Athletes - Jeff Gordon

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	Athletes - Jeff Gordon

Jeffrey Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971 in Vallejo, California) currently lives in Charlotte, NC and is a four-time NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion and driver of the #24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. His sponsors include DuPont, Pepsi, Quaker State, Haas, GMAC, Georgia-Pacific, Sparkle, and Nicorette.

Early career

Jeff Gordon was a racing child prodigy. Gordon began racing when he was about four years old. According to his step-father, racing was Jeff's idea. It may have been Jeff's idea, but his family fully supported him. Gordon's family moved to Indiana just for the racing opportunities available for drivers in general but especially for minor-aged drivers. Before the age of 18 Gordon had already won three short-track races and was awarded USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year in 1989. The next year Gordon won the USAC Midget title. In 1991, Gordon moved up to the USAC Silver Crown and at the age of 20 became the youngest driver to win the title. Gordon then went on to spend two successful years in the NASCAR Busch Series (he set a NASCAR record by capturing 11 poles in one season). Coincidentally, almost symbolically, Gordon's first Winston Cup race, the 1992 Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, was also the final race for Richard Petty. In 1993, Gordon raced a full season in the Winston Cup for Hendrick Motorsports, he won the Rookie of the Year award. Finally, in 1995, at the age of 24, Gordon won the first of four NASCAR Winston Cup Championships. There are only two other drivers with more than four Cup titles: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt (both had seven titles). In 2004, Gordon also became the only NASCAR driver with four Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one of only four drivers to have four victories at the historic track.

Gordon is widely regarded as the best active driver in NASCAR because he achieved so much through sheer talent at such a young age. He currently has 73 Nextel Cup victories and has yet to pass Dale Earnhardt's 76 wins, or Darrell Waltrip's modern-era NASCAR record of 84. It is also thought by many that he opened NASCAR up to the rest of the nation; before Gordon's success in NASCAR, the sport and organization was not popular outside of the Southeast United States. Gordon is still one of the best known drivers in NASCAR, often finishing 2nd in the Most Popular Driver Award seemingly every year.

Popularity, lack thereof, and personal life

Fan reaction to Gordon's continuing success has been sharply divided. Gordon remains popular in his home state of Indiana and his birth state of California, but is often booed by fans in the deep South. Part of this schism in popularity is attributed to Gordon's "Madison Ave" appeal, and the resentment of the deep south of all things "Yankee." Nascar for years had been a predominantly southern sport, and many fans today attribute Nascar's changes, not all of which are popular, to the "Madison Ave" influence. Rumors of his alledged homosexuality have been the subject of parody songs, comic web sites and blogs. In the Internet journal Slate.com, an article speaks to the rumors, which have largely been fueled by The Globe, a tabloid of little to no credibility. In his memoir, Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front, the driver actually addresses the rumor, which he denies. Part of the rumor was fueled by a comment by Dale Earnhardt, Sr. intended as a joke. At the time Gordon had been dating Miss Winston, Brooke Sealy, but because Sealey worked for Winston the couple was required to keep the relationship a secret. When they finally went public with the relationship, Earnhardt, Sr., making a joke, said "Whew, I'm glad to see you've got a girlfriend. Some of us were beginning to wonder if you liked girls." Gordon's response to the rumors is both classy and diplomatic, ""I'd like to think if I were gay, I would be comfortable enough to say so and get on with my life. The fact is I'm not, and I never quite understood why so many people want to believe otherwise." Gordon married Brooke Sealy, in 1994. Their marriage ended in a very public and bitter divorce in 2003, fueling the rumors all over again. Since his divorce, Gordon has publicly dated runway model Amanda Church, and is currently seeing aspiring actress and model Ingrid Vandebosch.

Since his last NASCAR Championship

Gordon has also participated in some off-road events, including a winning drive with Team USA at the 2002 Race of Champions. He was slated to run it again in 2004 against Formula 1 Champion Michael Schumacher but was sidelined by the flu, and Casey Mears took his place. In 2005, Gordon competed in the Race of Champions event again, this time held in Paris, France, where he was partnered with famed motocross racer/X Games winner Travis Pastrana.

On June 11, 2003, at a special exhibition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gordon took laps in Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams BMW, while Montoya did laps in Gordon's Nextel Cup car. The exhibition was broadcast live by SPEED Channel, in a special called, Tradin' Paint.

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Athletes - Jeff Gordon

Early career

Popularity, lack thereof, and personal life

Since his last NASCAR Championship

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