Among the NASCAR speedways across America, Atlanta Motor Speedway holds a special place in Jeff Gordon’s heart.
It was at AMS in the spring of 1992 that he first caught the eye of Rick Hendrick, who eventually lured him from Ford Motor Company and Bill Davis Racing to his current No. 24 Chevrolet team.
In that race, Gordon started from the pole and despite racing against some of the top stars of that era, led the most laps and scored his first major NASCAR victory. Fittingly it also was in the Atlanta area that Gordon got his first top-five finish in NASCAR, a runner-up at Lanier Speedway in 1991.
“It was a big one,” Gordon said of his Atlanta win in the ’92 race for the series now known as Xfinity. “Not only was it my first win in NASCAR, but there were no slouches that I was racing against that day.
“If I remember correctly it was Mark Martin, Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Sr., three guys that I had to battle with to win that race, not to mention some other Cup drivers as well as Busch Grand National drivers at the time.
“That was a big moment.”
Gordon’s long-time Sprint Cup car owner Hendrick watched that race and soon offered Gordon a driving job, which led to a tough decision for Gordon, as Davis was putting a lot of effort into Gordon’s team at that point.
“Bill Davis Racing had really brought up their game as far as their race cars and primarily the horsepower under the hood,” Gordon said. “This was the first chance that we had to really showcase that that year. We really struggled on the bigger tracks the year before that. …
“I know there was a lot of controversy with me and Ford and Bill (Davis) moving forward, not being with Bill. I can easily say now that it was the right decision to go with Hendrick Motorsports, and I can honestly say that as grateful as I was for Bill and Ford at that time, my life and my career would not be the same if Rick Hendrick hadn’t been calling me after that race.”
Gordon also remembers well the fall race at AMS that same season, when he made his first Cup start, in a Hendrick car, in the same race that was Richard Petty’s final one as a driver.
“I will never forget that driver’s meeting,” Gordon said. “For it to be my first one in Cup and Richard’s (Petty) last one and the faces that were in there beyond just the drivers was pretty impressive.
“I still have that money clip that Richard handed out that day with my starting position. I wasn’t that proud at the moment because we started 21st, but I will remember that forever.”
In the years since, Gordon has won 92 Cup races, third on the all-time list behind Petty and David Pearson. Five of those came at AMS, the first in the spring of 1995 and the most recent coming in 2011.
Gordon has been present for major changes in NASCAR and the Atlanta track. He started his career on the old true-oval layout and will end his full-time AMS participation on the current quad-oval. He said he liked the original track and the current one.
“I loved the configuration that I started with here,” he said. “Then they redid it with the pavement, and it was tough to get used to get used to that new configuration with the pace and the grip level, so I had to change and adapt to that.
“I really like how it started to wear out to get to where it is today. This type of track I really love.”
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