Jeff Gordon matches NASCAR record at Atlanta | Hendrick Motorsports, 40 wins in 40 days

Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a 40-part series highlighting 40 of the greatest wins in the history of Hendrick Motorsports to finish its 40th anniversary season. A new installment will be released each day from Nov. 22, 2024 through New Year’s Eve. Votes were taken from Hendrick Motorsports employees as well as representatives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Racing Insights with all unanimous selections being ushered in automatically. The remaining wins were deliberated and decided upon by a small panel.  

CONCORD, N.C. - By the time the NASCAR Cup Series headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the 1998 season finale, the battle for the points title had long been decided. 

But for Jeff Gordon, crew chief Ray Evernham and the No. 24 team, the fact that their third title in four years was already in hand meant nothing in terms of motivation on the evening of Nov. 8. 

The 1998 season wasn't about breaking through, that had been done with the team's first championship in 1995. And it wasn't about affirmation, that box had been checked with a second in 1997. 

No, 1998 was about domination and nothing short would suffice. 

“We just wanted to win every week,” Evernham said via phone interview. “Jeff and I had talked about it. In ’95 we fell off at the end of the championship and barely won. In ’97 we damn near lost it.

“We said, ‘No more.’ Let’s go out and let them know just how good we are and in ’98, we just got on that roll. We wanted to be that pro football team where we didn’t care what the score was, we were just going to try and score on every possession and continue to bury you. We wanted to just go out showing everybody they couldn’t even compete with us.” 

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And that season, nobody could. 

Gordon, Evernham and company turned in arguably the most dominant season in NASCAR's modern era (1972-present). By season's end, Gordon had scored 26 top-five finishes in 33 races including a stretch of 17 in a row, led 1,785 laps and was clear of second-place Mark Martin by 364 points. All Martin had done that year was win seven races of his own. 

But the No. 24 squad was in a stratosphere to itself and it entered Atlanta with a chance to make even more history along with a final, emphatic closing statement. A victory would match Richard Petty's modern-era, single-season record with 13. 

Was the team aware? Evernham and Gordon agreed they most likely were but couldn't recall. At the time, both were reaching and digging for every square inch and as a result, found themselves miles ahead of anyone else. 

“We were definitely starting to look at records and our place in history because we were accomplishing a lot and wins were coming pretty often,” Gordon said earlier this week. “We were on a pretty impressive championship run as well with three of the four years."

“It’s an incredible feeling because we knew when those gates flipped down at 6 in the morning in the garage area and the cars rolled out, we knew (we were the car to beat) but it was more important that the other teams knew it and it would beat those guys down,” Evernham added. “My guys would hustle to get the car off the truck first. We wanted to get to inspection first. We would hammer the competition to where they’d be giving up, knowing they were racing for second.” 

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But while it may have been incredible for the Rainbow Warriors, for those trying to figure out a way to close the gap, the times weren't quite as grand. 

That included Larry McReynolds, long-time crew chief and Fox NASCAR analyst since 2001. At the time, McReynolds was sitting atop the pit box for Dale Earnhardt and he said the speed of Gordon during the team's peak had the entire garage searching for answers.  

“We didn’t have electronic scoring back then, in practice the only way we knew who was fast in single-car runs or who had the best long run car, you had to have someone clocking cars,” McReynolds explained. “Every week, I’d have guys clocking cars and a lot of times, it would be my truck driver. I’d send him out to clock some cars in practice but I’d tell him, ‘Whatever you do, make sure you clock that 24 car because he’s going to be the one we’re going to have to figure out how to beat.'”

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However, heading into the final race of 1998, several factors seemed to be working against Gordon. 

First came a lackluster qualifying effort, with the No. 24 team mired with the 21st starting spot. Then there was Mother Nature, which delayed the start of the event for 49 minutes due to rain and would continue to plague the area throughout the day. Two red flags waved for weather, necessitating the first night race in Atlanta Motor Speedway history. In the end, a race originally scheduled for a 12:40 p.m. green flag didn't end until 11:07 and that included the event being shortened to 221 laps. 

But seemingly nothing could derail the team's momentum and rain could only delay the inevitable. Gordon began his march to the front immediately and he'd go on to lead 113 laps. 

"It just seemed like there were races we were probably a third- or fourth-place car and we were winning," Gordon said. "And then there were days when we were dominating and we were winning. There were very few races that got away from us and when you’re on that kind of streak and a run, you go to every race thinking, ‘We can win this one too.’” 

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Even with the speed Gordon and company had, it was a tall task as the field lined up for the last restart with 17 laps to go. Gordon had come into the pits with the lead but restarted sixth after taking four tires while several chose to take right sides only. Compounding matters, Dale Jarrett passed Gordon a lap later, using Dick Trickle as a pick in the outside lane. 

From there, Jarrett knifed through the field in surging to the lead but Gordon stayed in his tire tracks, setting a final showdown between the two with the manufacturer's championship also hanging in the balance. A win by Jarrett would give the title to Ford while a Gordon victory would secure Chevrolet the season's bragging rights. 

But as did nearly everything else in 1998, things fell the way of the 24. Once Jarrett and Gordon had cleared the field, the conclusion felt inevitable. Gordon ran Jarrett down and hugging the white line at the bottom of the race track, drove under and around as the two exited turn four coming to six to go. From there, Gordon was more than familiar with the path to victory lane. 

The No. 24 had punctuated a legendary 1998 season the only way that seemed fitting, with a record-tying trip to victory lane. 

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“There’s always this thing about the modern era, all you can do is try to accomplish the top of the mountain in the modern era because that’s the one we’re living in,” Gordon said. “When they say, ‘Richard Petty has that,’ you’re like, ‘Well, I might not be able to get to 200 (wins) or I might not be able to get to seven (championships), but I can get to 13.” 

But beyond the confines of that individual season, the mid-to-late 1990s is a span that will forever be cemented alongside the greatest runs in sports. 

Consider, Gordon won both the 1997 DAYTONA 500 and the 1999 DAYTONA 500 with Evernham on top of the pit box. Those races included, there were 66 races between the two events. Gordon won 24 of them and finished in the top five 49 times. 

“Nobody gets a run like that forever, you just don’t,” Evernham said. “I believe when you have that combination, you run as hard as you can because you know someday, it’s going to end.”

And to Evernham's point, nothing lasts forever. While the success was piling up, so was the pressure. On Sept. 29, 1999, after five more victories but a disappointing effort in terms of points, Evernham was let out of his contract at Hendrick Motorsports. 

“I was fried by ’99," Evernham revealed. "The pressure of knowing I had the best driver, the best owner, the best equipment, the best team … I tell everyone, you’re nothing but the conductor, you can’t really play the music but if somebody misses a note, it’s your fault. When we would win races, I’d be so drained and just thankful I hadn’t screwed it up.” 

Though the two went their separate ways, they'll forever be linked by the laundry list of accomplishments they were able to pile up. Certainly, their three championships, three of the first four in Hendrick Motorsports history, were an integral part in the organization taking another giant leap toward the dominant force it's become in the years since. 

“I don’t think it’s talked about enough,” McReynolds concluded. “One, the sport was becoming pretty competitive. In the 80s, no matter where we went, no matter what track we went to, you could count on two hands with several fingers leftover as to who was going to win the race. In the 90s, that was far from the case.”

“To win double-digit races, I don’t care what era we’re talking about, I don’t think it’s celebrated enough because it’s so hard to do. To me, to win a Cup Series race is one of the hardest things to do in all of motor sports.

“If you get into the kind of numbers that Jeff Gordon was doing, and it didn’t matter if it was at superspeedways, short tracks, intermediate tracks, road courses – when you look at all those wins coming at all types of race tracks, it’s amazing.”