The screams said it all.
“We’re going to Homestead!” Jeff Gordon yelled both over his radio upon taking the checkered flag and in Victory Lane as he continued to jump around the Martinsville frontstretch.
It was his ninth time celebrating in that very spot, but his first this season. A win that for the longest time didn’t seem would ever come. More importantly, as Gordon emphatically noted, it locks him into the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
If Gordon’s emotion weren’t enough to get you going, the fans made sure to play their part. Repeated chants of “Homestead! Homestead! Homestead!” broke out across the night as Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports team continued with their post-race celebration and customary hat dance.
His fairytale ending suddenly doesn’t seem so unrealistic.
Since January, when Gordon announced he would be retiring, collectively as a group – fans, drivers, and media – there’s been the hope of seeing him go out as the champion.
That hope has dominated headlines, talk radio and social media timelines. But it’s hard for it not to because Gordon is now the sports story we all love – an athlete fighting to go out on top.
This is Derek Jeter with the game winning hit in his last appearance at Yankee Stadium. It’s Jerome Bettis leaving the game of football as a Super Bowl champion. Or Michael Jordan, the first time he retired, after the NBA Finals.
For Gordon, each weekend he enters the media center of whichever racetrack the series is competing and talks about how he’d like his career to end. He answers the same questions over and over. Can this team win the championship? How emotional would it be to win the championship in your last season?
And now, let it sink in.
Let what we’ve talked about for 33 races, nearly 10 months of racing sink in because it’s now very much reality. Jeff Gordon could potentially win that elusive fifth championship. Even better, Jeff Gordon could win that elusive fifth championship in his final season.
“Why can’t we win at Homestead? That’s what I say,” Gordon replied when asked if his team should be feared now. “I think a lot of people didn’t think we could do this, and we have. There’s no reason why we can’t do it there as well.”
It’s OK to get chills.
There have been some, including yours truly, who have made it known this 24 team is not the same we saw a year ago. Gordon was arguably the best driver in the Sprint Cup Series in 2014 from start to finish. Kevin Harvick might have taken home the championship, with Gordon not even making it to Homestead, but Gordon was always the favorite and led the regular season point standings.
This year, Gordon went under the radar. He had fight for a Chase spot. Getting to Victory Lane became the wish of his fans. It wasn’t long before the tune went from Gordon was going to win the championship in his final year to let’s just hope he wins at least one more race.
Sunday night Gordon admitted his AARP team was getting their butts kicked at the start of the season. The performance was nowhere near where it should have been. Then the Chase came, and it was evident from the first race in Chicago they were ready to rise to the occasion.
Even still, Gordon has not been the fastest car, and often should have finished worse than he did. But in a format built on survival, Gordon has succeeded. While his competition continues to self-destruct in one way or another, Gordon has climbed through the standings. He’s avoided the drama and self-inflicted wounds to remain championship eligible.
Suddenly, Gordon was telling himself if he got to Martinsville he had a shot. Not long after that many others began to share the same thought. Sunday he proved to all of us his confidence had been spot on. Sunday he showed everyone it’s not yet time to give up on adding a new chapter to the book of great sports moments.
Said Gordon, “I absolutely think that we’re just as capable as anybody else that’s going to be in that final four.”