Gordon Has Fortune, as Well as Fame, Fun

Jeff Gordon appears to have it all, and boy, is he enjoying it.

The defending Winston Cup champion is just 25, a millionaire many times over, married to a former beauty queen and proving week after week that he is one of the most talented stock car drivers to ever come along.

What more could he want? Well, how about lunch with Monica Seles?

“I’ve been told that Monica Seles is a fan of ours and I asked if we could arrange a lunch this week,” Gordon said with a bright smile. “Wouldn’t that be great?”

Great is exactly the word for the life that the youngster who split his youth between California and Indiana has carved out of NASCAR’s top division after only four years.

And with fame has come opportunities that Gordon never have imagined.

Last week, for instance, he made an appearance Wednesday night on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and on Thursday played in a golf pro-am with Arnold Palmer. Last Sunday, at North Wilkesboro, Gordon continued to earn his celebrity by winning his third straight Winston Cup race, stretching his series lead over Terry Labonte to 111 points.

“I was on Letterman’s show one other time when we won the championship,” Gordon said. “It was a lot more fun this time. I was more comfortable and a little more relaxed. The first time, I didn’t know what to expect.

“I was excited about getting on a show of that caliber, especially at this point of the season. David is a race fan. He wanted to talk racing, and that’s easy for me to do.”

As for playing golf with Palmer, Gordon said, “That was really a killer. You have so much respect for the guy and what he’s done for so many years. He’s like Richard Petty in our sport. It’s so evident because everybody loves him and everybody follows him.”

Someday, they may be saying the same about Gordon.

NOT THERE YET: It’s very easy to start comparing Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team with the great drivers and teams in the history of NASCAR, but crew chief Ray Evernham says not to rush things.

“I’ve been more concerned with how we’ve been lucky for so long,” Evernham said. “We’re just trying to do our job.

“You look at how Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt dominated this sport for the last 10 years. Junior Johnson and Darrell Waltrip and all his drivers did it over the long haul, too. We haven’t been going at it that long.

“We need to keep this up for five or six more years before we start to think we’re in the class with those guys.”

POINT CHASE: With only four races remaining, the race among the top 25 drivers in the Winston Cup point standings remains very competitive.

In the race last Sunday at North Wilkesboro, 10 of the 25 positions changed. Going into today’s UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, 12 of the 25 drivers are separated by 33 points or fewer.

The closest battle is for positions six through 10, with Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Ken Schrader, Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin separated by a total of 80 points. Positions 11 through 15, including Bobby Hamilton, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Burton and Ted Musgrave, are separated by 109 points.

“It’s a thing called pride: personal pride and team pride,” Wallace said. “We’re too far back to realistically thing about the top five in points, because Mark (Martin) is 370 points ahead of us. Our goal right now is to make a run at him, though, and at least lock up sixth place.

Wallace wants to finish in the top 10 because he’ll receive more attention at the sport’s season-ending awards banquet in New York.

“If you finish 11th or worse, you’re back there in the cheap seats and go unnoticed,” he said.