senor honda

3 Daytona 500's, 5 Brickyard 400's
By Dan Wetzel

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Jeff Gordon couldn't sleep. He thought he should, thought he should get as much rest as possible before he knew what was to come.

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Sunday promised a surreal combination, equal parts celebrating what had been done across a 24-year, 797th race career, while still pursuing what could still be won, a shot at a 94th victory and fifth Cup championship.
On the track it wouldn't go Gordon's way; he finished sixth on the day and third for the title – Kyle Busch won both – but at that moment Sunday morning, the promise of the opportunity was too much to roll over and doze back off. The energy woke him; Gordon was 44 going on 14.
So he got out of bed in his motor coach, pulled back a curtain and coincidentally saw his mother Carol walking by. He called to her and invited her in. Carol is usually hesitant to upset the race day routine – Gordon likes to be alone to focus – but now here they were, just the two of them, memories and emotions flowing over early coffee.
Fans flocked to Jeff Gordon prior to the final race of his career. (Getty Images)

She'd been there from the start, when he was just four and racing BMX bikes in Northern California with a competitive spirit that was almost frightening. A mother's instinct is to tell the kid to slow down. She instead encouraged him to go faster.
Soon it was roaring along in quarter midgets and then hauling around to dirt tracks and eventually all the way to NASCAR's highest level at age 20, through three Daytona 500 victories and five Brickyard 400s and those four season titles and more riches and fame than any of them could ever have imagined.
And that included this, a farewell day, a real retirement, which in the culture of auto racing isn't guaranteed to anyone. Gordon is one of the three most influential drivers stock car racing has known. Richard Petty got to become the beloved elder statesman. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was taken too soon, robbing he and his family, fans and friends of all of this. That, sadly, scarily, is part of the deal, too.
So now here they were, just the two of them like the old days, sharing some precious moments, and Carol's son couldn't stop crying.
"As loud as a person can," Jeff said. "She was holding back. She was getting emotional but she was holding herself in."
Mom didn't want to rattle the day. Winning takes concentration. Racing is serious business. Bawling your eyes out isn't advisable
"I didn't care," Gordon said. "I wanted to get it out."

senor honda

View photo
.Messages are left on the pit wall of Jeff Gordon. (Getty Images)
He figured the tears were going to come eventually. Over the course of the season and concluding all week here the outpouring from fans and drivers and sponsors and media and everyone else had been overwhelming.
Jeff Gordon was once the fresh-scrubbed kid that the NASCAR establishment base loved to hate … or just plain hated. He wasn't from the South. He wasn't rough and tumble. He wasn't Dale Sr. He was the guy who kept beating everyone. Too cute. Too cool. Too good.
Now he was being hailed for all he'd done. Not just for the growth in the sport, but in the way he'd handled himself all those years. He proved tougher than most imagined, but he did it with a dignity, with a level head and calm demeanor. He never missed a start. He raced hard but clean. And he won. And won. And won. Dale Sr. always respected the hell out of him. Now everyone else did too.
"He was a fair driver, respectful," said fan Tamara Price, who scored an autograph on her Gordon hat here Sunday, battling through a throng of fans. "That's why I love him. That's why everyone is like this."
The fans came out en mass. They roared at driver introductions and mobbed him every time he stepped out in public. Gordon would try to walk somewhere and there was a crowd going with him, trying to shoot pictures, grab selfies, just get a fist bump. This was Homestead-Miami Speedway but it might as well have been the Beatles hitting LaGuardia.

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Danika Patrick shows respect.
They wore all eras of Gordon gear – from the old rainbow DuPont logo through the flames on the sleeves look, to special T-shirts celebrating, "The Last Ride" and "24Ever." Truth be told, some were converts, the same people who used to relentlessly heckle him only to be slowly won over by the substance of the driver. Others were there from the start, even when being a Gordon fan wasn't the coolest thing.
At one point Sunday, Gordon was getting pushed through a pack of fans when he saw a familiar face, that of a fan named Timothy Pryor, who'd driven all the way from Virginia just to be here. Jeff grabbed Timothy, pulled him through security and brought him along with him.
How deep does Pryor's support of Gordon go? Across his back is a massive tattoo of Gordon and the 24 car. It includes a perfect replica of Gordon's signature, which was a trace of the real thing after Jeff scrawled it on his back after a 2010 race at Martinsville.
"Went down to Harry's Tattoo's in Danville the next day," Pryor said.
"That right there," Gordon said with a laugh, "that's commitment."
Sometimes it felt like Gordon couldn't quite understand how he'd touched so many people in so many ways. There was no doubting he had. He wasn't playing coy. He knows he's famous. Maybe it's from not being accepted originally, that it came along gradually and then, when it finally came in so many waves here at end, it became overwhelming.
Danica Patrick showed her respect for Jeff Gordon by wearing a '24' hat on race day. (Getty Images)

On Saturday, after practice, Gordon stood in their garage stall; his team working on a car they hoped could win the title. As word spread, fans jammed around. Others looked down from a nearby deck. It was a huge mass, on a rainy afternoon 24 hours before the race. They soon began chanting his name, louder and louder and louder still. "Just a surreal moment," Gordon said. "That one … it really seemed to hit me."

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About more than one last rce.
So he knew Sunday was probably going to be the same. Still, he arrived with gifts for his fellow drivers, each one receiving an expensive, Italian-made ring box as a memento. That's Gordon, looking to thank them.
Instead it was everyone else thanking him – in part for representing the sport so well, in mentoring so many for so long, in racing the right way and, of course, in causing sponsorship dollars and prize money to spike exponentially.
It wasn't just the handshakes and hugs, though. He may have expected that. It was the tweets about him. It was the testimonials in feature articles that his mom told him about. It was Kevin Harvick, the defending champ and one of the other three drivers with a shot at the championship, posing pre-race with Gordon's car. It was Danica Patrick wearing a Gordon hat. It was others wearing his T-shirt.
"That's just unheard of," Gordon marveled. "You know, drivers are so competitive. They don't show – they might have it inside them, but to show it publicly?"
Gordon knew some moments were coming. He knew that final pre-race walk down pit road, hand-in-hand with daughter Ella, the crowd roaring across the way, was going to be something else. He knew that final national anthem, with wife Ingrid and son Leo at his side, too, was going to pull at his heart. He knew a hug from his car owner, Rick Hendrick, was going to push him to the limits.
"I'm an emotional guy," Gordon said.
He suspected there would be surprises and there were. Familiar faces he didn't expect, old co-workers racing over for a moment, just regular fans. Lewis Hamilton, the current Formula One great, arrived for his first NASCAR race ever, even peering into Gordon's ride and checking out the set-up, because that's how much Gordon meant to racing in general.
Mario Andretti came and gave him a pep talk – "Go do what you know how to do, you've got this, man," Gordon relayed. Suddenly Gordon was back to being an awe-struck kid.
Mario Andretti?
"The greatest driver of all time," Gordon marveled.
He tried to follow Andretti's advice, giving it his all in a heated race. He led for a few laps early, but he didn't have the car to finish it out, not enough control, not enough speed. "Nothing terrible," he said at one point over his radio, "I'm just really struggling."
He was mostly stuck in 10th. He finished sixth, no threat to Kyle Busch, who was the better driver in the better car on this day. Gordon was disappointed with the loss but he knew this day was about more than one last race, one more championship.
"It blows my mind," he said. "It didn't take the championship for me to come out of here feeling like I'm on top of the world. The competitor in me still is cutting into that slightly right now. … Give me an hour and a little bit of alcohol, there's going to be so much love in the air."
What's Jeff Gordon drink at a time like this?
"Tonight?" he joked. "A lot of things."

senor honda

Last big day of his career? It's not over until it's over.......
It started, though, with coffee with mom, a conversation with mom – the racing legend, who has made his living going 200-miles an hour, inches from concrete walls, a millionaire now many times over, crying with mom.
"She was not prepared for what was about to happen," Gordon said. "She walked in and I just started thanking her over and over and over again for all that [she and his step-father John Bickford] did for me. … There were tears pouring down my face."
She started talking about the old days and the new articles and the social media mentions and all the love. He'd tried to stay in a vacuum this week, tried to focus on winning the race, but the more that came the more he came unglued and the more he appreciated getting it out of the way. He needed it.
The last big day of his career, the end of the longest of journeys and a sixth-place finish aside, what could be better than this?
"Perfect," Gordon said. "Perfect."

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Gordon finished third in his last season, which concluded on Nov. 22. Before parking his car for the final time, the California native set a new record for consecutive races started in September, with 789. You can view more of the impressive statistics from his career with the infographic below.
image: http://images.starpulse.com/news/blo...f-gordon-2.jpg

senor honda

Gordon took the stage at his last NASCAR function as an active driver and again thanked the colleagues and competitors who have been a part of his illustrious career.
"I knew that it was going to be a rough night, but that made it tougher." The four-time champion was teary-eyed as he addressed a room full of fellow drivers, team members and media.
As he made his final statements about an "absolutely amazing" career, he conceded, "Am I going to miss it? There's no doubt."
He will join Fox Sports next season as a new part of their NASCAR commentary team, calling races instead of driving in them. As he thanked the audience on Friday, he received a standing ovation.

senor honda

Jeff Gordon Tribute The Last legend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGzQm0gDP78

My second tribute to Jeff Gordon and the mark he has made on NASCAR as one of the most influential drivers in motorsports history. I do not own the footage, music, or audio. The composition is "Lost but won" by Hans Zimmer. There is a funny soundbite with Dale Sr. at the end, viewer discretion is advised.

senor honda

Jeff Gordon retiring, family, cars new look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghRT0ghns-A

senor honda

Jeff Gordon Thanks for the memories excellent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzuGtOZ6Zds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABYtuFcc1Oc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL5vcP_VJ3U