It is said that some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but in Vallejo, California on August 4, 1971 a baby was born with a silver steering wheel in his hands. It had nothing to do with the money his parents had, it had everything to do with the talents this child would one day posess. By the time Jeff Gordon was 4 years old his mother Carol married John Bickford. Jeff's stepfather took him under his "racing wing" and bought him a BMX bicycle and then a Quarter Midget race car when he was 5. His stepdad seemed to know that Jeff would become a race car driver because he had him practicing laps in his Quarter Midget soon after he got it. They would take the car out everynight after John got home from work and run it lap after lap. "Jeff just couldn't get enough of it." John said.
With the guidance and support from his stepfather, Jeff was destined to be a champion at the age of eight. Winning the Western States Championship for quarter-midget cars his first year running was only the start for this unusually talented young man. Two more followed, and by the early 1980s, Jeff had also won four class championships in Go-Karts. Jeff took to the quarter midget cars like he was born to race. He was winning races before he could read or write. Jeff was winning so frequently in quarter midgets that at age nine, he was beating drivers 17 and older. On and on he went, usually racing on dirt and always moving to a higher level of success.
The highlight of Gordon's young California racing career was the quartermidget nationals. Jeff, then 11, was winning steadily, but this was special. He knew there was always a chance he'd lose; so he couldn't be cocky. But he didn't lose. And once it was determined that Jeff would be a racer, the family had a decision to make.
By 1985, Jeff's parents knew that their son's future was in racing. Vallejo, California, was wonderful, but Jeff could get little competition racing other kids. He needed to race against adults, but he couldn't do that in his home state because of age restrictions. They moved from California to Florida, then to Pittsboro, Indiana, near Indianapolis in 1986 for two reasons. Open-wheel racing was very popular in the Midwest and there were a lot of race tracks in the area. In addition, Jeff could legally race sprint cars in Indiana with his parents permission.
So at thirteen he started driving the 700-Horse powered sprint cars. Jeff joined the United States Auto Club (USAC) at 16 and was the youngest person to ever get a license with the group. Jeff won 3 sprint car track championships before he was old enough to get a drivers license and he was the 1989 USAC Midget Rookie of the Year.
He went to high school in Pittsboro and graduated in 1989. By the time he graduated, he'd already won over 100 races. He won the USAC Midget championship in 1990. That year, Jeff ran 21 USAC Midget Car races. He was the fastest qualifier 10 times, won nine races and at age 19 became the youngest Midget class champion ever. The next year he moved up to USAC's Silver Crown Division, and at 20 he became the youngest driver to ever win that championship. He won the USAC midget title in 1990 and his father suggested that Jeff go to Rockingham, North Carolina and attend the Buck Baker driving school. Not for sprint cars, but NASCAR stock cars. ESPN taped a story about Jeff's experience there and in return, Baker would teach Gordon free of charge. After taking his first lap in a stock car, Jeff realized that those were the cars he wanted to race more than anything else.
In 1991, a year of frenzied racing, he moved up to Busch Grand National competition driving the #1 Carolina Ford owned by Bill Davis and won rookie of the year honors. The car was sponsored by Baby Ruth in 1992 in Busch racing and Jeff captured a NASCAR record 11 pole positions that year.
Winston Cup car owner Rick Hendrick noticed Gordon driving an extremely loose race car around Atlanta Motor Speedway that year. He waited for the driver to lose control and wreck but the driver went on the win the race. Hendrick immediately asked who the driver was and was told that it was "That Gordon kid." Hendrick told his general manager, Jimmy Johnson, to sign the kid to a Winston Cup contract, whatever it took.
In 1992, he signed with Hendrick Motorsports to drive for car owner Rick Hendrick. Jeff signed the deal of a lifetime putting him into the elite circle of NASCAR teams. At the age of 21, he ran the final race of the 1992 season at Atlanta. He came out strong in 1993, winning the Gatorade 125-mile Qualifying race for the Daytona 500. 
He noticed Miss Winston, Brooke Sealy, in Victory Lane that day. They married on November 26, 1994 and lived in Huntersville, North Carolina until 1998 when they moved to Highland Beach, Florida.
Jeff won the Maxx Race Cards Rookie of the Year award in 1993 and finished second in NASCAR's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jeff finished 14th in the final points standings his first year and hoped to move into the top 10 in points in 1994. He won the Busch Clash in 1994 and registered his first Winston Cup points win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Worldwide attention was thrust upon Jeff when he won the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in August 1994. He finished the 1994 season eighth in the points standings.
Jeff had a dream season in 1995 en route to his first Winston Cup title. He became the second youngest driver to win the Winston Cup Championship at the age of 24, being called the youngest champion in the modern era. He had 7 wins, 10 tops 5's and 16 top 10's. He is the youngest Champion since Bill Rexford won at the age of 23 in 1950. Jeff proved he was more than just a superspeedway racer by winning on the challenging half-mile of Bristol. On the road to the title, he won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and followed that up with a win the following week on the Loudon, New Hampshire one-mile oval. Instead of cracking under pressure late in the season, Jeff attacked the races and won the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the MBNA 500 at Dover, Delaware's maddening one-mile oval in September which propelled him to a 300 point lead over Dale Earnhardt. With seven victories, he coasted to the championship at Atlanta and was the toast of New York City in December 1995 at the NASCAR Awards Banquet. Jeff finished 1995 with a new outlook on his career. He was not 'Wonder Boy' anymore but a proven champion.
The 1996 season started off a little slow with last place finishes at Daytona and Rockingham. Jeff bounced back in the 3rd week of the season with a win at Richmond. He won often and on some of the circuit's toughest tracks. However, inconsistency hurt him throughout the year. A wreck at Talladega, engine trouble at Louden, and a cut tire at Indianapolis made the climb to the championship nmearly impossible and an engine falter at Charlotte ended his title hopes as team mate Terry Labonte put together a string of consistent finishes to take the title by only 37 points. Even though he did not win the Championship that year he had won more races, led more laps, took more poles, had more top 5 and top 10 finishes than any other driver had.
Jeff kicked off the 1997 racing season by winning the Busch Clash and the Daytona 500 during Daytona's Speedweeks. After a few inconsistent weeks, Jeff rebounded with a win in the Food City 500 at Bristol highlighted by a last lap pass of race leader Rusty Wallace. Gordon dominated the following week at Martinsville when he won the Goody's 500. Jeff won the Winston Select all star race as he dominated the final segment of the race, he won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600, and he capped off a successful two weeks at the track with a victory in a shortened Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend. In June, he won the Pocono 500 becoming only the third driver to win back to back June races at Pocono. Later in June, he won the inaugural race at California Speedway running out of gas just as he took the checkered flag. Jeff won his first career road course race when he won the Bud at the Glen in August. He became NASCAR's first $6 Million Dollar Man in 1997. A big portion of that $6 million came at Darlington Raceway when he won the Mountain Dew Southern 500 and became the second and final driver in NASCAR history to win the Winston Million. The previous winner of the Winston Million was Bill Elliot. In addition, he became the only driver to win the event three years in a row. Not only did he lead the other drivers with 10 wins, but he also won the Championship again, this time by only 14 points over #88 driver Dale Jarret.
After winning at Pocono in July, Gordon announced his plans to form a Busch Grand National team with his crew chief, Ray Evernham. Gordon-Evernham Motorsports will debut on the Busch circuit in 1999 with Gordon driving in 5 races for the team. In 1998 he again won the Championship. This time he did it by 364 points over #6 driver Mark Martin. He had 13 wins tieing Richard Petty's record set back in 1975. He broke a few records and set a few new ones of his own this season as well. He is the only driver to win 4 Southern 500's in a row. He won the biggest purse in NASCAR history ($1.6 million) at the BrickYard 400 by winning the race and the "No Bull 5" Million Dollars, and became the first NASCAR driver to win twice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He followed that up with wins at Watkins Glen and Michigan tying the record for consecutive wins in the modern era of Winston Cup racing. He won the inaugural running of the Pepsi 400 under the lights at Daytona.
To date, Jeff has had 42 wins, 93 top 5's, and 116 top 10's out of 189 starts in Winston Cup Racing. His first win came at the Coca Cola 600 in 1994 and his most recent was the NAPA 500 in 1998.
I won't bore you with his total career stats and such since you can find them all over the Net. The best place to find them and the most accurate would be at NASCAR Online.
Some of my favorite Quotes from Jeff's Crew Chief and other drivers.
Ray Evernham was quoted to say, "He's the man, there's no doubt about it. No slam to anybody else, but that kid's about the greatest driver I've ever seen." When Jeff won the 1998 Coca-Cola 600. His third Coca-Cola 600 win, 2 consecutive wins, and 2 from the pole. Jeff was quoted to say, "Are you kidding me? No way man, no way." When asked if he thought he was going to win.
Mark Martin was quoted saying, "Tell you what. I got in front of Jeff once and I was totally in his way man and I just couldn't get out of his way fast enough, he was so fast. They found a lot of straight away speed in that car from last time here. That's what they got beat on, they found it this time and they put a whoopin' on us." After being beaten by Jeff in the Pocono 500.
I gathered all of this information from places on the Internet, News Paper Articles, Magazine Articles, Post Race Interviews, and from NASCAR Online. As I come across more information about Jeff I will add it here, so be sure to check back every so often.
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