Jeff Gordon stacked his career with four championships, three Daytona 500 victories, three Coca-Cola 600 wins, and six Southern 500 triumphs, among countless others. With this year’s Southern 500 set for Sunday, his dominance at Darlington once again takes center stage.
Advertisement
The vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports spent more than two decades behind the wheel, and on the ‘Lady in Black’s’ abrasive, unforgiving surface, Gordon proved nearly untouchable. His rainbow-schemed #24 Chevrolet often turned the track’s notorious toughness into a stage for brilliance.
As Darlington marks its 75th anniversary, Gordon’s numbers at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway stand out. His seven wins there rank third all-time, trailing only David Pearson’s 10 and Dale Earnhardt’s nine. From the 1995 Southern 500 through the spring of 1999, he never finished worse than third in eight straight starts. Over 23 seasons and 36 races, he led laps in 27 of them.
Much of that dominance came under crew chief Ray Evernham, as the pair collected three Cup Series championships and 47 points-paying victories during their 1990s heyday.
Gordon reflected on what made Darlington special, saying, “When the fans are at Darlington, they feel like they’re going back in time, as well as playing into the future of the sport. It just seems like everybody is on board with its place and its history with NASCAR.”
He admitted the track never rattled him, unlike many rivals. “Darlington was always a track that I felt pretty comfortable at, where a lot of other people were, ‘oh, it’s so intimidating.’ And I didn’t see it that way. Right away, it just was a track that I seemed to feel comfortable at… To me, driving a midget or a sprint car around some of those places was a lot tougher than going to Darlington,” he said.
Still, Gordon acknowledged its challenges: the relentless 500-mile grind, the constant grip loss, and the demand for patience with equipment. Pit stops, restarts, and tire management often punish the slightest mistake, forcing drivers to learn quickly or pay dearly.
That same test now falls on the current field. Denny Hamlin enters as the clear favorite, ranked third in points with five wins in 26 Darlington starts, including one this spring, and stage points scored in 24 of 30 attempts.
Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, and Christopher Bell also loom large, each with proven success on the track. And one year ago, Chase Briscoe clawed his way into the playoffs by sealing a Cup Series win under Darlington’s lights, proving that history can still be written at the ‘Track Too Tough to Tame.’
