials, drivers, and fans in the sport that was conceived in the racist heavy south; however, his determined struggle as an underdog won him thousands of fans, white and black, and many friends and admirers throughout the garage.
One night in 1954 a promoter at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina gave all the racers 15 dollars for gas money but denied Wendell the money. The next day he met Bill France for the first time and told him what had happened. Bill being the kind man he was reached into his pocket and gave Scott 30 dollars and assured him that the color of his skin would never be a factor in NASCAR; that of course was not true so far so Wendell wondered why it would be true in the future, but he still hoped France would keep his promise.
In 1961, the same year Jackie Robinson broke color barriers in Major League Baseball, Wendell Scott moved up to the Grand National (Sprint cup) division of NASCAR. The NASCAR races he ran up to that time were equivalent to the Whelen modified series or Camping world touring series.
On the first day of December in 1963 he went to race at the one mile long dirt track at Speedway Park just like he would any other race; but this one was different. He was driving a Chevrolet Bel Air which he had purchased from Ned Jarrett and won the race, two laps ahead of the second place driver Buck Baker; NASCAR declared Buck Baker the winner, claiming it was due to the racist society that Florida was known for, but others say that NASCAR didn’t want a black man to win a race so they claimed Buck won it, but then two hours later NASCAR made the necessary corrections and correctly declared Wendell as the very first and only to date African-American to win a NASCAR Grand National (Sprint cup) race. He ended up only getting a piece of junk trophy a couple months later in a small ceremony in Savannah, Georgia, because Buck got the real one, and he didn’t get to celebrate with the beauty queen, his team, or his family; but that piece of junk trophy that don’t even tell what is was for he got, is his wife Mary’s most prized possession. That year he finished 12th in the points standings.
He finished a career high of 6th in the point standings in 1966.
In 1971, he received the first Curtis Turner Achievement Award for his efforts to promote NASCAR racing.
He was forced to retire due to injuries from a 19 car pile-up at Talladega, Alabama in 1973 which almost crippled him; his injuries included broken pelvis bones, three broken ribs, a leg broken in seven places, and a lacerated arm that required seventy stitches.
In 1977, he was inducted into the National Black Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 1986, Les Montgomery of Atlanta, Georgia, with Wendell's help, established a Wendell Scott Racing Foundation to begin a scholarship program for young people interested in auto mechanics.
On Dec. 22, 1990, Wendell Scott died of Spinal Cancer. Yet, his spirit and memory lives on in the hearts and memories of family, fans, and friends.
He achieved one win and 147 top ten finishes in 506 career Grand National (Sprint cup series) starts.
The book, "Hard Driving: The American Odyssey of NASCAR's First Black Driver," by Brian Donovan was a biography written about Wendell, Mojo Nixon, a fellow Danville native, wrote a tribute song titled "The Ballad of Wendell Scott", which appears on Nixon and Skid Roper's 1987 album, "Frenzy", and in his home town of Danville the street he lived on was officially renamed “Wendell Scott Drive” in 1997, that is just a few of many honors Wendell Scott got and deserved for his determination to become the first African-American to race in NASCAR.
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/04/22/wscott.honor.nascar/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Scott
http://www.answers.com/topic/wendell-scott
Wendell Oliver Scott was born on August 29, 1921; he drove the #34 Chevrolet most of his racing career. He is only one of six known black drivers to race at least once in the Sprint cup series; the others were Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, George Wiltshire, Randy Bethea, Willy T. Ribbs, and most recently, Bill Lester, who raced twice in 2006. Those six drivers have made a combined nine Cup starts. While Wendell had a total of 506 starts and won one race becoming the only black driver to win a race in the Grand National (Sprint cup) Series.
From boyhood, Scott wanted to be his own boss. He vowed never to work in a cotton mill or a tobacco plant which where the two dominant industries of his local town of Danville, Virginia. He began learning auto mechanics from his father, who worked as a driver and mechanic for two wealthy families. After Wendell started racing, all the people of the neighborhood would all say the same thing, “He's just like his daddy" who used to scare people half to death with the way he drove. Scott raced bicycles against white boys in his neighborhood. He said, "I was the only black boy that had a bicycle." He became a daredevil on roller skates, speeding down Danville's steep hills on one skate. He dropped out of high school, to become a taxi driver.
He was a mechanic in the segregated 101st airborne division in the Army in Europe during World War II in 1942.
In 1944, after his discharge, he and Mary Cole got married and later on had six kids.
After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop; and as a sideline, he started running moonshine, which is a good part of how NASCAR got started, with the first NASCAR driver driving their old moonshine running cars, from out of the hills of Virginia and North Carolina. The police caught Wendell only once, in 1949 because he had to dodge a group of people and slid into a house; he was sentenced to three years probation. Even with the probation he continued making his whiskey runs, and on the weekends, he would go to the stock car races in Danville, and he would have to sit in the blacks-only section of the bleachers.
In 1952 the officials at the track in Danville wanted to spice up there races, so they said they were going to put a Negro in with the old country boys. They wanted a fast Negro, not one that will just ride around, so they asked the local police who the best Negro driver was. The police told them of Wendell Scott, the bootlegger who they had chased and chased, but only had caught once. Wendell was invited to race and he jumped on it bringing one of his best moonshine running cars to the next race, which made him the first African-American driver in Southern stock car racing. His car broke down during the race as fans booed him, but he then realized he wanted his career to be racing. He attempted a couple NASCAR sanctioned races after that race, but at the time NASCAR did not allow colored people to race, so he stuck to local dirt track racing, and in a short heat at Lynchburg, Virginia in the amateur class Scott won his very first race.
In 1953 after gaining experience in auto racing and winning over 200 races and a couple track championships at local ½ to ¾ mile race tracks in rural Virginia and North Carolina, Wendell became the first African-American to obtain a NASCAR license; but the only reason he was granted one was because the steward at Richmond Speedway had the power to grant them, and he did; but not without anguish, when the NASCAR officials at Daytona Beach heard what Mike Poston the steward at Richmond speedway had done they were furious. Scott's career was affected by racial prejudice with NASCAR officials, drivers, and fans in the sport that was conceived in the racist heavy south; however, his determined struggle as an underdog won him thousands of fans, white and black, and many friends and admirers throughout the garage.
One night in 1954 a promoter at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina gave all the racers 15 dollars for gas money but denied Wendell the money. The next day he met Bill France for the first time and told him what had happened. Bill being the kind man he was reached into his pocket and gave Scott 30 dollars and assured him that the color of his skin would never be a factor in NASCAR; that of course was not true so far so Wendell wondered why it would be true in the future, but he still hoped France would keep his promise.
In 1961, the same year Jackie Robinson broke color barriers in Major League Baseball, Wendell Scott moved up to the Grand National (Sprint cup) division of NASCAR. The NASCAR races he ran up to that time were equivalent to the Whelen modified series or Camping world touring series.
On the first day of December in 1963 he went to race at the one mile long dirt track at Speedway Park just like he would any other race; but this one was different. He was driving a Chevrolet Bel Air which he had purchased from Ned Jarrett and won the race, two laps ahead of the second place driver Buck Baker; NASCAR declared Buck Baker the winner, claiming it was due to the racist society that Florida was known for, but others say that NASCAR didn’t want a black man to win a race so they claimed Buck won it, but then two hours later NASCAR made the necessary corrections and correctly declared Wendell as the very first and only to date African-American to win a NASCAR Grand National (Sprint cup) race. He ended up only getting a piece of junk trophy a couple months later in a small ceremony in Savannah, Georgia, because Buck got the real one, and he didn’t get to celebrate with the beauty queen, his team, or his family; but that piece of junk trophy that don’t even tell what is was for he got, is his wife Mary’s most prized possession. That year he finished 12th in the points standings.
He finished a career high of 6th in the point standings in 1966.
In 1971, he received the first Curtis Turner Achievement Award for his efforts to promote NASCAR racing.
He was forced to retire due to injuries from a 19 car pile-up at Talladega, Alabama in 1973 which almost crippled him; his injuries included broken pelvis bones, three broken ribs, a leg broken in seven places, and a lacerated arm that required seventy stitches.
In 1977, he was inducted into the National Black Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 1986, Les Montgomery of Atlanta, Georgia, with Wendell's help, established a Wendell Scott Racing Foundation to begin a scholarship program for young people interested in auto mechanics.
On Dec. 22, 1990, Wendell Scott died of Spinal Cancer. Yet, his spirit and memory lives on in the hearts and memories of family, fans, and friends.
He achieved one win and 147 top ten finishes in 506 career Grand National (Sprint cup series) starts.
The book, "Hard Driving: The American Odyssey of NASCAR's First Black Driver," by Brian Donovan was a biography written about Wendell, Mojo Nixon, a fellow Danville native, wrote a tribute song titled "The Ballad of Wendell Scott", which appears on Nixon and Skid Roper's 1987 album, "Frenzy", and in his home town of Danville the street he lived on was officially renamed “Wendell Scott Drive” in 1997, that is just a few of many honors Wendell Scott got and deserved for his determination to become the first African-American to race in NASCAR.
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/04/22/wscott.honor.nascar/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Scott
http://www.answers.com/topic/wendell-scott
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Lee Petty
Out of a small community called Randleman, North Carolina, Lee Petty produced one of the greatest NASCAR careers and with his sons founded an astonishing NASCAR team that lived through four generations and is still going on today.
Lee Arnold Petty was born on March 14, 1914 near Randleman, North Carolina. He was one of the pioneers of NASCAR, and one of its first superstars. He won 54 races in 433 career starts; he also finished in the Top 5 in season points for NASCAR's first eleven seasons and in his last full season in 1960 he finished 6th; he also had a top 10 an implausible 332 times out of 433 career races. He is the father of Maurice and Richard, the grandfather of Kyle and Ritchie, and the great grandfather of the late Adam Petty, who all have raced, even for just a short stint. His nephew Dale Inman worked for Petty Enterprises as Richard's crew chief from the early 1960s until 1981 and during the 1990s.
Petty was a star athlete in high school and after he graduated, he decided to attend King's Business College in Greensboro, North Carolina; that decision helped him learn how to manage Petty Enterprises on their way to prominence.
In 1943, after a freak wood stove accident, the family house burned to the ground in front of the horrified eyes of his wife, Elizabeth, and sons. Petty and his family saw their way through the tragedy and soon converted a trailer into a new house.
He always liked driving cars fast but did it mainly as a hobby. He was a family man who provided for his wife and two boys Richard and Maurice by doing such jobs as being a mechanic, driving a taxi, and being a truck driver, and many more odd jobs, so by the time he realized his dream it was 1949 and he was thirty-five years old. In his first race Petty was one of the 33 racers in the premiere of NASCAR late-model racing on June 19, 1949 at Charlotte Speedway, which is a three-quarter of a mile dirt track near Charlotte Motor Speedway. He drove a Buick Roadmaster, his sons, Richard, age eleven, and Maurice, age ten, was his pit crew that day. In the race, Petty lost control of the top heavy car and barrel rolled. The car came to a halt in a battered heap, shooting out steam and oil. Petty climbed out of his car, shaken, with only a minor cut and sat on the track, and looked off into the distance with a “Wow, this is sad” type of look on his face. Petty later said "I was just sitting there thinking about having to go back home and explain to my wife where I'd been with the car." The misfortune of this wreck was that the car he just crashed was the car they drove to the track, so they had no way home and where stranded.
In 1954 Petty won his first of three championships in the Grand National (Sprint cup) series. This championship was unique because he did not win it with his own team like his next two, he won it with the car owner Gary Drake in which he left at the end of the season to drive for Carl Krueger; those was the only two car owners that he ever drove for, the rest of his seasons he drove for himself. "I have to finish in the top three cars to make money," Petty said in a 1954 interview. "I have to finish among the first five to break even. After that, I'm going in the red." That attitude is what propelled him into his successful career.
In 1958 he won his second ever championship.
In the first race at Daytona International Speedway in 1959 at the Daytona 500, Petty and Johnny Beauchamp battled during the final laps of the race. Petty, Beauchamp and Joe Weatherly drove 3 wide across the finish line at the final lap for a photo finish. Beauchamp was declared the unofficial winner, and he drove to victory lane. Petty protested the results, saying "I had Beauchamp by a good two feet“. It took NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. three days to decide the winner. In the end, with the help of that famous picture took from the grass at the finish line; Petty was officially declared the winner. Son Richard also drove in that race in a 1957 Oldsmobile convertible with the number he would soon make famous 43; he finished 57th out of 59 starters because of engine failure on only the eighth lap. Also in that year Lee finished 41 out of the 49 races run, winning twelve of them, and in that time he won his third championship becoming only the second driver to win 2 championships in a row, second only to Buck Baker who won the 2 previous championships; he also became the first driver to win 3 championships.
In 1960 his son Richard thought he had just won his first race; but boy was he wrong. Lee knew that something was wrong with the scoring and protested the win saying that he won, not Richard. Lee ended up winning the protest yet again, and the race, making Richard wait even longer for his first win. Lee said “I would have protested it even if it was my own mother”.
During the 1961 Daytona 500 qualifying race Lee Petty and Donny Beauchamp’s cars collided and hooked together and then slid into the guardrail which was only about 3 feet tall then and fell into the parking lot 150 ft. below. Petty was seriously injured; his injuries included a punctured lung, multiple fractures of the left chest, a fractured thigh, a broken collarbone, and several internal injuries; he was in the hospital for about four months.
In 1964 Petty ran his last race of his career at the Watkins Glen international raceway in N.Y. His driving career was over, but his ownership of Petty enterprises still stood and boy did it blossom; it became the most successful team in NASCAR and is still a contender today only with the new name of Richard Petty motorsports. In his later years of retirement he became a fanatic golfer, playing often four times a week.
In 1990, Lee Petty was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
In 1996 he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.
He was selected as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 along with his son, Richard Petty.
Lee Petty died early in the morning on April 5, 2000 at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the age of 86, several weeks after having surgery for a stomach aneurysm. He was buried at the Level Cross United Methodist Church Cemetery in Randleman, North Carolina. His great grandson Adam Petty raced for the first time in the Winston (Sprint) cup series just three days before he died. "There wasn't any better driver than Lee Petty in his day," legendary stock-car racer Junior Johnson told the Associated Press's Estes Thompson.
Lee Petty was the foundation of “The First Family of NASCAR”. If it wasn’t for him turning his hobby into a career we may have never got the great drivers out of Maurice Petty, Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, or the late Adam Petty, and even now, when there are no Petty’s racing in NASCAR we still consider them as being the greatest family of drivers in the history of the sport, and still watch them on DVD or television even if it is just 40 minutes of video with bad coverage; but we don’t care we love the Petty’s and we can thank that love to the one and only Lee Petty.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3407900436.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Petty
http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1990/Lee_Petty_main.htm
http://www.essortment.com/all/biographyoflee_rusr.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/lee-petty.htm
Lee Arnold Petty was born on March 14, 1914 near Randleman, North Carolina. He was one of the pioneers of NASCAR, and one of its first superstars. He won 54 races in 433 career starts; he also finished in the Top 5 in season points for NASCAR's first eleven seasons and in his last full season in 1960 he finished 6th; he also had a top 10 an implausible 332 times out of 433 career races. He is the father of Maurice and Richard, the grandfather of Kyle and Ritchie, and the great grandfather of the late Adam Petty, who all have raced, even for just a short stint. His nephew Dale Inman worked for Petty Enterprises as Richard's crew chief from the early 1960s until 1981 and during the 1990s.
Petty was a star athlete in high school and after he graduated, he decided to attend King's Business College in Greensboro, North Carolina; that decision helped him learn how to manage Petty Enterprises on their way to prominence.
In 1943, after a freak wood stove accident, the family house burned to the ground in front of the horrified eyes of his wife, Elizabeth, and sons. Petty and his family saw their way through the tragedy and soon converted a trailer into a new house.
He always liked driving cars fast but did it mainly as a hobby. He was a family man who provided for his wife and two boys Richard and Maurice by doing such jobs as being a mechanic, driving a taxi, and being a truck driver, and many more odd jobs, so by the time he realized his dream it was 1949 and he was thirty-five years old. In his first race Petty was one of the 33 racers in the premiere of NASCAR late-model racing on June 19, 1949 at Charlotte Speedway, which is a three-quarter of a mile dirt track near Charlotte Motor Speedway. He drove a Buick Roadmaster, his sons, Richard, age eleven, and Maurice, age ten, was his pit crew that day. In the race, Petty lost control of the top heavy car and barrel rolled. The car came to a halt in a battered heap, shooting out steam and oil. Petty climbed out of his car, shaken, with only a minor cut and sat on the track, and looked off into the distance with a “Wow, this is sad” type of look on his face. Petty later said "I was just sitting there thinking about having to go back home and explain to my wife where I'd been with the car." The misfortune of this wreck was that the car he just crashed was the car they drove to the track, so they had no way home and where stranded.
In 1954 Petty won his first of three championships in the Grand National (Sprint cup) series. This championship was unique because he did not win it with his own team like his next two, he won it with the car owner Gary Drake in which he left at the end of the season to drive for Carl Krueger; those was the only two car owners that he ever drove for, the rest of his seasons he drove for himself. "I have to finish in the top three cars to make money," Petty said in a 1954 interview. "I have to finish among the first five to break even. After that, I'm going in the red." That attitude is what propelled him into his successful career.
In 1958 he won his second ever championship.
In the first race at Daytona International Speedway in 1959 at the Daytona 500, Petty and Johnny Beauchamp battled during the final laps of the race. Petty, Beauchamp and Joe Weatherly drove 3 wide across the finish line at the final lap for a photo finish. Beauchamp was declared the unofficial winner, and he drove to victory lane. Petty protested the results, saying "I had Beauchamp by a good two feet“. It took NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. three days to decide the winner. In the end, with the help of that famous picture took from the grass at the finish line; Petty was officially declared the winner. Son Richard also drove in that race in a 1957 Oldsmobile convertible with the number he would soon make famous 43; he finished 57th out of 59 starters because of engine failure on only the eighth lap. Also in that year Lee finished 41 out of the 49 races run, winning twelve of them, and in that time he won his third championship becoming only the second driver to win 2 championships in a row, second only to Buck Baker who won the 2 previous championships; he also became the first driver to win 3 championships.
In 1960 his son Richard thought he had just won his first race; but boy was he wrong. Lee knew that something was wrong with the scoring and protested the win saying that he won, not Richard. Lee ended up winning the protest yet again, and the race, making Richard wait even longer for his first win. Lee said “I would have protested it even if it was my own mother”.
During the 1961 Daytona 500 qualifying race Lee Petty and Donny Beauchamp’s cars collided and hooked together and then slid into the guardrail which was only about 3 feet tall then and fell into the parking lot 150 ft. below. Petty was seriously injured; his injuries included a punctured lung, multiple fractures of the left chest, a fractured thigh, a broken collarbone, and several internal injuries; he was in the hospital for about four months.
In 1964 Petty ran his last race of his career at the Watkins Glen international raceway in N.Y. His driving career was over, but his ownership of Petty enterprises still stood and boy did it blossom; it became the most successful team in NASCAR and is still a contender today only with the new name of Richard Petty motorsports. In his later years of retirement he became a fanatic golfer, playing often four times a week.
In 1990, Lee Petty was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
In 1996 he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.
He was selected as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 along with his son, Richard Petty.
Lee Petty died early in the morning on April 5, 2000 at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the age of 86, several weeks after having surgery for a stomach aneurysm. He was buried at the Level Cross United Methodist Church Cemetery in Randleman, North Carolina. His great grandson Adam Petty raced for the first time in the Winston (Sprint) cup series just three days before he died. "There wasn't any better driver than Lee Petty in his day," legendary stock-car racer Junior Johnson told the Associated Press's Estes Thompson.
Lee Petty was the foundation of “The First Family of NASCAR”. If it wasn’t for him turning his hobby into a career we may have never got the great drivers out of Maurice Petty, Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, or the late Adam Petty, and even now, when there are no Petty’s racing in NASCAR we still consider them as being the greatest family of drivers in the history of the sport, and still watch them on DVD or television even if it is just 40 minutes of video with bad coverage; but we don’t care we love the Petty’s and we can thank that love to the one and only Lee Petty.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3407900436.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Petty
http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1990/Lee_Petty_main.htm
http://www.essortment.com/all/biographyoflee_rusr.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/lee-petty.htm
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael Gordon was born on August 4, of 1971 to William and Carol Ann, in Vallejo, California; He was raised in Pittsboro, Indiana, and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He, along with Rick Hendrick, are the co-owners of the #48 Lowe's team, driven by Jimmie Johnson, who won the 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 Sprint Cup series championships. Gordon also has an equity stake in his own #24 team.
Jeff was five when he began running laps at a makeshift racetrack that he and his stepfather, John Bickford, made out of an old fairground in his hometown of Vallejo, California. John really helped Gordon along in his racing career and inspired him to do his best at everything he did. By the Age of 6 Gordon had won 35 main events at the Crackerjack track in Rio Linda, California and set 5 track records. Gordon says that the track at Rio Linda was the first real race track he ever raced on, in an interview with Newsweek magazine.
At the age of 13 in 1984 Gordon took an interest in the 650 horsepower sprint cars. Gordon and his family had to overcome an insurance hurtle because the minimum age for driving the sprint cars was 16; but their determination paid off when Jeff was allowed to run in the All Star Florida Speedweeks. Supporting his career choice, Gordon's family moved from Vallejo, California to Pittsboro, Indiana, where there were more opportunities for younger racers to race against older racers. After moving to Indiana, things were far from easy. In an interview with Newsweek, his step-father said that the family "Slept in pick-up trucks and made our own parts. That's why I think Jeff is misunderstood by people who think he was born to rich parents and had a silver spoon in his mouth."
Gordon won three short-track races and was awarded USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year in 1989 at the ripe old age of 18. That season was highlighted by winning the “Night Before the 500” midget car race; the reason the race is called that is because it is the day before the Indianapolis 500.
In 1990, Gordon won his second consecutive “Night Before the 500”, and 2 more races on his way USAC national Midget title. When there wasn’t any places for him in any open wheel series Gordon decided to try out stock cars, and when he did, he loved it. Jeff then met a man named Hugh Connerty, who owned some Hooters restaurants and was a partner in Outback Steakhouse. Hugh helped Gordon pay for a test run at Charlotte in a Busch (Nationwide) series race. Ray Evernham, a then unknown, was asked to come work with Jeff as his crew chief. They ran a few races together at the end of the 1990 Busch (Nationwide) series season.
1991 was Gordon’s breakthrough year; He moved up to the Busch (Nationwide) series full time driving the #1 Carolina Ford Dealers, Ford for Bill Davis racing and won the Rookie of the year title with Ray Evernham as his crew chief, all in the same year he won the USAC Silver Crown championship at a record age of 20.
In 1992 Gordon set a NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) series record by capturing 11 poles in one season. His time with Bill Davis racing introduced Jeff to Ray Evernham as his crew chief, which led to be a potent combination later on. Coincidentally, Gordon's first NASCAR Winston (Sprint) Cup Series race, the 1992 Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, was also the final race for Richard Petty. The day before Gordon’s first Winston (Sprint) cup series race he won the pole and the race at the very first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Busch (Nationwide) series, catching the eye of talent genius Rick Hendrick.
In 1993, Gordon raced his first full season in Winston (Sprint) Cup for Hendrick Motorsports, in which he won a Daytona 500 qualifying race, the Rookie of the Year award, and finished 14th in points. Ray Evernham was placed as Jeff Gordon's first crew chief in the Winston (Sprint) cup series. Gordon's success in the sport reshaped the idea that young drivers couldn’t have success in NASCAR, and that helped lead the way to a wave of new drivers that you see in today’s version of the sport.
In 1994, Gordon collected his first career victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca Cola 600, NASCAR's longest and most demanding race. Additionally, Gordon scored a popular hometown victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the inaugural Brickyard 400, passing Ernie Irvan for the lead late in the race when Irvan cut down a tire and Gordon just happened to be in second. Gordon finished eighth in the Winston Cup point standings for the '94 season, as Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the championship for his 7th and final time.
1995 saw Gordon win his first NASCAR Winston (Sprint) Cup Championship. It was a grueling battle against him and 7-time Winston (Sprint) cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. that led all the way to the final race but Gordon just barely got it. Gordon finished the season with eight poles, and seven victories. The team's consistency was much better as well, having 3 DNF's in 1995, compared to 21 in his previous two seasons combined.
Gordon got off to a rocky start in 1996, but rebounded to win ten races, the series high; his most notable win was at the very last race to date at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. This would start a three year streak of winning double digit races. He finished 2nd to teammate Terry Labonte for the championship, losing by only 37 points.
Jeff Gordon’s 1997 year began with him signing a deal with Pepsi to be his associate sponsor. That deal is still ongoing to this day. Jeff won his first Daytona 500 in 1997, becoming the youngest driver in history to win the historic race. Later in the season he also won the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and had a chance to become the first man since Bill Elliott in 1985 to win the "Winston Million”. Gordon completed the feat by holding off a determined Jeff Burton in the final laps of the Southern 500 at Darlington. While Elliott failed to win the Winston Cup in 1985 along with the Winston Million, Jeff Gordon claimed his second Winston (Sprint) Cup championship in 1997, completing one of the most impressive single-season performances in NASCAR history. He finished the season with 10 victories for the second straight season. His victory at California was in the track's inaugural race, and his victory at Watkins Glen began a streak of seven consecutive road course victories.
In 1998 Gordon successfully defended his victories in the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500, winning a record four consecutive Southern 500s in the process. Gordon also won his second Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. According to most NASCAR drivers the race at Indianapolis has become second in prestige only to the Daytona 500. Gordon finished the 1998 season with a victory in the season finale at Atlanta. This was his 13th victory of the season and tied Richard Petty's modern era record of 13 wins in a single season. He finished 1998 with 13 wins, 7 poles, 26 top fives, and 28 top tens.
In 1999, Gordon along with crew chief Evernham formed Gordon/Evernham Motorsports. Though short lived, the race team enjoyed success. The co-owned team received a full sponsorship from Pepsi and ran six races with Gordon as driver and Ray Evernham as crew chief in the NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) Series. Even though he won six times in the Winston (Sprint) Cup series in 1999, Gordon's season was a major disappointment to their standards, finishing 6th in the series standings. A major reason of the malfunction of Gordon’s season was that his crew chief Ray Evernham packed up and left Jeff’s Hendrick Motorsports team after Dodge gave him a deal he couldn’t refuse, to leave and make his own team to reintroduce Dodge back into the sport, which ended one of the most dominant driver/crew chief combinations in NASCAR history. Brian Whitesell was named the interim crew chief for remainder of the season after Evernham's departure in September. Jeff Gordon established The Jeff Gordon Foundation to help support children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses in 1999, and now is a well known charity among drivers and fans alike.
2000 saw Gordon enter his first campaign with Robbie Loomis as crew chief. Loomis had been with Petty Enterprises for years prior but decided that going to the Hendrick Motorsports camp was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up. Gordon scored his first victory of 2000 at Talladega in the spring event, winning his 50th career victory in the series. Gordon finished the season 9th in points.
Many people questioned Gordon's ability to win championships without longtime crew chief, Ray Evernham; especially after Gordon struggled to a 9th place points finish in 2000, winning only three races. Gordon answered those challenges in 2001 by winning 6 races en route to his 4th Winston (Sprint) Cup championship. Jeff Gordon became the third driver to win four Cup championships in NASCAR history only second to Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt which both won seven times. The 24 car's paint scheme was changed for the first time, abandoning the younger looking 'Rainbow Warrior' paint scheme in favor of a flames-themed car. Both paint schemes were designed by Sam Bass.
Gordon entered the 2002 season as defending champion, but the year was far from perfect, which was just possibly caused by Gordon’s divorce with his first wife Brooke. Gordon had a good run going at speedweeks in Daytona, he won his 125 qualifier and was having a strong run until he slid into Sterling Marlin which spun him into the grass with only a few laps remaining forcing him to a respectable 9th place finish. Many also think that the addition of the 48 team with Jimmie Johnson as the driver also took away from Gordon's season as the 24 team helped to build the 48 team. Gordon did not win until the Sharpie 500 night race at Bristol in August, his first victory in the night race at Bristol, a week later he won the Southern 500 at Darlington for his 5th time. The 24 team finished the season 4th in points.
In 2003, Jeff Gordon returned with Robbie Loomis for a third season together. In June, Gordon went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take part in a test with then-Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya. The two switched rides for that day, with Gordon driving an F1 car for the first time. Montoya would eventually join the NASCAR Cup series in 2007 for Chip Gannasi racing with Felix Sabates. Jeff finished the year 4th in the NASCAR standings, with 3 wins, 15 Top-5 finishes, and 20 Top-10 finishes.
2004 was a huge rebound for the team. Gordon again won the Brickyard 400 in August 2004, obtaining his 4th Indy win. He is the only NASCAR driver with four Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one of only five drivers to have four victories at the historic track. He finished 3rd in the 2004 NEXTEL (Sprint) Cup points standing behind Kurt Busch and teammate Jimmie Johnson. Gordon scored the most points that year overall but due to the newly implemented chase for the cup format Gordon only finished third. While the Hendrick Motorsports team enjoyed success with Johnson and Gordon finished 2nd and 3rd in the points, the team suffered a major off-track tragedy. On October 24, during the race weekend at Martinsville, a Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying engine builder Randy Dorton, team President John Hendrick, Vice President Jeff Turner, and Rick Hendrick’s 24 year old son Ricky Hendrick, and more crashed on its way to the track. Everyone on board was killed. The team was clearly affected by this, but continued with impressive performances.
Gordon started the 2005 season with a win in the Daytona 500, his fourth win in the historic season opener. But inconsistency would plague him throughout the year. While running 25th at Chicagoland, he was taken out in a turn one wreck by Mike Bliss. After the race Gordon confronted Bliss at a local airport; with the end result being a black eye for Bliss. A late season run put him in position to qualify for the Chase, but in the last race before the Chase at Richmond, Gordon made contact with the wall and failed to qualify for the chase. On September 14, 2005 Crew Chief Robbie Loomis resigned from the #24 team to go and be a consultant for the #48 team who was in the chase at that time. Gordon’s new crew chief was former car chief, Steve Letarte. He went on to finish 11th in the Championship and received a $1,000,000 bonus as the top driver finishing outside the Chase. It was Gordon's first time outside the top 10 in the point standings since 1993, which for the second season in a row his point standings were greatly affected by the new cup format.
On June 29, 2006, Gordon announced that he would participate in the Rolex 24 endurance sports car event at Daytona International Speedway, teaming up with SunTrust Racing drivers Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor, who won the 2005 Rolex 24 race. His team went on to finish third, despite problems, two laps behind the winning team. Gordon won his first race of the year at the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway the day after he announced his engagement to Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch. Gordon also won his first race at the Chicagoland Speedway at the running of the USG Sheetrock 400. He finally made it into the Chase for the NEXTEL (Sprint) cup this year, and when it was all said and done he finished 6th, which brought him a paycheck of $7,471,447, which brought his total career winnings up to $82,838,526.
Gordon started off the 2007 Cup season by winning his Gatorade Duel 125 qualifying race, and finishing 10th in the Daytona 500. In March at the long awaited unveiling of the “Car of Tomorrow” at Bristol, he won his 58th career pole, and finished 3rd. In April at Phoenix Gordon won his 59th career pole tying Darrell Waltrip with the record, and 2 days later he won the race. In that race he tied Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 6th place in the most wins list with 76, and after winning the race he held a black #3 flag as he did a polish victory lap on honor of Earnhardt. The next week at Talladega he passed Darrell Waltrip to become the modern day pole leader. He also won that race which surpassed Earnhardt in wins, which moved him up to 6th and bumped Earnhardt down to 7th. He made the chase yet again, finishing 2nd in the points only to his teammate Jimmie Johnson. He again had the most points this year but just like in 2004 he fell victim to the new chase format. On June 20, 2007, Ingrid Vandebosch gave birth to Jeff Gordon’s first child, Ella Sofia Gordon in New York City.
In October of 2008 he got his first ever poll at the Texas Motor Speedway and almost won there for the first time but ended up finishing second only to Carl Edwards. Gordon again qualified for the chase and this time finished 7th. It was the first time since 1993 that he had gone winless throughout the season.
In 2009 Gordon had a new paint job for only the third time. This one was not as different as the second one except that the color blue was replaced with black. It was the first time in Gordon’s career that he didn’t run blue on his car. Gordon entered the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, with a win tally at that track of zero; he left with one. It was his 82nd career victory, and it was won at the only track besides Homestead-Miami Speedway that he has not won on. It also ended a 47 race winless streak. He ended up finishing 3rd in the points behind teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin. It was the first 1-2-3 finish for one team in NASCAR history. He also became the first driver to reach $100 Million in winnings for the Cup series by finishing 3rd in the point’s standings.
Hendrick Motorsports owner, Rick Hendrick, said in November 2009 that he is working on signing a contract extension with DuPont, Gordon's primary sponsor since the beginning of his career. DuPont's current contract with Jeff Gordon expires at the end of 2010, and Hendrick said he wants it to be Gordon's primary sponsor for the rest of his career.
Gordon is a Christian. He has talked about how in the early nineties he got curious and followed some drivers to the weekly chapel one week, which is how he first started to learn more about God. Every week there is a service held before the race at the race track which any driver, crew member, NASCAR official, or anybody else can attend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gordon
http://jeffgordon.com/aboutjeff/
http://www.gordonline.com/bio.html
Jeff was five when he began running laps at a makeshift racetrack that he and his stepfather, John Bickford, made out of an old fairground in his hometown of Vallejo, California. John really helped Gordon along in his racing career and inspired him to do his best at everything he did. By the Age of 6 Gordon had won 35 main events at the Crackerjack track in Rio Linda, California and set 5 track records. Gordon says that the track at Rio Linda was the first real race track he ever raced on, in an interview with Newsweek magazine.
At the age of 13 in 1984 Gordon took an interest in the 650 horsepower sprint cars. Gordon and his family had to overcome an insurance hurtle because the minimum age for driving the sprint cars was 16; but their determination paid off when Jeff was allowed to run in the All Star Florida Speedweeks. Supporting his career choice, Gordon's family moved from Vallejo, California to Pittsboro, Indiana, where there were more opportunities for younger racers to race against older racers. After moving to Indiana, things were far from easy. In an interview with Newsweek, his step-father said that the family "Slept in pick-up trucks and made our own parts. That's why I think Jeff is misunderstood by people who think he was born to rich parents and had a silver spoon in his mouth."
Gordon won three short-track races and was awarded USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year in 1989 at the ripe old age of 18. That season was highlighted by winning the “Night Before the 500” midget car race; the reason the race is called that is because it is the day before the Indianapolis 500.
In 1990, Gordon won his second consecutive “Night Before the 500”, and 2 more races on his way USAC national Midget title. When there wasn’t any places for him in any open wheel series Gordon decided to try out stock cars, and when he did, he loved it. Jeff then met a man named Hugh Connerty, who owned some Hooters restaurants and was a partner in Outback Steakhouse. Hugh helped Gordon pay for a test run at Charlotte in a Busch (Nationwide) series race. Ray Evernham, a then unknown, was asked to come work with Jeff as his crew chief. They ran a few races together at the end of the 1990 Busch (Nationwide) series season.
1991 was Gordon’s breakthrough year; He moved up to the Busch (Nationwide) series full time driving the #1 Carolina Ford Dealers, Ford for Bill Davis racing and won the Rookie of the year title with Ray Evernham as his crew chief, all in the same year he won the USAC Silver Crown championship at a record age of 20.
In 1992 Gordon set a NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) series record by capturing 11 poles in one season. His time with Bill Davis racing introduced Jeff to Ray Evernham as his crew chief, which led to be a potent combination later on. Coincidentally, Gordon's first NASCAR Winston (Sprint) Cup Series race, the 1992 Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, was also the final race for Richard Petty. The day before Gordon’s first Winston (Sprint) cup series race he won the pole and the race at the very first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Busch (Nationwide) series, catching the eye of talent genius Rick Hendrick.
In 1993, Gordon raced his first full season in Winston (Sprint) Cup for Hendrick Motorsports, in which he won a Daytona 500 qualifying race, the Rookie of the Year award, and finished 14th in points. Ray Evernham was placed as Jeff Gordon's first crew chief in the Winston (Sprint) cup series. Gordon's success in the sport reshaped the idea that young drivers couldn’t have success in NASCAR, and that helped lead the way to a wave of new drivers that you see in today’s version of the sport.
In 1994, Gordon collected his first career victory at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca Cola 600, NASCAR's longest and most demanding race. Additionally, Gordon scored a popular hometown victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the inaugural Brickyard 400, passing Ernie Irvan for the lead late in the race when Irvan cut down a tire and Gordon just happened to be in second. Gordon finished eighth in the Winston Cup point standings for the '94 season, as Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the championship for his 7th and final time.
1995 saw Gordon win his first NASCAR Winston (Sprint) Cup Championship. It was a grueling battle against him and 7-time Winston (Sprint) cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. that led all the way to the final race but Gordon just barely got it. Gordon finished the season with eight poles, and seven victories. The team's consistency was much better as well, having 3 DNF's in 1995, compared to 21 in his previous two seasons combined.
Gordon got off to a rocky start in 1996, but rebounded to win ten races, the series high; his most notable win was at the very last race to date at the North Wilkesboro Speedway. This would start a three year streak of winning double digit races. He finished 2nd to teammate Terry Labonte for the championship, losing by only 37 points.
Jeff Gordon’s 1997 year began with him signing a deal with Pepsi to be his associate sponsor. That deal is still ongoing to this day. Jeff won his first Daytona 500 in 1997, becoming the youngest driver in history to win the historic race. Later in the season he also won the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and had a chance to become the first man since Bill Elliott in 1985 to win the "Winston Million”. Gordon completed the feat by holding off a determined Jeff Burton in the final laps of the Southern 500 at Darlington. While Elliott failed to win the Winston Cup in 1985 along with the Winston Million, Jeff Gordon claimed his second Winston (Sprint) Cup championship in 1997, completing one of the most impressive single-season performances in NASCAR history. He finished the season with 10 victories for the second straight season. His victory at California was in the track's inaugural race, and his victory at Watkins Glen began a streak of seven consecutive road course victories.
In 1998 Gordon successfully defended his victories in the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500, winning a record four consecutive Southern 500s in the process. Gordon also won his second Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. According to most NASCAR drivers the race at Indianapolis has become second in prestige only to the Daytona 500. Gordon finished the 1998 season with a victory in the season finale at Atlanta. This was his 13th victory of the season and tied Richard Petty's modern era record of 13 wins in a single season. He finished 1998 with 13 wins, 7 poles, 26 top fives, and 28 top tens.
In 1999, Gordon along with crew chief Evernham formed Gordon/Evernham Motorsports. Though short lived, the race team enjoyed success. The co-owned team received a full sponsorship from Pepsi and ran six races with Gordon as driver and Ray Evernham as crew chief in the NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) Series. Even though he won six times in the Winston (Sprint) Cup series in 1999, Gordon's season was a major disappointment to their standards, finishing 6th in the series standings. A major reason of the malfunction of Gordon’s season was that his crew chief Ray Evernham packed up and left Jeff’s Hendrick Motorsports team after Dodge gave him a deal he couldn’t refuse, to leave and make his own team to reintroduce Dodge back into the sport, which ended one of the most dominant driver/crew chief combinations in NASCAR history. Brian Whitesell was named the interim crew chief for remainder of the season after Evernham's departure in September. Jeff Gordon established The Jeff Gordon Foundation to help support children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses in 1999, and now is a well known charity among drivers and fans alike.
2000 saw Gordon enter his first campaign with Robbie Loomis as crew chief. Loomis had been with Petty Enterprises for years prior but decided that going to the Hendrick Motorsports camp was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up. Gordon scored his first victory of 2000 at Talladega in the spring event, winning his 50th career victory in the series. Gordon finished the season 9th in points.
Many people questioned Gordon's ability to win championships without longtime crew chief, Ray Evernham; especially after Gordon struggled to a 9th place points finish in 2000, winning only three races. Gordon answered those challenges in 2001 by winning 6 races en route to his 4th Winston (Sprint) Cup championship. Jeff Gordon became the third driver to win four Cup championships in NASCAR history only second to Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt which both won seven times. The 24 car's paint scheme was changed for the first time, abandoning the younger looking 'Rainbow Warrior' paint scheme in favor of a flames-themed car. Both paint schemes were designed by Sam Bass.
Gordon entered the 2002 season as defending champion, but the year was far from perfect, which was just possibly caused by Gordon’s divorce with his first wife Brooke. Gordon had a good run going at speedweeks in Daytona, he won his 125 qualifier and was having a strong run until he slid into Sterling Marlin which spun him into the grass with only a few laps remaining forcing him to a respectable 9th place finish. Many also think that the addition of the 48 team with Jimmie Johnson as the driver also took away from Gordon's season as the 24 team helped to build the 48 team. Gordon did not win until the Sharpie 500 night race at Bristol in August, his first victory in the night race at Bristol, a week later he won the Southern 500 at Darlington for his 5th time. The 24 team finished the season 4th in points.
In 2003, Jeff Gordon returned with Robbie Loomis for a third season together. In June, Gordon went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take part in a test with then-Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya. The two switched rides for that day, with Gordon driving an F1 car for the first time. Montoya would eventually join the NASCAR Cup series in 2007 for Chip Gannasi racing with Felix Sabates. Jeff finished the year 4th in the NASCAR standings, with 3 wins, 15 Top-5 finishes, and 20 Top-10 finishes.
2004 was a huge rebound for the team. Gordon again won the Brickyard 400 in August 2004, obtaining his 4th Indy win. He is the only NASCAR driver with four Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one of only five drivers to have four victories at the historic track. He finished 3rd in the 2004 NEXTEL (Sprint) Cup points standing behind Kurt Busch and teammate Jimmie Johnson. Gordon scored the most points that year overall but due to the newly implemented chase for the cup format Gordon only finished third. While the Hendrick Motorsports team enjoyed success with Johnson and Gordon finished 2nd and 3rd in the points, the team suffered a major off-track tragedy. On October 24, during the race weekend at Martinsville, a Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying engine builder Randy Dorton, team President John Hendrick, Vice President Jeff Turner, and Rick Hendrick’s 24 year old son Ricky Hendrick, and more crashed on its way to the track. Everyone on board was killed. The team was clearly affected by this, but continued with impressive performances.
Gordon started the 2005 season with a win in the Daytona 500, his fourth win in the historic season opener. But inconsistency would plague him throughout the year. While running 25th at Chicagoland, he was taken out in a turn one wreck by Mike Bliss. After the race Gordon confronted Bliss at a local airport; with the end result being a black eye for Bliss. A late season run put him in position to qualify for the Chase, but in the last race before the Chase at Richmond, Gordon made contact with the wall and failed to qualify for the chase. On September 14, 2005 Crew Chief Robbie Loomis resigned from the #24 team to go and be a consultant for the #48 team who was in the chase at that time. Gordon’s new crew chief was former car chief, Steve Letarte. He went on to finish 11th in the Championship and received a $1,000,000 bonus as the top driver finishing outside the Chase. It was Gordon's first time outside the top 10 in the point standings since 1993, which for the second season in a row his point standings were greatly affected by the new cup format.
On June 29, 2006, Gordon announced that he would participate in the Rolex 24 endurance sports car event at Daytona International Speedway, teaming up with SunTrust Racing drivers Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor, who won the 2005 Rolex 24 race. His team went on to finish third, despite problems, two laps behind the winning team. Gordon won his first race of the year at the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway the day after he announced his engagement to Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch. Gordon also won his first race at the Chicagoland Speedway at the running of the USG Sheetrock 400. He finally made it into the Chase for the NEXTEL (Sprint) cup this year, and when it was all said and done he finished 6th, which brought him a paycheck of $7,471,447, which brought his total career winnings up to $82,838,526.
Gordon started off the 2007 Cup season by winning his Gatorade Duel 125 qualifying race, and finishing 10th in the Daytona 500. In March at the long awaited unveiling of the “Car of Tomorrow” at Bristol, he won his 58th career pole, and finished 3rd. In April at Phoenix Gordon won his 59th career pole tying Darrell Waltrip with the record, and 2 days later he won the race. In that race he tied Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 6th place in the most wins list with 76, and after winning the race he held a black #3 flag as he did a polish victory lap on honor of Earnhardt. The next week at Talladega he passed Darrell Waltrip to become the modern day pole leader. He also won that race which surpassed Earnhardt in wins, which moved him up to 6th and bumped Earnhardt down to 7th. He made the chase yet again, finishing 2nd in the points only to his teammate Jimmie Johnson. He again had the most points this year but just like in 2004 he fell victim to the new chase format. On June 20, 2007, Ingrid Vandebosch gave birth to Jeff Gordon’s first child, Ella Sofia Gordon in New York City.
In October of 2008 he got his first ever poll at the Texas Motor Speedway and almost won there for the first time but ended up finishing second only to Carl Edwards. Gordon again qualified for the chase and this time finished 7th. It was the first time since 1993 that he had gone winless throughout the season.
In 2009 Gordon had a new paint job for only the third time. This one was not as different as the second one except that the color blue was replaced with black. It was the first time in Gordon’s career that he didn’t run blue on his car. Gordon entered the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, with a win tally at that track of zero; he left with one. It was his 82nd career victory, and it was won at the only track besides Homestead-Miami Speedway that he has not won on. It also ended a 47 race winless streak. He ended up finishing 3rd in the points behind teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin. It was the first 1-2-3 finish for one team in NASCAR history. He also became the first driver to reach $100 Million in winnings for the Cup series by finishing 3rd in the point’s standings.
Hendrick Motorsports owner, Rick Hendrick, said in November 2009 that he is working on signing a contract extension with DuPont, Gordon's primary sponsor since the beginning of his career. DuPont's current contract with Jeff Gordon expires at the end of 2010, and Hendrick said he wants it to be Gordon's primary sponsor for the rest of his career.
Gordon is a Christian. He has talked about how in the early nineties he got curious and followed some drivers to the weekly chapel one week, which is how he first started to learn more about God. Every week there is a service held before the race at the race track which any driver, crew member, NASCAR official, or anybody else can attend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gordon
http://jeffgordon.com/aboutjeff/
http://www.gordonline.com/bio.html
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