Jeff Gordon is vicariously living ‘The Double’ — racing’s greatest test of man and machine, a combined 1,100 miles in IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. No, the NASCAR Hall of Famer hasn’t come out of retirement as a surprise entry.
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Gordon will be experiencing ‘The Double’ through Kyle Larson, who will drive for Arrow McLaren in the 500 and Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR nightcap at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon has wished Larson all the best in his bid to become only the second driver in NASCAR history — after Tony Stewart in 2001 — to complete both parts of the challenge.
Unlike Stewart and others who attempted it, including Robby Gordon, John Andretti, and Kurt Busch, Gordon had no interest in racing’s most iconic doubleheader.
“This is the closest I’ve come to this experience and what it is like, and maybe what it could have, would have been like had I attempted it,” Gordon said at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday.
“But I just don’t think there are many Kyle Larsons. I was always the type of driver where I was very laser-focused on one team, one car, one kind of goal,” he added.
And it was not only NASCAR. Gordon said it was just the way his mindset and efforts were. He explained there was a reason he didn’t go back and forth running sprint cars, midgets, and other types of cars — it simply wasn’t the thing he did throughout his career, except when he was trying to make it into NASCAR.
“Partly, it’s because I didn’t think that I was as good at jumping in and out of cars. Some guys are just jumping from one team or one car to the next, or even maybe getting the opportunity to get a quality enough car to do that. Mark Martin comes to mind,” Gordon reasoned.
He was highlighting that Martin could jump in any kind of car, anybody else’s car, and go fast right away.
“For me, it took time for me to learn the car, learn the team, communicate with them and that took time,” Gordon added, recalling when he first did the Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona.
Gordon had told himself he would never do it again unless he could fully commit to it in the way he wanted. He added that he only returned to the event after he had retired from NASCAR, when he could fully dedicate himself.
Gordon admires Larson’s bid at ‘The Double’
Gordon was full of praise for Larson’s side hustle driving sprint cars when not in NASCAR. “I admire the heck out of Kyle for what he’s capable of doing and he does it on such a regular basis that this doesn’t seem that abnormal for him,” he said, adding how it would have been “super stressful” for him.
However, the 53-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer did narrate how his Indy 500 debut almost came to be. “The only time it ever really became almost a reality is the 100th anniversary,” he said.
“Indianapolis Motor Speedway management at that time was pushing really hard to get as many drivers from as many different series to compete in that race, and even then I didn’t put a whole lot of consideration into it just because it just didn’t seem right for me,” added Gordon.
While Gordon didn’t want to do ‘The Double’, there was a time early in his racing career that he did envision himself running the Indy 500 at IMS.
“Indianapolis Motor Speedway is for me like the holy grail, and it’s because of my upbringing in racing. My heroes were guys racing the Indy 500,” he said, remembering how he was awestruck during a visit to IMS around 1981.
Gordon went on to add about not getting a chance in IndyCar, saying, “Then moving to Indiana in like ’86 [or] ’87, it just became even more of a goal of mine to want to race there and compete there. I tried, I wanted to race in the Indy 500, but the opportunity wasn’t there, and I go south. And to me, it was all about NASCAR at that point, not anything about IndyCar.”
Ultimately, NASCAR was there at the right time for Gordon to cash in on. He reflected on how the series was expanding in popularity, and then the inaugural Brickyard 400 was announced in 1994, which he felt was “when all the stars aligned.”
Racing for Rick Hendrick and Ray Evernham in a competitive car and at a track that meant the most to him was already special. But winning it was “just mind-blowing.” From that point onward, the Indy 500 was less appealing to Gordon as he felt the chances of winning it had reduced.
In the end, Gordon won the Brickyard 400 a record five times in his career. Looking back, it’s clear that Gordon’s instincts served him well.
