Gordon gets Hall of Fame welcome

No. 24 exhibit wows retiring star; race delayed until today.

Jeff Gordon came to North Carolina in 1990 to participate in the Buck Baker Racing School at Rockingham. He took a sightseeing break at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Gordon’s only firsthand knowledge of a superspeedway was Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he’d heard so much about Charlotte that he just had to take a look.

“I was so impressed driving by this place,” Gordon recalled. “There are just not many speedways that have the look of this one from the road. It was something really cool to see.”

Four years later, Gordon got the first win of his Cup career at Charlotte. It launched a career that includes 92 victories and four series titles.

Gordon will make his final start at Charlotte this afternoon in a race that was delayed from Saturday night by rain. He’s retiring next month.

Most of the tracks have honored Gordon, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte unveiled a Gordon exhibit this week.

“It’s hard to believe, 25 years later or more, that now I come driving into the track and here’s this huge sign with my name on it and the No. 24,” Gordon said. “The Hall of Fame, it was really special to see all the cars that I had a chance to drive over the years.

“There’s always something very special about Charlotte and about this racetrack. I hope this final ride here will do some- thing special as well.”

Xfinity: Austin Dillon avoided fireworks before the race and coasted to victory Friday night at Charlotte, leading 61 of 200 laps in a Chevrolet in beating Erik Jones by 2.8 seconds. Dillon’s fire suit was slightly singed and he said his buttocks hurt a bit when fireworks from a celebration landed near his back as he leaned on his car. “I don’t know if it was a sign from God or what — but he got me going with a firework in the butt,” Dillon joked.

Formula One: Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg took the pole position for today’s Russian Grand Prix at Sochi, clocking 1 minute, 37.113 seconds midway through the final qualifying session Saturday. He was more than three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton has a 48-point lead on Rosberg with five races left. The next stop is the U.S. Grand Prix on Oct. 25 in Austin, Texas.

IVAN SEKRETAREV / ASSOCIATED PRESS Course marshals remove the car that Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr. crashed during practice Saturday for the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. Sainz skipped qualifying and was taken to a hospital as a precaution.