The year was 1997 and Hendrick Motorsports rolled up with an incredible race car for Jeff Gordon to run at the All-Star event. But not long after winning the only race it participated in the car was banned by NASCAR for being way too dominant over the competition. This is the story of the cult classic T-Rex liveried #24 Chevy that HMS built to become the ultimate racecar according to the NASCAR books.
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A couple of years ago, Gordon’s former crew chief Ray Evernham appeared in a Hendrick video, where he explained the tale of the iconic racecar. He said, “It ran one race, it dominated that race and was banned by NASCAR.”
The three-time champion crew chief mentioned how they took the car to test at Charlotte Motor Speedway and during their initial runs, Gordon complained about “not feeling it.” Not long after they put in some experimental and unique setups and let Gordon out for his second run. This time around they realized the car had something special since it clocked a second faster than what they thought it would.
How did Jeff Gordon’s T-Rex car get its name and why was it banned?
Back in 1997, the second Jurrasic Park movie titled, The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released and the #24 HMS car had the movie’s promotional graphics with a giant Tyrannosaurus rex (T-Rex) dinosaur on the car. Therefore, the word ‘T-Rex’ was also used for the car.
The main reason for the car to be banned just after one race although it had passed all of the inspections was that NASCAR deemed the design to be too radical. They also considered it to be way too dominant over the others, in essence destroying the chance for a fair competition. Therefore the officials decided it would make sense for them to just outright ban the race car from further competition.
Speaking about the ban, Evernham hilariously mentioned, “If it wasn’t for Jeff Gordon driving that car, it might still be legal. It was just a really well-built race car that Jeff Gordon decided to put his foot to the floor at the height of his career and just smoked those guys.”
After the ban, Evernham and the other engineers at HMS did make some changes to the car to make sure it was allowed to race in the Cup Series. But he mentioned that the car was never the same again.
