Throughout his career, Jeff Gordon won 93 races, which ranks all-time third behind stalwarts like Richard “The King” Petty and David Pearson. However, none of those came at this 1.5-mile, progressively banked, tri-oval racetrack- the Kentucky Speedway. Gordon had always craved the win but was unable to lay his hands on it.
Advertisement
The former HMS driver could have been the first driver in the history of NASCAR to have bagged victories at every active race track, but that cherished dream never quite found fruition. But what is so different about this track that even the Wonder Boy wasn’t able to decrypt?
The veteran racer himself said in an interview, “It’s no different than any other track. It’s something that’s hard to do, and I love doing things that are hard to do.” Back in 2015, a 43-year-old Gordon ran the Quaker State 400 to add the elusive triumph to his Hall of Fame-worthy resume.
Moments before the race, the #24 pilot said, “I have thought about it a little bit. I feel like as good as our cars are this year, this is probably the most legitimate shot that we’ve had of crossing that one off the list.” For Gordon, every driver’s wish is to win at every track that they race on.
“It would mean a lot. It would be quite an accomplishment, and it’s something I would love to say I have done,” he added.
Kentucky Speedway gave Gordon a unique parting gift
Gordon retired from his full-time job at NASCAR’s topmost tier of racing back in 2015. On that note, Kentucky Speedway found an interesting way of paying tribute to this distinguished athlete.
And that was a gift of four sets of 24 bottles (to match the number on his car) of Bourbon from the four different master distilleries of the state of Kentucky.
Gordon posed with all 96 bottles at a densely packed Kentucky Speedway media center and declared, “We might go through half of it if we win this race tomorrow.” Unfortunately, he didn’t. It was Kyle Busch who won the race, making it his second win in three weeks.
