Jeff Gordon has “great learning experience” with Porsche Carrera Cup debut

All is right in the world again as Jeff Gordon strapped himself into the cockpit of a race car for the first time in five years, even if it appears to be a fun one-off for now. Gordon spent this weekend competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he finished twenty-second and sixteenth in two forty-minute races.

Gordon last raced competitively at the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where he won the overall, and that run had come over a year after ending his legendary NASCAR career. While mainly focusing on running Hendrick Motorsports as Vice Chairman, he found the opportunity to race again at IMS, where he won a record five times in NASCAR on the oval layout.

He drove the #24 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car with a pair of familiar faces supporting him in crew chief Ray Evernham and spotter Steve Barkdoll. Evernham won forty-seven races and three Cup Series championships as Gordon’s crew chief while Barkdoll helped Gordon begin his stock car career in 1990.

With no prior experience in such cars, Gordon was only twenty-eighth of thirty-five entries in practice followed by twenty-second in qualifying. He ran on the cusp of the top twenty in the first race on Saturday before placing twenty-second. Race #2 on Sunday proved to be a more successful run as he gained six positions to finish sixteenth, including passing Jeff Moser on the final lap.

Parker Thompson and Riley Dickinson won the two races.

“It got my heart going, that’s for sure,” said Gordon. “It’s been a really fun experience, but also a great learning experience. I’ve never (raced) a car anything like this before.”

Does the run mean Gordon has found the itch to race again? Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, though he has expressed interest in running a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway…