Jeff Gordon: The Hendrick Years

Jeff Gordon – The Hendrick Years

Written by : Zach Williams

 

Over the weekend of March 4^th 2023 I got the awesome opportunity to go to one of the most premier auctions and car shows on the East coast. The Amelia, formerly The Amelia Concours d'Elegance, is held annually in Amelia Island, FL. This year the official honoree of the event was none other than Wonder Boy himself, Mr. Jeff Gordon. I attended a seminar on Saturday that was hosted by Ray Evernham and consisted of Jeff Gordon, Steve Letarte and surprise guest Kenny Schrader. The event began with Ray introducing the panel and talking about the three different racing machines they had on display in the room. They consisted of one of the 1994 Lumina cars, one of the 2001 Monte Carlos and Jeff’s 1990 #4 Diet Pepsi dirt midget he won the championship with.

 

Ray then began to direct the conversation towards when Jeff first began driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Of course, at that point Kenny Schrader had to bring up the 1995 July Talladega race. With 50 laps to go, Jeff clipped Kenny in the left rear quarter panel causing him to turn sideways and go airborne after being hit by another car. Schrader flipped 8 times before coming to rest on his roof. Jeff said, “It was a really hot day, the tires were slick and I was running tight. As soon as I realized I was sliding up too far, I lifted but it was too late and I was already into Kenny. I just remember clipping him, hitting the side of him and then seeing him airborne in my mirror.” Ray Evernham said, ”At big tracks like Talladega we usually have 2 spotters, one on the top of the booth and another on the backstretch. The backstretch spotter radios me and tells me Schrader went airborne and I ask if he’s ok, and the response I got was, I don’t know he’s still flipping.”  Schrader weighed in saying , “I remember when I was in the hospital with Rick (Hendrick) I told him Jeff hit me and he told me he wasn’t sure exactly what happened and he wanted to watch the tape. As soon as he said that, Bobby LaBonte who was two beds down because he was also involved in the wreck, just yells down, oh he wrecked him!!” Jeff said his one job at Hendrick was to not wreck his teammates and he took both out in one wreck!! Schrader also recalls when he left the care center they were trying to get him to talk to Jeff on the radio because he was pretty upset about it and wanted to make sure he was ok. Kenny said< “I told them when I was upside down in the tuck position I said a little prayer, dear God I hope by no means this emotionally scars Jeff in any way”.

 

Steve Letarte chimed in talking about their history with the #43 car, “I remember it was like we had a magnet between us and the 43 the whole 1997 season. Anytime we were involved, or the cause of a wreck, we always seemed to find the 43.” “Do you remember the early morning practice session at Atlanta when I spun on pit road?” Gordon asked Letarte, “It had rained the day before and it was cold and slick. I wanted to try and warm the tires on pit road by scuffing them going about 60. I did a little left right swerve and then I just felt it come out from under me and I was like, oh boy here we go!” Letarte says, “And there were literally no there cars on the track, just the 43 on pit road, and guess what, we ended up creaming the 43 sitting on pit road.” Another time when Jeff wrecked the 43 at Texas, at the end of the race Ray said that Richard Petty comes storming up to him with a broken piece of a fender off the 43. He throws it on the ground and says, “ tell him if he wants it so damn bad, he can have it!!” and of course Ray asked him if he would sign it.

 

The final topic I’d like to cover actually came from an audience question. The question was about when Jeff and Juan Pablo Montoya swapped cars at the Indy road course in 2003. After they set a control lap in their own cars they swapped and Jeff recalls,” I remember coming into that first braking zone and I couldn’t keep my head lifted up from all the force that car had”. He was amazed at how the F1 car could corner and accelerate and still stay glued to the track. Next Juan Pablo went out in the stock car. He loved it, the fact that you can control the car more to do what you want where as in the F1 car its more of a deal where the car can do anything but can your body hold up to it as well. Jeff said driving the F1 car was more physically demanding. They almost couldn’t get JPM out of the stock car he loved it so much that day!!

 

It was definitely a great experience for me being a lifelong Hendrick motorsports fan, getting to see Jeff and Kenny sharing stories with Steve and Ray.