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During the Goody's Headache Powder 500 at Bristol, Tenn., in August, NASCAR fans actually cheered when Jeff Gordon slammed his race car into a wall. Such is the fate of those who are young, good-looking and successful beyond all imagination. For the second year in a row Gordon won 10 races, three fewer than Richard Petty's modern NASCAR record of 13 victories in a season. He took home $4.2 million in prize money and his second Winston Cup championship in three years. This dominance makes many people dislike him. But Gordon is also despised by many NASCAR purists because he represents the increasingly corporate face of the sport. His detractors feel that Gordon is far too wholesome and clean-cut—he has appeared in an ad for milk—and a far cry from the old days when racers shilled for tobacco and motor oil companies. "He's 26, he's good-looking, he's got a beautiful wife and he's a millionaire," says Ray Evernham, his crew chief. "If he wasn't my best friend, I'd probably boo him too."
From Sports Illustrated: Photograph by George Tiedemann
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