Gordon to drive endurance race

NASCAR star treats Rolex 24 practice like he’s ‘a rookie.’

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — Jeff Gordon doesn’t just pay attention to details.

He’s a details hound — meticulous, precise — even for a guy who’s retired.

“I never said I was retiring,” Gordon said.

That was a big detail to remember Friday as Gordon drove a new Cadillac prototype on a sun-drenched Daytona International Speedway.

He turned laps on the road course in preparation for the Rolex 24, the twice-around-the-clock pinnacle of American sports car racing. The race isn’t until Jan. 28-29, but Gordon needs all of the track time he can get right now.

“I treat this as if I am a rookie,” said the 45-yearold Gordon.

His “rookie” stripes are obscured by his numbers.

Before he stopped racing full-time after the 2015 NASCAR season, Gordon won 93 races and three Daytona 500s. Combined with his four championships, Gordon’s résumé makes him a surefire NASCAR Hall of Famer the first year he’s eligible.

But Gordon knows that one superlative is lacking from his racing career — a Rolex 24 victory. His only Rolex start came in 2007, when he finished third overall as a member of Wayne Taylor Racing. Ten years later, he’s back with Taylor, co-driving the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R with Max Angelelli and Taylor’s sons, Ricky and Jordan.

And it’s not a joyride for Gordon, who drove eight NASCAR races last season as a replacement for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he recovered from a concussion.

“I’m pushing myself to be as strong as I can possibly be,” Gordon said. “I never like to be the weak link in an organization or a team, and I have three phenomenal drivers who are going to push me. I’m enjoying it very much and having fun, but this is a race I’d like to win.”

That presents a special challenge for Gordon, who quickly learned last November that IMSA SportsCar Championship racing isn’t easy. When he first tested the new Cadillac at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, he was stunned by the G-forces, the acceleration, the braking.

Gordon knew he had to step up his fitness to meet the challenge, so he’s doing sessions with a personal trainer over the internet two or three times a week. Every detail matters. “You can see why he’s found success, because he focuses on every aspect of what goes in the race,” said Jordan Taylor, one of the IMSA’s top young drivers and 20 years Gordon’s junior. “He’s extremely humble. He came in with questions. We were expecting to ask HIM questions for ideas and stuff, which we do, but he was asking us straightaway what to expect in our world of sports car racing, how to work traffic, how to work cold tires, cold brakes, restarts.

“Even today, we were on pit road and he was asking questions about different cars and what to expect.”

Jeff Gordon is a codriver for Wayne Taylor Racing.