By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
In this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday, Kickin’ The Tires relives when NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon won the 2007 UAW-Ford 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on October 7, 2007 for Hendrick Motorsports.
After a horrible qualifying effort had Hendrick Motorsports veteran driver Jeff Gordon starting the 30th event of the season in 34th of 43 cars, Gordon elected to spend a majority of the UAW-Ford 500 at the back of the pack in his No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet.
It wasn’t that Gordon was new to restrictor plate racing by any means, prior to Sunday’s event, he had won 11 times on plate tracks. It was uncertainty among 43 drivers when it came to racing conditions with ‘The Car of Tomorrow’.
It seemed victory was far fetched for Gordon with not moving towards the front and then after pitting he pulled out of his pit stall with a hose hanging from his Chevrolet which earned him an unfortunate pass through penalty.
“Our qualifying determined what our strategy was going to be, and we laid in the back”, said Gordon.
With the race coming to a close, Gordon found himself in the Top-15 running order and working the draft each lap. With only six laps remaining Gordon found himself in a Hendrick Motorsports group with teammates Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears as they surged towards the front of the field.
They say you only need to lead one lap, that being the final lap.
Gordon would do just that.
With one lap remaining, Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jimmie Johnson attempted to block him, but Gordon received a huge push to the lead from Tony Stewart which in turn surged Gordon to the lead and ultimately his 12th plate victory.
Career Update:
Jeff Gordon would go on to win once more in 2007 the following week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Overall, during the 2007 season Gordon found victory lane six times, including the sweep of Talladega Superspeedway that season. Gordon also earned 21 Top-5s, and 30 Top-10 finishes.
In 2015, Gordon announced it would be his last full-time season but didn’t rule ever racing again. In Gordon’s final full-time season, he would find victory lane at Martinsville and go on to earn five Top-5s, and 21 Top-10 finishes.
He did return in 2016, running eight races for a sidelined Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the No. 88 for Hendrick Motorsports, earning two Top-10s in that time span.
Overall over a MENCS career spanning 25 years, Gordon amassed 93 wins in 805 starts, 325 Top-5s, 477 Top-10s and 81 pole awards.
Gordon is currently an announcer for Fox NASCAR and still remains very active within the Hendrick Motorsports organization and remains a co-owner with Rick Hendrick of the No. 48 Chevrolet driven by seven-time NASCAR Champion, Jimmie Johnson.
In 2018, Gordon was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and in 2019 was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
https://kickinthetires.net/2019-nascar-hall-of-fame-induction-ceremony-honors-five-nascar-legends/