By The Commish

Some races are just different. The test is harder, the stress greater, and the triumphs more rewarding. Few races in Jeff Gordon’s career have presented more of a challenge than the first Martinsville race in 2005. Coming only six months after the October 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed ten people, including four members of the Hendrick family, just coming to the paper clip in the Virginia mountains was hard enough. Then, the circumstances of the race made it even harder.

But there were omens from the beginning. Nobody had expected Rick Hendrick to attend that day, but shortly before the race, his voice crackled over Gordon’s radio. "Good to hear your voice, Boss," Gordon said. "Have a good day today," Hendrick replied. "We'd like to get this one." Gordon’s response was immediate: "Yeah, me too." He then vowed to crew chief Robbie Loomis, "We’re going to have a good day here."

The karma gods, however, seemed to have other things in mind. Some twenty laps into the race Gordon reported that his water temperature was high. By lap 40, his second broken wheel hub in two weeks was the villain. Gordon, who started 16th, was in the top ten when he felt a vibration in the right front wheel and pitted on lap 46. Repairs cost him two laps. After the race, Loomis praised front tire changer Corey Quick and car chief Steve Letarte for a quick diagnosis and solution to the problem. He explained, "When we had the loose wheel and put it on there under green, we started having the trouble there again. And we knew the studs looked really bad. Corey looked at them and he said, 'Hey, we've got a problem, these studs look really bad.' We knew we weren't going to make it, we came in and used a battery-powered drill and took the bolts out, took the 1/4-inch spacers off and got back to more stud and then it held on the rest of the day." It cost them a lap under caution, but it was the right answer. He also reassured his driver. "We'll get it right for you, bud, by the end of the race," Loomis radioed. "Keep it together."

And then Jeff Gordon did what he does best: drive. He pushed the repaired DuPont Chevy through the field with aggression and precision, getting one lap back at a caution on lap 95 and a second one back a hundred laps later. Finally, with 223 laps to go, he was the Lucky Dog—and the Virginia crowd reacted with a shower of cheers. They knew a rare performance when they saw it. "I don't know what brought that on," Gordon said of the warm greeting he received while being waved onto the lead. "For years, I'd hear mixture of boos and cheers. But there were an awful lot of cheers. It feels good." And so did his race car, which was headed for the front. "We've still got a long way to go here, guys,” he radioed the team. "But we can do this."

Not that it was easy. After the race, Gordon admitted that he had screamed at Loomis at first. Then he turned the frustration to focus, and somehow found the patience to claw his way back to the front. “Even at that moment that I was upset about what was going on and didn't understand it, I knew how good our car was. I knew we would be going all the way to the back when we got our lap back and were on the lead lap and we were going to have to fight our way through lapped traffic. Any time you get down like that you are going to get frustrated. If we couldn't have passed anybody, it would have been a much bigger issue, but as difficult as it was to pass here, we were able to pass pretty good, which is an indication of just how good our race car was. You just focus on the next car ahead of you and run the fastest laps you can. I wasn't thinking about brakes, tires, nothing, just going as hard as I could.”

Even after he had returned to the top ten, the outcome was in doubt. "The brakes are overheating right now, so I can't drive it in the (corners) the way I want to," he radioed Loomis. "The brakes are killing us." But timely cautions let him cool his brakes and march steadily forward. Even a joust with Kurt Busch couldn’t stop Gordon on this day. The team was on a mission, and after the race, the four-time champion acknowledged this was a group effort. "We never lost sight of what it takes," Gordon averred. “I knew if there was any way we could get that lap back, we'd be in good shape. It takes a good car, a good team, but it also takes luck.” They took their time on pit stops to get the lug nuts tight, and it was worth it. Fourth on a restart with 46 laps to go, he wasted no time. He followed third-place Mark Martin past Ryan Newman for third on the 461st lap, went underneath Martin for second three laps later, and caught and passed Sterling Marlin for the lead with 34 laps remaining. "You can't ever count out Jeff Gordon here," Kasey Kahne said. "He's one of the best drivers ever at this track." Though Travis Kvapil’s blown engine with 16 laps to go let Kasey Kahne close to his bumper, the outcome was no longer in doubt. When the checkered flag fell, Gordon won his sixth Martinsville and 71st career race, moving him within five victories of Dale Earnhardt on the all-time wins list.

That’s when the emotions took over. Spectators, many of whom wept openly at the plane crash's announcement last fall, cheered heartily for Gordon, a driver they usually booed. Gordon gunned his DuPont Chevrolet in front of the main grandstands, doing an uncharacteristic burnout that sent a huge cloud of tire smoke over the speedway and hid his tears. Victory Lane celebrations at Martinsville take place on the frontstretch, and when Rick Hendrick stuck his head in Gordon's window, all he could manage was, “Thank you, thank you. Thank you." They were healing words.

This was more than just a win for Hendrick and for his race teams. "Driving the car, you get so caught up in the race," Gordon said. "But when you've got a guy like Rick Hendrick that you respect so much and you've seen what he's been through, the ups and downs through his life and especially here last year, for him to poke his head in there with that tremble in his voice, that impacts you." Even in the worst of circumstances, the DuPont team refused to fold. "We never gave up that fight," Gordon said. "That's what it takes week in and week out. We never lost sight of what it takes." And they still haven't.

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