Editor’s note: This is the seventh and final installment in a 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. - In holding off Dale Earnhardt down the stretch and claiming the 1995 NASCAR Cup Series championship, denying the Intimidator his eighth along the way, Jeff Gordon spoiled what was supposed to be a history-making year for one of the stalwarts of the sport.
But as the saying goes, there's no use crying over spilled milk. Or spoiled milk.
And speaking of which, what kind of milk was it?
“I don’t know but it wasn’t almond milk, I’ll tell you that.”
Gordon deadpans the sentence while in his office on the campus of Hendrick Motorsports, now 30 years clear of producing one of the more memorable NASCAR postseason banquet memories of all time.
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Gordon, a target of Earnhardt's subtle media jabs and mental warfare, came on stage to accept the championship but before closing the book on the season, came up with a shot of his own ... with a little help and some gentle nudging.
Earnhardt had made reference to Gordon's youth throughout the 1995 season and prior, including joking that Gordon drank milk after wins instead of alcohol. And with a hectic interview schedule and coming off a stressful and pressure-packed run to a title, Gordon admitted he was gassed by the time the banquet in New York City came around.
“Obviously, it was my first experience being in New York and R.J. Reynolds being the season sponsor, I was just going off of their lead of how they crowned a champion. Them and NASCAR, they just made that week so special,” Gordon told HendrickMotorsports.com. “I was absolutely exhausted by the time the banquet came."
But in the frenzy that surrounded him, he was offered an idea.
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 6: Winning the War
So, as Gordon was opening his speech, he held up a champagne glass that was promptly filled, not with bubbly, but milk. He toasted to Earnhardt, who stood, grinned and raised his glass as well.
“That week, after all that had happened and the group I was surrounded by doing all the media during the week, they heard me answering a lot of questions about Earnhardt throughout the year, really saying and doing things in the media and they were saying, ‘You’re the man now. You’re the champion. This is your opportunity. You’re going to be the last one to speak on that stage, let’s do something,'" Gordon recalled. "And I always wanted to be respectful. I had to be pushed to do it. I didn’t really want to do it; it wasn’t my style but looking back on it I’m glad I got talked into doing it and his reaction made it all worthwhile.”
Three decades later, the moment, forever etched in NASCAR lore, can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. First, it forever cemented the two and the friendly rivalry they shared. Second, in retrospect, it finalized a passing-of-the-torch season with Gordon set to embark on one of the most dominant eras in the history of the sport.
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 5: Gordon vs. Earnhardt
And though the gesture was good-natured as far as the two parties involved were concerned, it only widened the chasm between both fan bases. As more and more fans continued to walk through the turnstiles each week and national interest further ascended to new heights, the Gordon-Earnhardt rivalry served as a primary catalyst.
Glory days are always held in the highest regard by those who were there to live them. But biases aside, it was undeniably a special time in NASCAR and nearly all involved, many of whom were also in the sport in other eras, testified to that.
“I’ve said it before and I really believe I was involved in the sport in some of its greatest years,” said Terry Labonte, who would win the 1996 championship while driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet. “You can look back at some of the old replays of races and look at the crowds and it really was unbelievable. It was crazy. The racing was good, it was tough and it was fun and I think people just had more fun back then than they do today. I’m just thankful I had an opportunity to drive for Hendrick Motorsports and had the opportunity to win another championship.”
“It was the golden era. It’s where all of it culminated, all of Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr.’s vision came all together,” Mark Martin concluded. “One of the things I’ll remember is how hard it was to get in and out of those race tracks. It was such a freakin' challenge. If you were going to drive into a speedway on race day morning, you did it early. And that’s a testament to the fans and the turnout. It was just massive.”
Even those in Earnhardt's camp, who had come up short in the pursuit of passing Richard Petty for an eighth title, knew it too. That included Andy Petree, who sat atop the box for Earnhardt's last two championships (1993 and 1994) as well as the 1995 season.
“When you’re doing it, you don’t think about it. You’re supposed to go out and win, you’re supposed to do all of these things, and you don’t really sit back and think, ‘Man, that was cool,’” Petree said. “You sit back now and look at that stuff … At this point, I’m retired and I reflect and the 90s, really all of the 90s for me were a very special time. To see the sport growing at such an explosive rate really was special.”
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 4: Execution, evolution and some radio magic
From Champion to Dynasty
For most bosses, a successful year at the office may warrant a small bonus. Perhaps even a company lunch.
Rick Hendrick took his crew to New York City.
All of them. At least anyone employed at Hendrick Motorsports in 1995 that wanted to go.
Larry Zentmeyer was one of them. Zentmeyer started with the company in 1987 and has been with Hendrick Motorsports ever since, currently serving as a production supervisor.
“I remember going. We all caught the plane and all the women were in their formal dresses and all the guys were in tuxedos when we boarded the plane," Zentmeyer said. "They flew us straight to New York, shuttled us into the city and we stayed for as long as we could and then they shuttled us back and we flew back that night. It was a whirlwind.”
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 3: Championship Metal
In fact, that would be a good way to describe the 1995 season and that time period. The early portion of the 1990s was a slow build, the back half was an explosion and whether the company's brethren knew it or not, the rocket ride had just begun.
“I don’t remember Rick coming in and giving any motivational speeches or anything. It was just all an evolution and then Jeff came along," Zentmeyer recalled. "He probably should’ve won a couple races in ’93 but he didn’t. Then he knocked the door down in ’94 and he was just lights out in ’95. He was just on it.
“The biggest thing was to prove that you could do it. Not that we didn’t have confidence but just being able to do it and then being able to do it four years in a row.”
Indeed, as special as the 1995 season was, the success could've ended with that toasting of milk. After all, NASCAR is littered with one-hit wonders and after finishing the 1995 season strong, Earnhardt would be right back atop any list of contenders heading into 1996.
But within the organization, most believed that Gordon's first championship was the tip of the iceberg. Chad Knaus, who went on to win seven championships as a crew chief with Jimmie Johnson, served as a tire changer and fabricator on the No. 24 team in 1995.
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 2: Championship Material
He knew the team's approach to building cars and executing races set it apart from its contemporaries. And that uniqueness, he believed, was one of its greatest strengths.
"We also just fundamentally were evolving our approach to race cars," Knaus told HendrickMotorsports.com. "The way NASCAR cars were at that time, they were big, they were heavy, they were bulky and I was coming from late models in the Midwest, (crew chief) Ray (Evernham) was coming from modifieds in the northeast and a lot of the other guys were maybe not necessarily from what you would call a NASCAR norm. Our thought process was much lighter, much more nimble, much less, 'OK build it and race it all year long' to, 'How can we get and extract performance out of these race cars and develop a weekly routine and maintenance schedule to make sure we don’t have problems.' And that’s how we were going down the path.
"We were very fortunate to have a very lengthy rope from Mr. H and Ray was not at all afraid to push the rules and the boundaries or any of that and we did. We went out there and we were aggressive with it."
Many of those same principles have continued to guide the organization through the years with unprecedented prosperity following right along with them. Gordon's run to a championship in 1995 was far from a fluke or some kind of blip on the radar.
It became the standard.
FROM WINNER TO CHAMPION, PART 1: 'One Hot Night'
Labonte followed with his second career championship in '96 with Gordon scoring two more in 1997 and 1998 before winning a fourth in 2001. Then came Johnson, who ripped off an unheard-of five straight championships from 2006-2010 before tying Earnhardt and Richard Petty with his sixth (2013) and seventh (2016). Still, no other driver has ever won more than two titles in a row.
Among the current crop of drivers, Chase Elliott (2020) and Kyle Larson (2021) have kept the ball rolling with championships of their own and currently, heading into the Chicago Street Course just past the halfway mark of the 2025 season, Hendrick Motorsports drivers (William Byron, Elliott and Larson, respectively) hold the first, second and third spots in the regular season points standings.
"There’s a lot of pride in what we’ve been able to do and continue to grow the company and business is what’s so nice," said Brian Whitesell, an engineer on the 1995 No. 24 team who now serves as vice president of manufacturing at Hendrick Motorsports. "We just continue to grow this thing and really it’s been the same theme since we’ve all been here: constant growth and constant improvement. The names change but Mr. Hendrick’s push and consistency with his effort over all those years, that’s what kept me here.
"That pressure to win that first one, that was by far the most significant event, being able to go in there and close the deal and get the first one for Mr. H and Jeff and with how hard it was … I certainly take a lot of pride in that and what we were able to build through those years."
While Gordon and the No. 24 team checked off a major box on Evernham's checklist with its 1995 championship, the one that read, "From Winner to Champion," there was still one left vacant. At the bottom of the board, the last step of the journey remained: "From Champion to Dynasty."
But the thing about sports dynasties, they're difficult to define. Certainly, somewhere over the four-year period from 1995-1998, the No. 24 team cleared that final hurdle. With three championships ('95, '97 and '98), 40 wins, a Winston Million, along with the fame and attention that came with that, few if anyone would blink if the term "dynasty" was used to describe that run.
As for Hendrick Motorsports, it's a little more difficult to pinpoint. At the very least, the organization is the standard bearer in the NASCAR Cup Series, winning 14 titles in a 27-season span (1995-2021) and leading in nearly every major statistical category including wins (317), poles (258), top five finishes (1,305), top 10s (2,228) and laps led (84,225). With Byron's victory in the 2025 DAYTONA 500, the organization is now the leader in victories in every crown jewel event as well with 10 in the Great American Race, 12 Coca-Cola 600s, 11 Brickyard 400s and 12 Southern 500s.
RELATED: The 1995 NASCAR Cup Series season in images
For his part, Gordon's 17 crown jewel wins remain the most all time by four (Bobby Allison, 13) and that includes victories at Talladega prior to 1994, when the Brickyard 400 replaced it as the fourth grand slam event. In terms of modern crown jewel races, only Gordon, Johnson, Earnhardt and Kevin Harvick have won all four in their careers.
As Gordon was quick to point out in interviews for this series, though Hendrick Motorsports hadn't quite broken through for a championship prior to 1995, it had already experienced success. A Hendrick Motorsports driver went to victory lane 38 times prior to 1995 including at least once in all four crown jewel races.
But without question, a switch flipped in 1995. In part, it was the maturation of the 24 team and Gordon as a driver. Being out in front of the competition with the new Chevy Monte Carlo was also quite the advantage. And of course, there's something to be said about a decade's worth of foundation building and tweaking by Hendrick and the organization's leaders coming to a head as well.
In reality, it was a combination of those factors, coinciding with Gordon's sudden stardom and the peaking popularity of Earnhardt and NASCAR that forever painted images of that season onto the walls of memory for so many race fans.
RELATED: Jeff Gordon reunited with 1995 NASCAR Cup Series trophies
And while nostalgia prompts us all too often to look back, Hendrick Motorsports never has.
At least not in its pursuit for more.
“That was a season that established this company as a championship-caliber race team. Much like any other sports – football, baseball, basketball – you always look back and think, 'That team has been a world champion at something,'" said Jeff Andrews, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager. "To me, at the time, I think there would’ve been a lot of us satisfied to know, ‘Hey, I was part of a NASCAR Cup Series championship team.’ But boy, when you get one, then you get two, then you get three – and success brings sponsors and partners and attracts good people – all those things are things you have to have to build this place.
“You could say two things: It took some core pillars and obviously, Rick Hendrick and Randy Dorton, Ken Howes, Jeff Turner, those people were the foundation of this company. Those were the guys that said, 'We’re going to build this as a championship-caliber organization, not just a race team.' They made the difference to me.
“So, when that started bearing fruit, they were smart enough and had the foresight to say, ‘How do we get this across to all of our cars? How do we continue this for years and years?’ Because, if we hadn’t had that foundation laid the way they had it done in the early 90s and the late 80s, it would have been tough if not impossible to bring Ray Evernham and Jeff Gordon in here and have the success they had so quickly.”