Jeff Gordon Turns First Midget Laps In 25+ Years

first of all thank you for uh everybody showing up um obviously we are in the middle of the dirt track at the indianapolis motor speedway this sort of is the uh brainchild of tim's son brian uh we actually put on a little stunt here for tony stewart when he was retiring and we built a fake dirt track and brought brian and some other drivers in and so to celebrate tony's retirement we said let's bring tony's passion of short track racing to the track he's most passionate about the indianapolis motor speedway susie elliott and i on the other hand had already started thinking about could we someday have a real permanent dirt track here and we had a great night that night and uh brian had some great words of wisdom for us that kept us from racing that evening and really focusing on getting a racetrack built and we had our first race out here in 2018 again in 2019 obviously last year with the with the weather we weren't able to do it so this year august 18th and 19th we're going to have the bc39 powered by nos energy drink again that's on the wednesday and thursday following the brickyard but jeff's in town for another special moment tonight there's a throwback thursday night thunder event going on at indianapolis raceway park with midgets on the oval out there and jeff really helped develop and creating the popularity of thursday night thunder so having him back for that worked out well tim claussen called us with a crazy idea he said what if we get jeff to come back to the speedway the place where he's won five times in the brickyard 400 and put him in a a place where he won 12 races in his career brian won 38 so between brian claussen and jeff gordon they're 50 usac national wins and a and maybe we could bring back an old friend the 1990 car that jeff won the usag national champion and maybe was the way that really propelled him not just to a regional state stage or even a national stage but maybe an international and raleigh helmling who owned the car at the time and kept the car jeff and i were just talking how cool it is that the history of this car one of the most iconic midgets in usac national history not just because jeff gordon drive it joe because of the effort of raleigh local businessman who just loves short track racing so having them together decided not to run your car because we didn't want to put it in in the fence or do something silly thanks so jeff hasn't been in a in 25 years or so at least i immediately go to doug and raleigh and i just think back of you know my career um how important indiana was to me getting the chance to drive you know this car right here for raleigh uh of course it started with with uh a little bit earlier car and we just immediately hit it off and had success the thing tonight the thursday night vendor i feel like that's really what launched my career but what i always dreamed about was racing at the indianapolis motor speedway and while my career went down south for nascar nothing made me happier than 1994 when i got a chance to come here and compete in the brickyard 400. so i think of you know what indianapolis motor speedway has meant to my life um i grew up just a massive fan of the indy 500 and rick mears and aj foyt and those guys who are my heroes um but i've also had some of the most special moments as a driver here at this racetrack doug mitchell driving the race cars uh uh and and winning five times but we also did another really cool event that kind of reminds me of this where we did the swap with juan pablo montoya where he drove my stock car and i drove the formula one car and so i'm equally as excited about this opportunity to get back these cars have changed by the way good bid more power um more grip and this little boring track i'm super excited a little nervous i'll be honest too um so i just i can't think i mean what you guys of all you know raleigh what you meant to my career doug with the speedway and the folks your staff have meant to to me over the years as well as what you had to do to pull this together today and then this guy right here just the friendship i mean it's uh you know our families grew up together at the racetrack and and just you know to see us connect after all these years this is something that we've never done before but we've talked about it and um and then you know to do it for a great cause right to uh you know for for driven to save lives organ doning and the bc39 which has become you know one of the premier events especially here in indiana so i hope i don't embarrass myself uh and and i don't plan to so i'm gonna take it at my own pace and we'll see where it goes but uh thank you guys for for being here and all i want to say hi to my mom and dad too they this has been a great trip for them to join me on uh who really got it all started [Music] um [Music] [Music] um [Music] um that's amazing just how i mean yeah steering's quick you know for me not being used to that down the straightaway sometimes not getting at the point it's just amazing how reactive and just how you can almost put it wherever you want you'd like to feel it come back i mean easy to drive from the standpoint of just points shoots hooks you know just the things you want to do so fun is it uh i mean did you get kind of that feel back a little bit all those years ago yeah but you know i didn't have anything to lean on to really yeah really cool but um um i would love to go a little more with the weather

Channel: FloRacing

Views: 77,895

Rating: 4.9111748 out of 5

Keywords: Sprint Cars, sprint car racing, sprint car stream, sprint car broadcast, dirt track, dirt track stream, dirt track racing, motorsports, car racing, USAC, all star circuit of champions, world of outlaws, bristol dirt 2021, chase elliott, christopher bell, dirt racing live stream, eldora speedway, hunt the front, kyle larson, midget racing 2021, sprint car 2021, usac midget, usac sprint cars, wingless sprint, jeff gordon, jeff gordon racing, jeff gordon midget

Id: tjDge6FlHXU

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021