DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (CNN/SI) -- Jeff Gordon knows it. A lot of NASCAR fans love to loathe him.
When he crashes, fans rejoice -- as they did last June when Gordon's No. 24 met the wall during a race in Richmond, Va.. When he wins, fans cringe -- as they did 13 times last year alone. Anti-Gordon signs are displayed almost as prevalent at race tracks as the motor homes themselves.
And Gordon is loving every minute of it.
"When you pull into victory lane," Gordon says confidently with a hint of irreverence in his voice, "it makes you feel good that you just ruined their day."
Gordon is the perfect marriage of grease and glamour -- a menace on the track and a Madison Avenue windfall. Maybe that's why, at age 27, he's much more devil than darling. Or maybe it's just jealousy based on Gordon's robotic dominance of NASCAR.
Just listen to the fans.
"He just seems to be the golden boy all the time."
Don't expect an apology from Gordon, though. Or his opponents.
While largely unspoken, there is a palpable sense of animosity between Gordon and some of his opponents. On the track, that often translates to drivers working together and ganging up on Gordon in their quest to keep him out of victory lane.
"I'm sure I'm probably a marked man," said Gordon, who became only the sixth driver to win the Daytona 500 from the pole position. "But I don't think actually trying to take us out you know is what's in the back of their minds. It's just, how can we beat them? How can we outrun those guys?"
Under the Rainbow: Last season Gordon won $9.3 million. CNN/SI |
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Outrunning Gordon is something few drivers have accomplished in the last three years. In that span, Gordon has won 33 times in just 96 races -- a whopping .343 winning percentage -- and has won the last two Winston Cup championships.
In Sunday's 43-car Daytona 500, 42 cars chased Gordon. And in the end, Gordon was in Victory Lane for the 43rd time in his young career.
"The way Gordon's going and running," said Rusty Wallace, who has 48 career wins himself, "if somebody just pops up and says, 'Hey, I'm going to win the championship,' they look at you like you've got three heads."
The pot of gold for the Rainbow Warriors continued to fill last season, when Gordon won $9.3 million. In his NASCAR career, which started in 1992, he has earned more than $26 million.
On Sunday, he won another $2,172,246.
Some say this year's quest for a three-peat is a mere formality. Others claim his success is getting boring.
"I'm certainly not bored," Gordon said. "I know I can't win every race.
"Yeah, I think that if any one person wins too much that it takes a little bit of the excitement away. And you know, basically two guys dominated the sport last year you know, but I think we're going to see a whole new ball game this year."
Or will it. At 27, Gordon already is just the seventh driver to win more than one Daytona 500s. He has three more victories now than Richard Petty did when he was 28.
"There's going to be somebody that's going to come and say, 'Hey, Jeff Gordon's nothing.,'" said Ernie Irvan, who will start from 31st spot Sunday. "But I'm not so sure there's somebody there like that right now."
Those 21st century threats to Gordon's supremacy might be found in the family rooms of some of Gordon's current rivals. NASCAR's future stars include the sons of Kyle Petty, Bobby Hamilton, Dale Jarrett and defending 500 champion Dale Earnhardt.
But for a lot of the NASCAR fans, those days can't come soon enough.
