2000: A Look in the
Rearview
Looking at Jeff
Gordon's 2000 season, it could easily be seen as a
failure or the passing of a great dynasty.
Especially after the 13 win season of 1998.
However, factor in
that he won three races including career win number
50 (the youngest driver to do so), sat on three
poles, and finished in the top ten in ten of the
last 11 races of the 2000 campaign all with a new
crew chief and pit crew and things don't look so
dismal after all. That's why true
Gordon fans have been looking at it as a
rebuilding, restructuring, and reorganizing
year. Everyone knows that
Ray Evernhame left the #24 DuPont Chevy Team in the
fall of 1999. Shortly thereafter, the famed Rainbow
Warriors left the team for Robert Yates Racing, and
Dale Jarrett. These facts are hardly worth
mentioning again. However, the team
entered the 2000 season with a new crew chief, new
pit crew, a new Monte Carlo, and high hopes.
Speedweeks at Daytona were a tough 10 days for most
of the teams, especially the Chevrolet faction. New
rules had NASCAR controlling the setups of the
cars, and the new Chevrolet Monte Carlo couldn't
keep up with the radically altered Ford Taurus.
Things looked good when Gordon gained the 11th
starting spot by finishing 6th in one of the
Gatorade 125's, but things quickly turned bad when
an experimental oil fitting on the car came loose,
spewing smoke, and giving Gordon a dismal 34th
place finish after an unscheduled green flag pit
stop. The next weekend
was a 10th place finish at Rockingham. His first
Bud Pole of the season, and the first clue that the
team was on the heading down the right track, came
two weeks later at Darlington. Texas, a track that
Gordon just can't seem to get the handle of, left
him finishing in 25th place, 14 laps down, after an
accident. Two races later, on
April 16th, Gordon won the thrilling Talladega 500
from the 36th starting spot, a race record. His
first victory propelled him from 10th in the points
standings to 7th, 221 points out of first.
Unfortunately, this was the highest position he
gained. Over the next 20
races, Gordon added two more victories, had six
top-5s and 11 top-10s. He dropped to 10th in points
and remained there for 14 of those 20 events. It
was also during this time that he extended his
streak of road course wins to 6 at Sears Point in
June, only to see that streak end when Tony Stewart
took him out at Watkins Glen in August. The Brickyard 400,
was one of the biggest races of the season, and the
first of a terrible month of August for the #24
team. Gordon was involved in an early race accident
involving Mike Skinner, Mark Martin, and Rick Mast.
He finished 33rd with a special "Peanuts" comic
strip paint scheme. "The Tony Stewart
Incident" will be long felt by many Jeff Gordon
fans. Stewart wrecked Jeff in the early-going and
relegated him to a 23rd place finish. What happened
after the race, however, is most important. When
Gordon and Stewart climbed out of their cars,
Gordon accused Stewart of wrecking him. Then, it
appeared that both drivers started cursing at each
other. Many Gordon fans, who know Jeff's commitment
to Christ, were appalled. But, fortunately, Bill
Weber of RPM Tonight reviewed the tape over
and over and concluded that Gordon never swore
once. All of the swearing came from Tony
Stewart. The next two races,
The Pepsi 400 presented by Meijer at Michigan, and
the goracing.com 500 at Bristol were the final two
races in the month that never saw Gordon finish in
the top-20. Two races later,
Gordon scored his third victory of the season.
However, it was not without a little trouble.
NASCAR had some "issues" with the intake
manifold used on Jeff's car. It was made out of
magnesium and not aluminum, which the rules
require. Robbie Loomis, crew chief was fined
$25,000, Gordon lost 100 drivers point, and
Hendrick Motorsports lost 100 owners points.
Hendrick appealed saying that neither they or GM
knew that the part was not approved, but the
penalty stood. 4 races later,
Gordon won the Pole at Charlotte, but finished 39th
after an accident involving Rusty Wallace, Dale
Jarrett, Ted Musgrave and Gordon. This was his
second and final DNF of the season and the only
finish outside the top 10 in the last 11
races. He headed to the
last five races one point behind Ward Burton, the
ninth-place driver. With Gordon's chances of a
championship long gone, he was now fighting for a
top-10 finish. Through the final
handful of races he achieved three top-5s and had
top-10 finishes in all five events, including a Bud
Pole in the season finale at Atlanta. That gave him
a solid ninth in final standings, 221 points ahead
of Burton and only 49 behind eighth-place driver
Mark Martin. Gordon will be
sitting at the table in New York, he will be
featured in the video presentation, get to walk
across the stage, get his check and make a speech.
Those are the privileges reserved for the top-10
finishers. Though he will not
be the last to walk across the stage, get a $3
million check and make the final speech like Bobby
Labonte, this season's champion, Gordon will still
be at the table. “Once
you’ve won one championship, then your only
goal is to win another championship,” Gordon
said. “That’s our goal every year, to win
the championship. This wasn’t a stellar year
for us and we know that. What we want to do is take
this group we’ve got right now and build on
that to be championship-caliber by the time we get
to Daytona next year. “It was a
competitive season, but Bobby Labonte was the most
consistent. They did the best job of anybody all
year long. They deserve the championship. I want to
congratulate Bobby and (crew chief) Jimmy Makar and
Joe Gibbs and that whole team. They did a
phenomenal job. They’ve been working on this
for the past three or four years and it finally
came together for them.” However, as always,
Gordon's outlook for the next year is bright, now
that his entire team has been in place for a
year. “We’re
getting close. We’re really gaining on
it,” Gordon said. “There are just a few
areas we need to tweak on. It’s never perfect,
but it’s going fairly well right now. I’m
real happy with the team. The communication is
especially good right now, and I see a big
difference in the chemistry of the team. “Over the last
10 races of the season, we showed that we’re
championship-caliber because we were finishing in
the Top 5 and Top 10. But I still would like to get
our car a little more competitive to get up there
and battle for more victories. “That's
traditionally the way we’ve won championships
and that’s the way I’d like to win a
championship again. In order to be more
competitive, we’ve got a little work to do
still, mainly on our bodies. The team has come
together. We've just got to get the car a little
better.” If they can do just
that, it looks like 2001 will be the year of Jeff
Gordon's 4th championship.
Gordon's
season started in a puff of
smoke.
The first win
of 2000 came at Talladega.
Bittersweet
victory at Richmond