Hallways To The Past - Jeff Gordon's First Stock Car Race

(August 1, 2001)- - Jeff Gordon turned his first laps in a stock car at the Buck Baker Driving School in Rockingham, North Carolina in 1990. The spint car racer from Indiana took to the heavier stock car so naturally that Hugh Connerty wanted to sign him for his Busch Grand National car after watching him turn laps at the driving school. "The first time I got into a stock car, which was at a driving school, I loved it to death," Gordon said. "It felt right. I was just attracted to it right off the bat. And the opportunity came to me when I went to the driving school to drive a Busch car. I'd been to several other driving schools and no opportunity had ever come to me."

After receiving the offer to drive Connerty's #67 Outback Steakhouse Pontiac, Gordon called his step-father John Bickford in Indiana. "Sell everything. We're going stock car racing," Gordon told Bickford. Connerty enlisted the help of Andy Petree who made a phone call that would alter the face of stock car racing forever. Petree called a mechanic from New Jersey to help guide the young driver. The mechanic was Ray Evernham. One month before his Busch series debut, Gordon met Evernham for the first time in Charlotte. The sight of the slender 19-year-old may have had Evernham questioning the visit. Gordon opened the briefcase he was carrying and Evernham caught a glipse of the contents: a cell phone, a Nintendo GameBoy, and a racing magazine. This was the driver he was going to help rewrite the record books? Whatever doubts Evernham had about Gordon were quickly erased after a track test at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Gordon left no doubt in anyone's mind that he could handle stock cars.

His first Busch race came on October 20, 1990 at Rockingham. Gordon turned the second fastest lap during qualifying and started on the outside of the front row. However, a wreck on lap 33 ended his day. He was credited with a 39th place finish-- hardly the kind of stock car debut which would signal future greatness.

The race featured five past or future Winston Cup champions with 15 titles between them. In addition, there were six past or future Busch series champions with a combined seven titles in the event. And if that wasn't enough, a future two-time Craftsman Truck series champion also started at Rockingham that day.*

Here's a look at the finishing order from the AC-Delco 200 and where the drivers from Jeff's first stock car race are now.

Finsh	Strt	Car #	Driver	Make	Laps	Where Are They Now? (As of August 1, 2001)
1	32	31	Steve Grissom	Olds	197	Test driver for Petty Enterprises
2	17	3	Dale Earnhardt	Chevr	197	Killed on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500
3	18	97	Morgan Shepherd	Ford	197	Craftsman Truck series driver
4	3	1	Mark Martin	Ford	197	Winston Cup driver
5	1	56	Dave Mader	Buick	197	Occasional ARCA driver. Races in the Southern All Star Racing series.
6	11	28	Davey Allison	Chevr	197	Killed after a helicopter crash in 1993
7	16	7	Harry Gant	Buick	196	Retired following the 1994 Winston Cup season. Maintains a working farm in North Carolina.
8	12	99	Tommy Ellis	Buick	196	Returned to Parts Unknown
9	10	32	Dale Jarrett	Pontiac	196	Winston Cup driver. 1999 Winston Cup champion
10	23	42	Bobby Hillin Jr	Pontiac	196	Part time Busch series driver
11	20	52	Ken Schrader	Chevr	196	Winston Cup driver
12	40	96	Tom Peck	Olds	196	Short track driver made infrequent BGN starts.
13	27	27	Elton Sawyer	Buick	196	Busch series driver
14	37	36	Kenny Wallace	Pontiac	196	Busch series driver
15	7	17	Darrell Waltrip	Chevr	196	Retired following the 2000 season. Serves as a NASCAR broadcaster for FOX
16	4	44	Bobby Labonte	Olds	195	Winston Cup driver. 2000 Winston Cup champion
17	25	22	Rick Mast	Buick	195	Winston Cup driver
18	15	63	Chuck Bown	Pontiac	195	Occasional Busch series driver. Runs racing tech school
19	5	34	Jack Sprague	Buick	195	Craftsman Truck series driver. 1997,1999 Truck series champion
20	34	33	Ed Berrier	Olds	195	Part time Busch series driver
21	13	2	L.D. Ottinger	Olds	194	Retired after a long career in the Busch and Sportsman series
22	26	9	Ward Burton	Chevr	194	Winston Cup driver
23	29	08	Bobby Dotter	Buick	193	Winston West/ARCA driver. Occasional Busch series driver
24	14	57	Tim Bender	Chevr	193	Injury in 1997 allowed Matt Kenseth to take his BGN seat and climb to stardom. Lives in Western New York and operates the Cup Lite series (3/4 scale Winston Cup cars)
25	8	25	Jimmy Hensley	Olds	191	Craftsman Truck series driver
26	39	98	Hal Goodson	Pontiac	191	Hooters Pro Cup driver. Part time Busch series driver
27	36	19	Cecil Eunice	Olds	190	Dirt track racing driver. 2000 Late Model Sportsman track champion
28	9	79	Dave Rezendes	Olds	188	Occasional Craftsman Truck series driver
29	24	12	Jeff Burton	Buick	183	Winston Cup driver
30	28	45	Patty Moise	Buick	176	Spotter and wife of Elton Sawyer
31	6	59	Robert Pressley	Olds	126	Winston Cup driver
32	19	85	Bobby Moon	Olds	120	Late model stock driver made limited Busch series starts
33	31	4	Gary Balough	Buick	103	Dirt modified driver was voted among the Top 25 Dirt Modified Racers. Still races on dirt on occasion
34	38	8	Bobby Hamilton	Olds	103	Winston Cup driver
35	35	95	Larry Pollard	Olds	100	Races late model stock cars
36	22	11	Jack Ingram	Chevr	99	Retired as the all-time Busch series wins leader. Two-time Busch series champion.
37	33	94	Stanley Smith	Buick	99	Critically injured in a wreck at Talladega in 1993. Recently returned to short track racing in the Southern All Star series.
38	30	81	Jeff Green	Chevr	35	Busch and Winston Cup driver. 2000 Busch series champion
39	2	67	Jeff Gordon	Pontiac	33	Winston Cup driver. 1995,1997,1998 Winston Cup champion
40	21	6	Tommy Houston	Buick	3	Retired from competition. Father of current drivers Andy and Marty Houston

Thanks to Scott Page from BGNracing for providing the finishing order for this event.