Jeff Gordon’s impact, influence resonate 20 years after 2005 Daytona 500 win

DAYTONA BEACH — Everything seemed to come easy for Jeff Gordon, including his first Daytona 500 win.

In 1997, NASCAR’s 25-year-old superstar became the youngest champion ever. A year later, fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally picked off his only 500 victory in his 20th attempt. In 1999, Gordon answered with a second title at the Great American Race.

But by the time he captured another one, in 2005, Earnhardt was gone. Gordon, whom the deceased legend once nicknamed “Wonder Boy,” was more than a decade into his career and realized winning his sport’s biggest race wasn’t so easy after all.

“I probably didn’t appreciate when I started my NASCAR career how hard it is to win, how much it means to win,” Gordon told the Orlando Sentinel Friday. “Doing that with new individuals on the team that hadn’t won the Daytona 500 made ’05 really special. We had a strong car, but we just came together as a team.

“That was one of those days where I didn’t want to let them down.”

Gordon would make 23 more trips to Victory Lane before retiring in 2015, but not another at the Daytona 500. He had a shot in 2014 when he was fourth to Dale Earnhardt Jr. but finished outside the top-25 six times.

“The last 10 years of my career, those lucky breaks or the things that you have to do to execute a flawless race to win the Daytona 500,” Gordon said, “it made me appreciate those three wins even more because of how those didn’t go so well and how difficult it is.”

But whatever happened after No. 3, his bonafides — including 70 Cup Series wins and four championships — were well established, his place in NASCAR history secure.

Heading into Sunday’s Daytona 500, set to begin an hour early at 1:30 p.m. because of adverse weather forecasts, Gordon’s impact and influence are still felt.

His California upbringing and eventual rise from the Indiana dirt tracks racing sprint cars inspired and spawned two generations of drivers, including Cup Series champions Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson.

“He definitely paved the way for guys like myself,” Larson, 32, said. “My career path really modeled his from moving from Northern California to Indiana, and then coming to Charlotte. He kind of showed you the way to do it.

“A lot of people still try to do it that way.”

Being the first had risks.

“If you go and you don’t have success, then it can work the opposite where they go,” Gordon said.

Gordon proved to be can’t-miss.

Following his family’s move from California to Indiana, he quickly emerged in midget car racing. At age 16 he became youngest driver to earn a USAC (United State Auto Club) license.

Following his high school graduation in 1989, he raced that night in Bloomington. Before he was 18, Gordon had won three short-track races and was 1989 Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year.

Yet Gordon seized the chance to race stock cars rather than follow in the footsteps of his idol, sprint car legend Steve Kinser.

In October 1990, Gordon made his Busch Series debut and drove the circuit full-time 1991 as a 19-year-old and 1992 when he won a record 11 poles along with three races.

When owner Rick Hendrick gave Gordon a full-time Cup Series ride at age 21 in 1993, many around the garage were aghast. Gordon then went out and posted 11 DNFs (failed to finish) in 30 races, including five crashes.

“People thought Rick was out of his mind,” Larry McReynolds, a longtime Fox analyst and former crew chief, told the Sentinel. “Prior to that, Cup owners didn’t even think about a driver that wasn’t over the age of 30. As we know, that first year didn’t go so well.

“But in the back of Rick’s mind, he knew it was there and he’d figure it out.”

Gordon served noticed in 1994 with his maiden Cup Series win at World 600 in Charlotte and a victory at the inaugural Brickyard 400 at iconic Indianapolis Speedway. In 1995, he broke out and never looked back. Gordon won 47 races, including 13 in 1998, and three season championships during in a five-year run unlike anything seen in NASCAR’s modern era (post-1972).

Aspiring drivers took notice from coast to coast.

“He gave me hope that NASCAR was looking West,” said Johnson, who became a Hendrick Motorsports teammate who went on to become a seven-time Cup Series champion. “I was very thankful he blazed the trail.”

Telegenic, quick-witted and polished, Gordon stirred the passion of longtime fans, whose sport was rooted in the South. Earnhardt loyalists quickly chose sides.

“You had this juxtaposition where Dale Earnhardt, Sr, the southerner, and then the California kid coming along,” Johnson, 49, recalled. “It just brought in so much more interest. They were so different that was interesting to watch.

“It was just one of those perfect storms.”

Corporate America took notice as TV ratings drafted behind Gordon and Earnhardt during the 1990s and into the 2000s. Gordon’s 2003 appearance as host on Saturday Night Live carried the sport into living rooms with little interest and familiarity with NASCAR.

Gordon’s 2005 win drew a record 18.7 million viewers, followed by 19.4 million to watch Johnson’s 2006 victory. Along the way, sponsorships boomed and track opened in places like Chicago and Kansas City.

“He changed the commercial side of the sport more than anything,” three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin said. “When he came in, that’s where he had a huge boom of Fortune 500 companies following suit. He was this interesting off the racetrack as he was on the racetrack.

“That is the key to all of this.”

Time have changed.

Following a five-year run as an analyst for FOX, Gordon serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, where he pushes to energize the sport and produce winning cars.

The thrill, though, is not the same as it was winning 93 times and 81 poles, both third all time.

“When you go to Victory Lane,” he said, “there’s just nothing like it.”

Even so, William Byron’s win at the 2024 Daytona 500 in the iconic No. 24 Chevrolet once driven by Gordon lit a fire in the 53-year-old — and took him back in time.

“Some things you can’t take away — that number and those fans,” Gordon said. “There’s just a lot of great memories there.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com