By The Commish

Although he had already developed a distinguished record of 26 wins on a variety of tracks, a road course triumph still eluded Jeff Gordon as he traveled to Watkins Glen in August 1997. During the 1996 season, he realized that the points he had lost on the road courses might well have made the difference in catching eventual champ Terry Labonte.

In the off-season, he reportedly tested at both the Bondurant Road Racing school and the Skip Barber school to improve his driving skills. At the spring 1997 race in Sonoma, he finished second to Mark Martin, signaling to the NASCAR community that his road course abilities had improved dramatically and giving him four top fives in his last five road-course starts. He was ready to challenge, Martin, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace, who among them had won seven of the previous 14 Watkins Glen races, on the New York track’s 2.45-mile, 11-turn layout.

"Qualifying 11th, we thought, well, maybe this isn't our weekend," Gordon said. No driver had ever won from a starting place lower than 13th. But he began to work toward the front from the start, getting all the way to fifth place on lap 20, fourth on lap 21, third on lap 23 and taking second from Bill Elliott on lap 27. The superior handling of his car through turns 10 and 11 gave him a significant advantage in passing; he used this throughout the race. Gordon and most of the leaders made the first of two scheduled pit stops a lap later. After slight contact with Dale Earnhardt's car, the DuPont Chevrolet fell back but steadily moved through the traffic, posting consistently fast laps and passing Wallace to regain second place on lap 44 in front of a cheering grandstand and getting past Bodine to take the lead on lap 53.

ESPN analyst Ned Jarrett, noting that Gordon had been strong in practice all weekend, said his march to the front was "no surprise." The only time Gordon was out of the lead the rest of the way was during a round of green-flag pit stops at lap 57. He got back in front to stay on lap 62 when Darrell Waltrip made his final fuel stop during a caution period -- during which Jerry Punch described the gravel pits as "kitty litter," adding this term to the NASCAR lexicon. His restarts on the last two green flags, in fact, were so good that some fans accused him of jumping the restarts; a technique since used to excellent effect at the Glen by Tony Stewart. His secret, Ray Evernham revealed after the race, was "searching for a gear ratio he liked, and we finally got it."

On the lap 65 restart, Wallace tried to get a run on Gordon on the inside coming off the final turn. Gordon blocked the Ford, and Bodine took advantage of the situation to slip past Wallace on the outside and take second place. "I tried to pass Gordon on the outside on that restart and ran out of room," Wallace said. "I got bogged down so much that Bodine got by me." Bodine said, "Rusty probably could have wrecked me there, and I thank him for not doing that." Thirty-four cars were still on the lead lap, and a caution for Dorsey Schroeder at lap 72 called for another restart. Gordon, who remembered being passed by Wallace in a race last year at Sonoma, realized the value of getting away from his four Ford-driving pursuers quickly. "Getting the right restart is pretty important," Gordon said. "I know guys like Rusty and Geoff have been around a while and are real good in those situations." Using his newly-honed road course skills, Gordon persevered. Though he smoked the tires in turn 10 with 15 laps to go, allowing Bodine to close temporarily, he held on to the lead as the clouds closed in and tightened up a loose race car.

"The car sure was strong," Gordon said. "I just tried to keep it out of the grass and the dirt and tried not to make any mistakes. I made a few there at the end, and Geoff came back up to me. But I told myself just to be smooth and hit my marks, and I was able to get my head back together and move away again. Still, the victory was somewhat of a surprise to Gordon, as was the margin; the DuPont Chevrolet crossed the finish line 1.35 seconds - about 10 car-lengths - ahead of Bodine's Ford. "This was a legitimate goal of ours. We came out this year to try to win a road course," Gordon said in Victory Lane. And he did, collecting earned $139,120 (including a $50,000 bonus from R.J. Reynolds for winning while leading in season points) for the race. He dedicated the win to Rick and Papa Joe Hendrick, both ailing in North Carolina, and reiterated their desire to win the championship for their missing leader.

Gordon, typically, pointed to the Rainbow Warriors contribution to his success. "Our team has just worked together every year," he said. "I've just made mental notes and stuff where I can gain speed, the right gears, when to brake and how to brake." But when it came down to it, Gordon pinpointed his mental attitude as the reason for his first road victory. "The key to road course racing is you've got to like it," he said. "It's a real workout, and it takes a lot out of you to win a race like we did today. But I enjoy it." The 1997 victory began a streak of three straight wins at the Glen, and victories there in four out of five years. Gordon set an all-time NASCAR record, winning six consecutive NASCAR road-course races through Sonoma 2000. Since 2001, though, Victory Lane at the Glen has eluded Gordon. Still, his skills on the road courses are superior to most other drivers in NASCAR. And the chance of another streak is only eleven turns away.

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