‘The Opportunity Did Come Along’: Back When Jeff Gordon Considered Hanging Up His NASCAR Boots for a Switch to F1

The thought of driving in Formula 1 crosses the mind of almost every NASCAR driver at some point in their careers. It did in Jeff Gordon’s as well when he got the opportunity to do so not once but twice. The first of them came in the late 90s when he was racking up championships with Hendrick Motorsports. It had been F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve who’d come by with the offer.

He had a BAR project planned for 1999 and wanted Gordon to be a part of it. The goal was to get an American driver in the seat and the No. 24 driver being all the heat back then got on the list. However, there were a few conditions that he had to fulfill before securing the ride. He had to test in IndyCar and then participate in junior single-seater cars in Europe.

Barry Green’s frontrunning team which later became Andretti Autosport was the proposed destination for him in the IndyCar Series. Had he taken it up, he could have been driving in Formula 1 two years later. But Gordon was aware that he would be putting himself up for a hard climb if he went down the route. He later revealed in 2008 about the thought process he had.

He’d pondered, “OK, I’m with the best team, winning races, winning championships, and I’m going to have to leave this and I’m going to have to start my career all over basically and go learn how to be a road racer in an open-wheel rear-engine car?’” While it all sounded extremely fun, it was nowhere close to being realistic and practical. And so, he gave Villeneuve’s offer a pass.

The second and biggest opportunity that Gordon received to drive in Formula 1

In 2003, Gordon swapped his stock car with Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams F1 car as a part of a promotional event. The drivers drove speed demonstration laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Gordon’s skill in the open-wheel car had immediate admirers.

He told F1’s official podcast that there were several serious discussions about him getting a car in Formula 1. He’d spoken with Jaguar during the Spanish Grand Prix and with Williams during the United States Grand Prix.

He said, “I thought it was too steep of a climb to accomplish. The opportunity somewhat did come along.”

Gordon did not show much interest in shifting camps because when these offers came he was already an established figure in stock car racing. He did admit that things might have ended differently if the offers came eight or ten years before they actually did.