By The Commish

A lot has been made, this spring and summer, of the connections between Jeff Gordon and the late Dale Earnhardt. Especially after Gordon surpassed Earnhardt's record for career wins, discussion on a number of racing forums has centered around who was better—the Intimidator or the Rainbow Warrior. That's a question that probably can never be answered, but it does raise an issue of how the racers of today measure themselves. When asked about Earnhardt, Gordon always answers humbly that he may surpass some of his numbers, but he’ll never surpass Dale. The Intimidator was Gordon's benchmark in NASCAR, the man whose career he measures himself against, even though the man himself has gone.

For those of you unfamiliar with the business world, benchmarking is a common practice for improvement; it requires targeting who the best performer is in your field, figuring out how that performer achieves such outstanding results, and then trying to match or surpass those outcomes. It’s a strategy not only of measurement but of motivation. To set a benchmark is, in many ways, to challenge yourself to exceed it. While Gordon respects, even reveres, Earnhardt's achievements, Gordon has never stopped trying to reach new heights as a competitor himself.

And in today’s NASCAR, Gordon has become the benchmark for the rest of the series. And that’s only natural in a sport whose faces have changed rapidly over the last seven years. The 2007 Pepsi 400 featured only 19 drivers who had ever raced against Earnhardt in the Cup series, and some, like Kurt Busch, only competed against him a handful of times (though long enough for the Intimidator to give Busch the finger in a memorable encounter). Today’s young drivers know Earnhardt only through TV replays, video games, and the legends that have been passed down.

But Gordon has been racing in the series for almost 15 years now, and today’s competitors have seen him all their lives. His 79 wins, $86 million in winnings, and above all his four championships are the statistics today’s drivers are shooting for. Tony Stewart told a Fox Sports TV audience in February that, "We all look to Jeff to lead the way in this sport. He's the guy." Kyle Busch admits to being a member of Gordon’s fan club and having his poster on the wall as a kid growing up in Las Vegas. In 2004, when he appeared on "Larry King Live" with Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said, "I'll have you know, as I'm growing up and over the years, I honed certain parts of my driving style after Jeff Gordon. Because at that time he was dominating the sport. I think that he showed everybody - a lot of drivers - that a thinking man's type of race car driver can win races, and the guy that knows, like he said, knows when to be aggressive. So I've kind of honed my skills the same way." Even the Intimidator’s son sees Gordon as one of his benchmarks.

But being the role model also makes Gordon the target; after all, that’s what benchmarking is about-- beating the best. When a Kasey Kahne or a Denny Hamlin or even a teammate like Busch complains about Gordon's success, it's a backhanded compliment, because, unlike Dale Earnhardt's records, Gordon's numbers are still evolving. Now, midway through his best season in recent years, Gordon continues to average top-ten finishes in more than 60% of his races, laps led in more than 85% of his races, and looks poised to contend for his fifth championship. While it's unlikely he'll ever exceed Earnhardt (or even Dale Earnhardt Jr) in popularity, Gordon has set the standard inside the garage for excellence.

And by moving that bar higher every year, he has raised the game of the entire series. Gone are the days with only a handful of drivers finishing on the lead lap, or the years where only eight or nine drivers won a race. Now a sizable portion of the field has a significant chance of winning on any given weekend—which makes Gordon's continued success even more impressive. In the end, that may be his greatest legacy to the sport—that he not only made everyone else more competitive, but he made himself more competitive. As the Chase approaches, it will be intriguing to watch not only how the younger drivers measure up to the Gordon standard—but how he raises his own expectations. The results could be legendary.

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