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- When Jeff was 12, he made extra cash at races selling Jeff Gordon t-shirts. These are among the racing world’s most highly prized collectibles today.
- Jeff attended his first Indy 500 in 1983. Tom Sneva won the race.
- Jeff restored and rebuilt a 1933 Ford sedan when he was a teenager. He used a motor he had hand-built for the pickup he drove in high school.
- At 19, Jeff was the youngest national champion in the history of Midget competition.
- Jeff’s first Winston Cup race, in 1992, was Richard Petty’s last.
- At 21, Jeff was history’s youngest winner of the 125-mile Daytona qualifying race.
- Jeff’s $613,000 winner’s check at the 1994 Brickyard 400 was the largest in NASCAR history at the time.
- Jeff’s Winston Million bonus in 1997 was the first since Bill Elliott won the mega-bonus in 1985.
- Dale Earnhardt teased Jeff publicly when he cried after his 1993 Daytona qualifying win. In 1998, Earnhardt shed a tear after finally winning the Daytona 500. Yes, he admitted, he had “pulled a Gordon.”
- Jeff recorded 17 consecutive Top 5 finishes in 1998, the longest streak of the Winston Cup era.
- Jeff says his Lap 198 pass of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Daytona in 2005—without benefit of a draft—was the finest of his career.
- It took more than 60 years for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to have its first four-time winner at the Indy 500, AJ Foyt. Jeff won his fourth race there in his 11th try.
- Jeff’s crew chief, Robbie Loomis, was in the pits for three Winston Cup victories before teaming with Jeff—two by Bobby Hamilton and one with John Andretti.
- Jeff and teammate Jimmie Johnson first became friends when Jeff admired his aggressive driving at Darlington in 1998. In 2004, they traveled together with their girlfriends to Spain, New York and the Bahamas.
- Jeff’s favorite TV show is Friends. His favorite video game is Tiger Woods golf.
- Jeff established his own wine label in 2005.
- Jeff hosted Saturday Night Live in early 2003. In 2004, he filled in for Regis Philbin one morning.
- Off the racetrack, Jeff has never had an accident—when moving forward. He admits to having backed into a few things.
- Jeff, who stands 5-7, says the athlete he’d most like to swap places with is 7-1 Shaquille O’Neal.
- If racing hadn’t worked out for Jeff, he says he would have tried to get into the space program.
- Jeff appeared on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. He won in his preliminary game, beating Angie Dickinson, Kathy Griffin, Penn Jillette and Ron Livingston. In the championship round, he was matched against fellow winners David Cross, Steve Harris, Seth Meyers and Dave Navarro. Jeff was the first to exit.
Tom Sneva, 1992
All World
Dale Earnhardt,
2001 Stock Car Racing
Shaquille O'Neal,
2001 Heritage