From Winner to Champion, Part 5: Gordon vs. Earnhardt, 'The rivalry was real'

Editor’s note: This is the fifth 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 seasons.  

For Jon.

CONCORD, N.C. - Jeff Gordon led the field to a green flag restart with seven laps to go at Pocono Raceway in June of 1995, looking to finish off another dominant day with his fourth win of the season after leading a race-high 124 circuits. 

But as the flag fell, Gordon missed a shift with the No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo emitting a plume of white smoke. The resulting mechanical damage relegated Gordon to a 16th-place finish with teammate Terry Labonte motoring on to victory lane instead. 

On the surface, the ending seemed unfortunate for Gordon but largely nondescript. With the 13th race of the NASCAR Cup Series season in the books, Gordon had piled up three wins and seven top-three finishes. And yet, he sat third in points, 123 markers behind reigning champion Dale Earnhardt, who seemed to be in prime position for a run at a record-breaking eighth title. 

And then the switch and the script flipped. For good. 

It's rare that certain moment or stretch in which a promising young star realizes his/her full potential can be identified. But Gordon's next 14 finishes went as follows: 

• Michigan International Speedway: 2nd
• Daytona International Speedway: 1st
• New Hampshire Motor Speedway: 1st
• Pocono Raceway: 2nd
• Talladega Superspeedway: 8th
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Brickyard 400): 6th
• Watkins Glen International: 3rd
• Michigan International Speedway: 3rd
• Bristol Motor Speedway: 6th
• Darlington Raceway (Southern 500): 1st
• Richmond Raceway: 6th
• Dover Motor Speedway: 1st
• Martinsville Speedway: 7th
• North Wilkesboro Speedway: 3rd

Thirty years later, sitting in his office on the Concord, North Carolina-based campus of Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon listens as those finishes are read aloud. 

He has an immediate thought. 

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"What’s funny, the first thing when I hear you say that, I go, 'Where’d we finish seventh? Where’d we finish eighth? How come we sucked on those days?'" he grins. 

If three wins over the first six events of the season was a warning shot to the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series, the aforementioned 14-race string of unrelenting points piling, the likes of which would become a calling card for the 24 team throughout much of the decade, was an official statement of arrival. 

In the process, Gordon turned a 123-point deficit into a 302-point lead, all but putting the 1995 championship trophy on Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick's mantle. And best yet, the 24 team had beaten Earnhardt at his own game, stringing together wins amid solid finishes and avoiding the mistakes that had plagued it throughout its first couple of seasons of its infancy. 

As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. In ruling the sport throughout the early part of the decade, winning four of the prior five championships heading into 1995, Earnhardt had set a standard and a template, one the No. 24 bunch used to wrestle the torch away once and for all. 

“We watched Earnhardt and what it took to win the championship – consistency, minimizing mistakes and failures,” Gordon said. “So, ’93 was just all about, ‘Man, what are we even doing here?’ And trying to show we belonged. Then ’94 was, ‘Alright, we’re here and we’ve got something special we’re working on.’ And we won some big races, but we were also fairly inconsistent. We finished top 10 in points that year, so we knew we were building something.

“But ’95 was, ‘We’ve got the car, and we’ve got the team, and we know we’ve got to have consistency as well. We’ve got to bring it home. If we can’t win, we’ve got to finish fifth or 10th or whatever it is, we just have to collect the points.’ I think we knew what the mission was, and we had what it took to do it.”

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'This kid is good'

Behind the scenes, and away from the grandstand, Gordon and Earnhardt were far from adversarial. 

But according to Webster, when it comes to a rivalry, disposition is meaningless. 

Defined simply as, "one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess", perhaps the word, "rival", isn't used liberally enough. But most around agree that despite the amicable relations between the two drivers and teams, the Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon rivalry was real. 

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And matched perhaps only by Petty and Pearson, it's one of the biggest in the history of the sport. 

“I’m a big believer that there are three kinds of fans for every driver or team in a sport – people who love them, people who hate them and then there’s people in the middle who don’t really care. That group in the middle goes away when you start winning a lot,” said Winston Kelley, executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and former MRN radio personality. “Earnhardt already had that. There weren’t middle-of-the-road people who said, ‘I don’t care about Dale Earnhardt.’

“That’s the year that Jeff got into that same category and when they’re one-two, it’s going to create a rivalry. You add to that the fact that Earnhardt’s fanbase was very different than Jeff’s fanbase. You had a lot of blue-collar Dale fans, and all of those things just multiplied themselves."

To Kelley's point, the battle lines couldn't have been more clearly drawn. Gordon's rainbow-clad fans stood out in stark contrast to Earnhardt's followers, largely dressed in black. 

Gordon was new and cool. Earnhardt was an everyman, relatable to America's working class. 

And maybe, most divisive was each driver's age. Gordon turned 24 that August while Earnhardt celebrated his 44th birthday that spring. 

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As Gordon began to win and dominate races, emerging with a points lead that he eventually ran away with, his youth was unprecedented by NASCAR standards. And it was a difficult pill to swallow for all of his peers. 

Perhaps Earnhardt most of all. 

“Dale was the alpha male for sure, and Jeff was so young, younger than NASCAR was used to seeing in terms of being a contender and it’s not easy to be gracefully beat,” Mark Martin told HendrickMotorsports.com. “It wasn’t easy for me to be beat by Jeff, either. You hate when you’ve come in and put all this time and effort and years to get to the status you’re at and then you have this kid come in within no time and he’s showing up and winning.

“It’s not an easy thing to take and certainly, Dale would’ve had a harder time with it than even I would’ve had. Dale was just a bad ass. It was a rivalry pretty quickly.”

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Andy Petree, who served as Earnhardt's crew chief from 1993-1995, also acknowledged the rivalry, but added there was plenty of respect to go along with it. 

“The rivalry was real,” Petree said. “Jeff was the beginning of the young generation. These younger drivers were successful a lot earlier. I can remember as this was happening, he would grin and say, ‘This kid is good.’"

And yet, with age came experience. As good as Earnhardt was on the track, he was a master off it, possessing a renowned knack for smoothing over edges when needed and playing mind games with competitors. 

Earnhardt recognized Gordon's talents early. He also understood there were other ways to win than with speed alone. 

“He got Dale’s attention before the ’95 season started," Petree said. "He already had a ton of respect for Jeff and what he was able to do on the track. But he was always looking to mess with him and that’s why that rivalry was real. He took great delight in doing that. It would get him off his game a little bit and he was good at that.” 

Gordon too recalled those instances, which he admitted were tough at times. 

"Earnhardt was kind of ribbing me and playing mind games and the things he did so well," Gordon remembered. "It frustrated me during the season because I just wanted to focus on the races. Dale and I didn't really talk enough about it, but I think it was kind of part of his plan. He realized a rivalry was strong. That was just his way of trying to get an edge or to win the championship for himself and he realized that was the tactic he needed to take because on the track, we had them beat pretty good. 

"But some of it too, I look back now and go, 'Man, he just saw the bigger picture of building the sport up and keeping it interesting and exciting within the media and with the fans.'" 

Whatever the tactic, it wasn't working. Gordon and the 24 team took the final step toward winning what would become his first of four championships. Ironically, it was Earnhardt, and the No. 3 team that uncharacteristically faltered. While Gordon kicked off his string of brilliance with a second place run at Michigan, Earnhardt finished 35th after a crash and despite winning the Brickyard 400, found himself amidst a streak of five finishes of 20th or worse. For reference, Earnhardt hadn't encountered an eight-race stretch such as that since the 1985 season. 

Without a doubt, whether anyone in the moment realized it or not, 1995 was the season in which the torch changed hands from Earnhardt to Gordon. But if there was a moment to point to within the year, it was the eight races after Gordon's shifting mishap at Pocono. Gordon won back-to-back races at Daytona and New Hampshire, seizing the points lead for good while Earnhardt, after a timing belt issue relegated him to another 35th-place showing at Michigan, found himself in fourth place, 314 points behind with 10 races remaining. 

And yet, champions don't just pass batons willingly. And Earnhardt had far from finished.

"You come to realize it was Earnhardt and those guys are just so tough and so strong," Gordon said. "You count them out and man, here they are again. You’re lapping them at one point in the race and you’re battling with them for the win by the end of it. So, you just realize you can never count those guys out. We had to stay on our toes and never get overconfident."

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Separating from the competition

Whatever plagued Earnhardt from Michigan to Michigan, the No. 3 team resolved it thereafter. Over the final 10 races of the 1995 season, Earnhardt finished in the top three seven times with a pair of wins. He'd finish no worse than ninth down the stretch. That closing run started with a second place run at Bristol Motor Speedway as Gordon turned in a workmanlike, sixth-place finish. 

The next week would hold yet another signature, significant moment in the rivalry and the season. 

Surprisingly, despite racing together for eight-plus seasons, Gordon and Earnhardt finished 1-2 only seven times throughout their careers. Earnhardt won the first two of those instances, the 1993 Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the spring of 1995. 

Points are one thing. Prevailing in a heads-up battle down the stretch is another. And despite having to overcome two cut right-rear tires, Gordon found himself in position to do just that in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. He lined up first with Earnhardt just behind for a final restart with nine laps to go, pulled out to a healthy lead heading into turn one and held on to prevail. 

"We had to fight and I've never really been in a battle with Earnhardt and Rusty (Wallace) towards the end there and that was a great accomplishment for me and the team," Gordon said after the race. 

The win gave Chevrolet the manufacturer's championship for 1995 and was Gordon's sixth of the season. 

Gordon's seventh and final win would come a couple of weeks later at Dover Motor Speedway. By the end, the No. 24 team had led 400 of 500 laps and built a 309-point gap with just six races remaining. 

It was seemingly the perfect position with Gordon set to cruise to Hendrick Motorsports' first championship. The team had matured, matched its speed and talent with consistency. 

Its Achilles' heel had become one of its greatest strengths.  

“Once you start building a season like that and you come back to tracks for a second time, you get really comfortable with what the goal is and how to accomplish it and we were able to separate ourselves from most of the rest of the competition,” Gordon said. “So, you went into it going, ‘I think we can win but worst-case scenario, we should be top five.’ That was a different time when you could have that mentality.

“Maybe at that time I didn’t realize it, but looking back on my career I realize that was a very strong suit for me and the team was making sure you made the most out of bad days and capitalizing on the really good ones. And you had to do it over 30-plus races and we got really good at that. That’s where the championships came from. That wasn’t there when the system changed and the way you go win a championship changed. That was probably not my strongest suit versus the overall season like it was back then.” 

It was over. 

Until it wasn't. 

“All of the sudden, you’re leading that championship fight for 12 rounds and you get nervous because you think you can win and then the champ almost knocks you out,” Evernham said. 

Flipping the script for good

From driver to crew chief to team owner to TV analyst, Petree's NASCAR journey has come with plenty of stops and a myriad of highs and lows. 

Certainly, being atop the box as Earnhardt joined Richard Petty in the record books with his seventh championship in 1994 is quite the feather in his cap. 

But as Earnhardt tussled with Gordon and Sterling Marlin for his would-be eighth in 1995, Petree was already eyeing the future. Formerly the crew chief for the No. 33 car owned by Leo Jackson and driven by Harry Gant, Petree was presented the opportunity to buy the team, an ownership change that became official in October of 1996. 

Petree gave Earnhardt and team owner Richard Childress early notice and remembers that Earnhardt immediately began to put on the the full-court press.

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"I let Richard and Dale know fairly early past midseason that this was coming. Dale tried everything he could to talk me out of it," Petree said. "He was starting to build (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) as well and I remember he took me to the Bahamas and we spent a weekend on his yacht and he was laying his DEI plans out and saying, ‘Here’s your office.’ Things like that. He was trying everything to do the hard sell. And I said, 'Dale, nobody is a partner with you. If I do this, all I’m doing is working for you.'"

But the No. 3 team had one last run in it. Aided by a 30th-place for Gordon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, followed by a 20th-place finish at Rockingham, Earnhardt charged back to within shouting distance, 162 points back with two races remaining. 

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Even now, when Evernham reflects on the end of the 1995 season, it's not joy and pride that comes to mind first. It's the close of the season and the championship that could've slipped away. 

“We had a 300-point lead and got focused on the title and almost pissed it away. We got off of what got us there,” Evernham lamented. “We got focused on winning the championship and we weren’t playing our game. We learned a lot from that."

The 24 team rebounded in the season's penultimate race with Gordon rolling home fifth. Even with Earnhardt finishing third and earning five bonus points for leading a lap, something Gordon failed to do for only the second time all season, the result put the 24 group on the doorstep. 

Gordon would need only to start the regular season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway and either lead a lap or not finish last to hand Rick Hendrick his first Cup Series championship in his 12th season as an owner. 

As Semisonic once sang, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." Earnhardt's runner-up finish in the '95 points standings was just as likely a blip in the radar as anything else at the time. 

But the rest of the 1990s would largely belong to Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports. From 1996-1999, Gordon won 40 races and two more Cup Series championships (1997 and 1998). Hendrick Motorsports teammate Terry Labonte would claim his second career title in '96, giving the company four straight. 

Meanwhile, Earnhardt would never reclaim his place atop the stock car racing world. He visited victory lane just six more times in the decade and finished no higher than fourth in the points standings. He'd add two more wins and an oh-so-close, runner-up finish in the 2000 season before his tragic and untimely death at the end of the 2001 DAYTONA 500. 

Petree's career recently took yet another turn as he was joined Overdrive Entertainment Management as co-owner. And in reflecting on 1995 with HendrickMotorsports.com, stressed that he harbors no remorse with his odyssey through all aspects of the NASCAR world. 

But if he did...

“If I have any regrets - which I don’t - but if there was one it was that I didn’t spend one or two more years trying to help (Earnhardt) get number eight," Petree concluded. "I try not to have regrets in my career, but the opportunity to own my own team just happened to come around a little bit of the wrong time.” 

For members of the 24 team, however, the 1995 championship will always be special for a myriad of reasons, specifically in being the first team to break through for Hendrick Motorsports, which has gone on to claim 14 Cup Series crowns in 30-plus seasons. 

But without a doubt, besting Earnhardt in his prime added to the significance, a feeling that has only grown as the years have gone by. 

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“We all had huge respect for Earnhardt and that’s what made winning against him that much more intense, and I would’ve never bet it was going to flip the script the way it did," added Brian Whitesell, then an engineer on the 24 team. "I’m certain in frustrated Dale at that time.

"Competing with Earnhardt when he was at his peak, we took a lot of pride in being competitive with him. The clear focus was on him. As you targeted each week, you knew that if you could beat him, you were doing well." 

In much the same way that Earnhardt's career was to Petty's, Gordon's will always be measured against Earnhardt's. By the time Gordon put a bow on full-time driving at the end of the 2014 season, he'd amassed 93 victories, third on the all-time list behind only Petty (200) and David Pearson (105). Earnhardt remains eighth with 76. 

Gordon never equaled Earnhardt in terms of titles, winning four in his career. And beyond that, well, there is an assortment of numbers to make the case for either side. It's the auto racing equivalent of LeBron James versus Michael Jordan, in terms of NASCAR superiority in the modern era with Jimmie Johnson shoving his way into the conversation a little later in the 2010s. 

At Phoenix Raceway in 2007, Gordon finally matched Earnhardt on the all-time wins list, flying a No. 3 flag out of his driver's window during the celebration. In speaking to HendrickMotorsports.com about that race in a story that ran in December of 2024, Gordon said: 

“When I came into NASCAR, Dale was this unattainable god. He just seemed to be bigger than the sport,” Gordon said. “He had his fan base and his success, and he was a seven-time champion – it was like, I couldn’t even believe I was on the same track as him, let alone competing against him. I go from, ‘Oh my god, this guy is a legend’ and three years later, I’m competing against him and winning a championship.

“Obviously, things were happening at a pretty rapid pace as we were stacking up these wins. I never dreamed to ever even get there and then we get close to it, we lose Dale and then we tie him and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this just happened.'

“I was emotional as well. We felt like the only way to have that win done right was to pay tribute to him. It was very cool, carrying that flag."

The gesture didn't come without controversy, as fans fired debris from the stands as Gordon made his victory lap. It only further illustrated that the vitriol between Gordon and Earnhardt was mostly reserved for their respective fanbases, and the debates and disdain were much more palpable in the grandstands than it ever was in the garage or on pit road. 

With NASCAR reaching new peaks of popularity right along with Gordon's rise to fame, his rainbow-colored No. 24 Chevrolet battling with Earnhardt's black No. 3 remains one of the most endearing images in the history of the sport. Bring up NASCAR to race fans, especially those of a certain age demographic, and those images are the first to be conjured. 

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A rivalry? By Webster's definition, Jeff Gordon vs. Dale Earnhardt was, without a doubt. 

But two things can be true at once. And while the on-track battles and contrasting personalities of the two divided and polarized the ever-growing crowds at NASCAR events, their rivalry was only mutually beneficial for themselves and the sport as a whole. 

And by all accounts, Earnhardt was savvy enough to realize it, even if Gordon and others necessarily didn't at the time. 

“I never felt like if Dale was alive today that he would say it was a bad rivalry," Kelley summarized. "Dale knew the rivalry helped the sport. It helped him too: his T-shirt sales, his fanbase. He wasn’t against Jeff having a big fanbase but he was going to let that persona out into the fanbase. In a good way, it fueled the rivalry … I never felt like it was adversarial.”