The end of the 2015 season was a hard time for the world of motorsports, for Jeff Gordon was retiring. After impacting NASCAR greatly over two-and-a-half decades, he was awarded the Bill France Award of Excellence that year. In the ceremony, Gordon was called “transcendent” by his friend and Hollywood star Tom Cruise. However, many years from then, Gordon doesn’t agree with the description.
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Talking to Jason Stein of Cars and Culture, the Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) main man said how he never viewed himself as being transcendent but rather as being passionate about the sport.
Mentioning how he has one of those who were trying to take racing to a higher order, he said, “I felt like I was just one of maybe 10 drivers that were separating themselves from the rest of the field. That were doing things outside of just driving a race car to help grow the sport, and I felt like I played my role in that.” He added that he’d been fortunate enough to have people around him who provided support in balancing his own career and the sport’s growth.
The 2015 ceremony where Tom Cruise surprised Gordon with an unannounced appearance
One of the biggest surprises for Gordon in his final Cup Series Awards ceremony was the introduction that he got from Tom Cruise. The Hollywood icon had experienced NASCAR since his role as Cole Trickle in the blockbuster movie Days of Thunder and was well acquainted with Gordon even before then.
Cruise said on stage, “He felt as comfortable discussing a championship with George Bush as breaking down Homestead with Kyle Busch, as at ease with discussing SNL skits with Jimmy Fallon as racing door-to-door with Jimmie Johnson. And with that, he brought joy to millions and used his immense and deserved popularity for the betterment of the world both at home and abroad.”
In words that broke Gordon down, he added, “Transcendence. Few reach it. He did. And although many of us want to say we’ll miss you, what we really mean is we thank you.” As Gordon climbed the stage after the speech to share a few words of his own, he embraced Cruise in a hug and had an emotional conversation before walking to the mic.
Despite his humble denial in the Jason Stein interview to accept Cruise’s description of him, it was quite apparent in the 2015 event that the high words struck him hard.
