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Jeff Gordon's First Stock Car Race - October 20, 1990
(October 20, 2011)- - Jeff Gordon turned his first laps in a stock car at the Buck Baker
Driving School in Rockingham, North Carolina in 1990. The sprint car
racer from Indiana took to the heavier stock car so naturally
that Hugh Connerty wanted to sign him for his Busch Grand National car
after watching him turn laps at the driving school.
"The first time I got into a stock car, which was at a driving
school, I loved it to death," Gordon said. "It felt right. I was just
attracted to it right off the bat. And the opportunity came to me when I
went to the driving school to drive a Busch car. I'd been to several other
driving schools and no opportunity had ever come to me."
After receiving the offer to drive Connerty's #67 Outback Steakhouse Pontiac,
Gordon called his step-father John Bickford in Indiana that he had found the cars he wanted to drive
for the rest of his racing career. Connerty enlisted
the help of Andy Petree who made a phone call that would alter
the face of stock car racing. Petree called a mechanic from
New Jersey to help guide the young driver. The mechanic was
Ray Evernham. One month before his Busch series debut, Gordon met
Evernham for the first time in Charlotte.
The sight of the slender 19-year-old
may have had Evernham questioning the visit. Gordon opened the briefcase
he was carrying and Evernham caught a glipse of the contents:
a cell phone, a Nintendo GameBoy, and a racing magazine. This
was the driver he was going to help rewrite the record books?
Whatever doubts Evernham had about Gordon were quickly erased
after a track test at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon left no doubt in
anyone's mind that he could handle stock cars.
His first Busch race came on October 20, 1990 at Rockingham. Gordon
turned the second fastest lap during qualifying and started on the outside
of the front row. However, a wreck on lap 33 ended his day. He was
credited with a 39th place finish-- hardly the kind of stock car debut
which would signal future greatness.
The race featured five past or future Winston Cup champions
with 16 titles between them. In
addition, there were six past or future Nationwide series
champions with a combined seven titles in the event.
If that wasn't enough, a future three-time Craftsman Truck series
champion also started at Rockingham that day.*
Here's a look at the finishing order from the AC-Delco
200 and where the drivers from Jeff Gordon's first stock car race are now.
(1:10 to 1:59 mark)
North Carolina Motor Speedway - October 20, 1990
*Statistics as of October 20, 2011
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