Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a seven-part series celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR Cup Series championship and the first for Hendrick Motorsports in 1995. Join us each Thursday as we relive all the moments and talk to many of the players involved in one of the organization's and the sport's most unforgettable and important season.
For Jon.
CONCORD, N.C. - Three Hall of Famers. “One Hot Night.”
The 1995 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway was a convergence of past, present, and future greatness – a touch of overzealous driving – and a definitive statement by then-23-year-old Jeff Gordon that in many ways, served as a microcosm of what would become a pivotal season in the sport's history.
Hindsight is always 20/20. What couldn't have been evident at the time was that a young superstar was arriving and no one on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team much cared if it was ahead of schedule. And despite any expectations from the outside, the squad's championship mettle was about to be proven, propelling what would become the most decorated company in NASCAR toward an era of unmatched dominance.
The championship construction company was building its foundation.
“You look at it in retrospect, nobody knows when history is about to be made,” Winston Kelley, former NASCAR radio personality and executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame told HendrickMotorsports.com. “Hendrick Motorsports has 14 championships now and that was the launching pad. People say when you get your first win, the others come, and it permeated throughout their organization.
“Jeff having seven wins and the championship in 1995, the 24 team was the one that launched it all.”
By 1995, Gordon had already scored two massive Cup Series wins - the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - both in 1994. But Gordon’s ascension from hot-shot youngster to legitimate title contender started early in 1995 while winning three of the season's first six races. With the legendary Dale Earnhardt having won four of the five previous titles and his record-tying seventh in 1994, the 1995 season wasn't expected to be a passing-of-the-torch moment. But by the time the series arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Winston Select in May of 1995, the baton was being ripped away from the No. 3 team, willingly or not.
All-Star Race festivities began when Bobby Labonte nabbed the pole, taking the top qualifying spot after a unique session that combined two timed laps with a green flag pit stop in between. He would be joined by 19 other competitors, with previous race winners from the past year, previous All-Star race winners, NASCAR Cup Series champions and the top five cars who advanced through the All-Star Open all eligible.
ARTIFACT OF THE WEEK: Terry Labonte's Iron Man winner in 1996
Much like 1995 as a whole, Gordon’s strength was on display from the outset. He started fifth and quickly climbed to second on lap three of the first 30-lap segment. The 23-year-old made use of both the inside and outside lanes to charge by competitors – setting his sights on Earnhardt and the lead.
By lap six, Gordon had pulled up to Earnhardt’s specially painted silver No. 3 and completed a pass on the inside of turn three. TNN pit reporter Randy Pemberton relayed to the audience ominous words for the rest of the field, as Gordon simply told crew chief Ray Evernham, “The car is a little tight.”
“Wow,” Pemberton said. “If he’s tight right now and they loosen him up, that car is going to be gone.”
He was onto something, as Gordon would go on to lead the remaining 25 laps of segment one in dominating fashion.
However, as with most All-Star Races of the era at Charlotte Motor Speedway, fans voted to invert the field – placing Gordon 19th to start the second, 30-lap segment. The ailing car of Mark Martin fired off from 20th.
Gordon quickly moved up two spots when the caution flew for an accident involving Hendrick Motorsports teammate Ken Schrader, Jimmy Spencer and Earnhardt. On the ensuing restart, Gordon continued his charge, driving into the top 10 by lap six.
In sixth as another caution waved, a restart occurred with 18 laps to go in the segment. Gordon grabbed two more spots and took over fourth on the opening lap. He utilized the outside lane to grab third then second one lap later. Gordon took the lead from Robert Pressley with 15 laps remaining and once again, distanced the field. Darrell Waltrip finished the stage in second with Earnhardt recovering to capture third, setting up a battle between youth and experience for the final 10-lap shootout.
“You go into a race like this, that pays this much money, that means this much to the drivers and to the teams. You’re not going to hold back. If you got to get rough, do things that you normally wouldn’t do – the so be it,” Gordon said between the segments.
With Waltrip and Earnhardt lined up second and third, Gordon’s words were never more relevant. Pit reporter Glenn Jarrett had the latest.
“We listened in on the conversation between Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham at the end of that (second) segment. Jeff radioed to Ray, ‘Hey, who starts outside me in the next segment?’ He said, ‘Darrell Waltrip.’ (Gordon) said, ‘Who?’ ‘Darrell Waltrip,’ Ray replied. Jeff then says, ‘who’s behind me?’ (Ray) says, ‘Dale Earnhardt.’ There was dead silence.
“Gordon then says, ‘Oh man, I got my work cut out for me.’”
Indeed, he did.
Three future Hall of Famers in the top three spots of a 10-lap shootout for a $200,000 prize. And no one was holding back.
But maybe someone should have.
From the outside lane, Waltrip smashed the throttle and immediately got out to a two-car length advantage on the initial restart. It was too much of an advantage. They were going to have to do it all again as Waltrip was ruled to have jumped the green flag. He was told by NASCAR that another early start would send him to the back of the field.
“I remember coming down the final restart, and D.W. jumped the last restart, so I knew… we were going to get a really good start,” Jeff Gordon told FOX Sports.
Not only did Gordon get a really good restart, but it set up one of NASCAR’s most memorable All-Star moments.
“I actually overdrove in turn one and we got up side-by-side of each other, and I hit him a bit in the rear,” said Gordon when they went under green. “That allowed Dale (Earnhardt) to get a big run on the inside and he just dove in there so hard. D.W. was in the perfect position up high. I saw him (Earnhardt) coming and I knew I needed to take the inside lane.”
Earnhardt took advantage of both Gordon and Waltrip bobbling coming out of turn two, diving to the inside and making it three-wide down the backstretch, clearing Gordon and pulling alongside Waltrip into turn three.
It was an incredible move. Until it wasn’t.
“We get to the third turn and I have to give Gordon some credit,” Waltrip told FOX Sports. “I sail into the corner; I see Dale coming on the bottom. (He) knows he can’t make it. The only way he was going to make it was (to) bounce off me. He slams me. We both wreck and destroy both cars. The rest is history.”
RELATED: Meet the No. 24 pit crew!
Earnhardt had overcooked the turn and washed into Waltrip. The two collided in the middle of three, sending both careening into the turn four wall. Sparks, smoke and sheet metal scattered everywhere. An unblemished Jeff Gordon was once again in the lead.
“The guys just went flying into the wall,” Gordon recalls. “I knew then two of my biggest competitors in this race were just taken out of it.”
The incident also collected polesitter Labonte and Lake Speed, another competitive team that night.
Once the debris and wreckage were cleared, Gordon took off on the restart and never looked back, as he had done the two previous segments. The Hendrick Motorsports driver dominated, leading 49 of 70 laps and winning each segment decisively. Gordon took home $300,000 in total winnings on the night.
“The Dupont Chevrolet was just on a rail tonight,” Gordon said in victory lane. “When you get a car this good, there’s just no holding back. It would have been tough if Earnhardt and Darrell hadn’t of wrecked there because they snookered me on that start. I sure would have liked to have been there to race them because I really think we had something for them. We had something for them all night tonight. We won with a clean sweep."
The 24 team had something for them that entire season. For as dominant as the team was that evening, it still marked the first time both Gordon or Hendrick Motorsports had ever won the NASCAR All-Star Race. It was stil a learning process for everyone.
However, it was precisely what they were learning that felt, different. The team and the organization weren't just learning how to win races, they were learning how to win championships.
Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports had just overwhelmed the sport's biggest titans on one of its biggest stages. Even though - as the All-Star Race demonstrated - there would be bumps along the way.
“The car was strong; the team was strong. I felt like I was just really getting comfortable and confident in knowing what I wanted in the car at all the different tracks and the car was delivering and the team was delivering,” Jeff Gordon said in a recent interview with HendrickMotorsports.com. “Obviously, wins do a lot for you, but it’s a long season. You gain this confidence. ‘It’s, yeah, we can win every week,’ and then you get knocked down a little bit and you’re like, ‘Woah, hold on, we’re going to have to work really hard at this and it’s not going to come easy.”
The 30th is referred to as, "the Pearl Anniversary".
The NASCAR world was about to be Jeff Gordon's oyster.