Even at 55 years old, Jeff Gordon has still got it.
Ahead of Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix — a 1.7-mile street course designed for IndyCar on the streets of Washington, D.C. — a few legends of motorsports ran the circuit in an International Race of Champions (IROC) competition on Saturday, Aug. 22. And Gordon, in a Pontiac Firebird, reminded everyone that he’s one of the best wheelmen of all time.
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Gordon, a four-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion, won both 10-lap heats of Saturday’s IROC race around the National Mall, getting the edge over fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Kurt Busch both times.
It’s the first time Gordon has won an individual race in any national series of any discipline of motorsports since his last NASCAR Cup Series win in 2015 at Martinsville. The driver that Dale Earnhardt nicknamed “Wonder Boy” burned his tires out across the start-finish line after the second race, leaving a streak of black marks across a picture of the Capitol.
“This is so special,” Gordon told Fox Sports after the pair of victories. “Just being out here, being a part of this, this special event. The fans are everywhere celebrating 250 years of this great country. This is super special. … And to get to race Kurt — he’s so good, especially in these cars. I’ve raced against him my whole career. He’s so good, I could not give him an inch.”
Gordon raced with a sticker on his car that paid tribute to the late Kyle Busch, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who died on May 21.
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The race also featured NASCAR champions Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott, and Indy 500 winners Tony Kanaan, Hélio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti.
IROC is a series that initially ran from 1973 through 2006 in which drivers raced identically prepared stock cars set up by the same team of mechanics in an effort to make it a true test of the driver’s ability. Earnhardt captured four series championships while Mark Martin won five. The series was revived recently by businessman Rob Kauffman and NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham — who was Gordon’s crew chief for three of his championships — and this was IROC’s first official competition in 20 years.
“Big thanks to them. They’ve put a lot of effort into this series and these cars,” Gordon said. “It’s a real honor to be part of this event.”
In the original iteration of the series, Gordon won an IROC race at Daytona in 1998. The Pontiac Firebirds used in the Freedom 250 competition are the same ones drivers in the series raced from 1996 to 2006. They were prepared for Washington’s street course with updated and modern parts.
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Widely credited with helping NASCAR skyrocket in popularity in the 1990s and 2000s, Gordon is one of the most accomplished drivers in the history of the sport and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019. In addition to his four Cup Series titles, Gordon was the Rookie of the Year in 1993 and was named one of the sport’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
Across a NASCAR Cup Series career that spanned from 1992 through 2016, he won 93 races, which is third all-time behind Richard Petty and David Pearson. The California native won three Daytona 500s, five Brickyard 400s, six Southern 500s and three Coca-Cola 600s. He is one of four drivers to complete NASCAR’s grand slam of wins at all four crown jewel races, joining Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
In 2017, Gordon was also on the winning team for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Gordon is now the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, the team he raced with for the entirety of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon wins IROC race before Freedom 250 Grand Prix
