PHOENIX — Jeff Gordon hasn’t participated in a competitive race since winning the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona, but he’ll come out of retirement for a one-off IMSA event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.
Gordon, 51, will drive in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America series on the IMS road course in two races. The series’ race weekends are doubleheaders, and the cars are spec vehicles built by Porsche and can only be raced in this league.
At Hendrick Motorsports’ shop in North Carolina, the team has an expansive inventory of racecars that no longer are used for its NASCAR program as the Cup Series utilizes the Next Gen car these days. It’s the first season of Next Gen car usage, so the previous generation of stock cars sometimes get sold to club tracks around the country.
One of the tracks HMS has sold its cars to is the Thermal Club in Southern California. When Gordon visited the facility, customers offered to let him drive their vehicles.
One of the cars that caught Gordon’s attention was the Porsche Carrera Cup car. The vehicle has to be raced, though, according to the contract that comes with purchasing it. Gordon agreed and recruited his former crew chief Ray Evernham, who was on his pit box for three of his championships, to partner with him for the event.
“Ray and I have been talking for years about it,” Gordon told The Circuit Journal. “I always knew that one day the timing would work out for us to get back together and do something fun. When this event came about for the IMSA race, I told Ray, ‘Hey, I think I found the project for us.’ He jumped right on board.
“We’re going to take it seriously like we always have, but we’re going to try to have fun. He’s basically put together the team. It’s going to be Hendrick Performance as the name of the team, but Ray’s going to operate that over the weekend.”
The series is made up of a combination of professional and amateur drivers. Gordon, however, will be in a class called the Invitational class but will drive the same type of car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, that the rest of the field will have.
The four-time NASCAR champion is no stranger to sports car racing or IMS. He won the Brickyard 400 on the oval five times in his career and tested Juan Pablo Montoya’s BMW Williams F1 car on the Grand Prix configuration in 2003. His only IMSA win came when he drove for Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac in the 24-hour Daytona race nearly six years ago.
Hendrick is building a stock car for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team is developing the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the Next Gen body for the French race as the Garage 56 entry, which is dedicated to showcasing automotive technology. It won’t compete for class wins in the event but provides NASCAR, Chevrolet, and Hendrick an opportunity to market themselves on an international stage.
“I went to Le Mans this year, and it was just such a spectacular event,” Gordon said. “There’s going to be a lot of pride from representing NASCAR and America and Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports in that iconic event. I’m looking forward to that just in general.”
So, could fans see the NASCAR Hall of Famer as one of the four drivers in the car next June?
“I would say it’s a possibility. I would say some of the background of this event I’m doing in Indianapolis is to see where I’m at on my skillset level in case Garage 56 does come along,” he said. “It’s going to be dictated so much by what drivers are available. … There are a lot of drivers lining up who want to be a part of that event. I’ll certainly throw my name in there. I would love to be a part of it. I’m going to be a part of it no matter if I’m driving or not because I’m just being involved with Hendrick Motorsports.”
Chad Knaus, the vice president of competition at Hendrick, says it may be a while until a lineup is announced. Jimmie Johnson is interested in driving, but his involvement is at the mercy of his schedule in the 2023 IndyCar Series season.
Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, NASCAR’s two most recent champions, both drive for Hendrick but trying to squeeze in Le Mans during the middle of a busy NASCAR season would make their candidacy unlikely. Elliott says he wouldn’t even want to participate at Le Mans unless he was competing in a class. Since the Garage 56 car is for demonstration purposes only, a trophy isn’t on the line for its drivers.
Mike Rockenfeller tested the Garage 56 car this week. He has a long list of achievements on his racing resumé, including two class wins at Le Mans, so perhaps he could be in play for seat time when the car races next year. The German also got his first taste of the Next Gen car earlier this month when he made his NASCAR Cup debut at Watkins Glen International.
“I don’t know if I’m the natural choice,” Gordon said. “I don’t think I am since I haven’t been racing competitively. It’s something that should be taken very seriously. It’s going to take a lot of prep. It’s going to take a lot of time to understand the track, the car, as well as the other series you’re going to be racing. … Obviously, we want to get as much publicity for NASCAR and Le Mans and Garage 56 with that program and what it represents. You want the right driver that can do that.”
For a full Q&A transcript of The Circuit Journal’s interview with Gordon, read below:
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for you. You’re racing at Indy for the IMSA race. How did that materialize for you?
“We have this program called Track Attack at Hendrick. It’s the Gen 6 cars we have an inventory of that we have been able to put together for track cars. We’ve put crate motors and different types of transmissions. It’s been incredible, and one of the tracks we’ve been selling a lot of these cars to is a place called Thermal Club out in Palm Springs. When I went out there, there were some of our customers who had some of these types of cars that they had in their garage and offered me to drive them. One of them was this Porsche Cup car. I was more interested to know about this car because what I’m doing for fun these days is driving all kinds of different sports cars or race cars like the Track Attack car. That’s where I get my fix on racing because I’m not racing anymore. One of the things about that car is that you have to be able to race it if you’re going to purchase that car for Porsche. So I agreed to do that. We’ll do one race at Indianapolis and see how that goes, and see if we’ll do another.”
Did you recruit Ray Evernham to be your crew chief for it?
“Yeah, Ray and I have been talking for years about it. He’s been asking me to drive ‘The Ghost.’ It’s a car that he built that’s a super cool throwback car if you look at the classic body style. But it’s a full-on racecar inside and out with the wings and how low the car is. So he’s been talking to me about that and some of the projects he has been working on. I always knew that one day the timing would work out for us to get back together and do something fun. When this event came about for the IMSA race, I told Ray, ‘Hey, I think I found the project for us.’ He jumped right on board. We’re going to take it seriously like we always have, but we’re going to try to have fun. He’s basically put together the team. It’s going to be Hendrick performance as the name of the team, but Ray’s going to operate that over the weekend.”
So is this your first competitive race since the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona?
“It is. I haven’t been in a competitive race since then. I have been in a lot of cars and driven laps, not so much on ovals but on these club tracks in the Track Attack car and road courses. I don’t know what to expect. I’m in a class of my own called the Invitational class. There are a lot of talented drivers who know those cars and the track better than I do. I’m certainly looking forward to the challenge.”
Do you set any expectations for this race, or do you go into like Kimi Raikkonen at Watkins Glen and are just there to have fun?
“That’s the mindset going into it. But once you start putting a clock on yourself, you’re going to push yourself to go harder and faster. You’ll see how other drivers get more speed out of the car, and it’s a spec car, so it should come down more to the driver in this series and what they’re getting out of the car. I’ve been prepping on iRacing, and we did one small test at a track near Charlotte. I’m not trying to go into it with any expectations.”
I’m not too familiar with this series in IMSA. Is it one driver?
“Yeah, so it’s a single-spec series. So basically, it’s all Porsche Carrera Cup cars. It has three different classes of Pro, Pro-Am, and Am, all competing in the same car altogether. In each class, there will be an overall podium and winner, and for each class too. I’m not competing for any of that other than the overall because I’m in the invitational class. They run this series about 10-12 races throughout the season at different locations.”
Ray owns a series that’s been popular for the last two years. You see where I’m going with this.
“I have no intentions of doing [the Superstar Racing Experience]. It’s been just when the right opportunity comes along, and this kind of fell on my lap. I wasn’t planning for it. It’d just be a nice car to add to my garage of cars that are track cars.”
So with Indy this week and the Garage 56 project coming, is Le Mans a possibility?
“I would say it’s a possibility. I would say some of the background of this event I’m doing in Indianapolis is to kind of see where I’m at on my skillset level in case Garage 56 does come along. It’s going to be dictated so much by what drivers are available, which ones kind of fit with Jim France, NASCAR, Hendrick, and Chevrolet’s grouping. There are a lot of drivers lining up who want to be a part of that event. I’ll certainly throw my name in there. I would love to be a part of it. I’m going to be a part of it no matter if I’m driving or not because I’m just being involved with Hendrick Motorsports. I went to Le Mans this year, and it was just such a spectacular event. There’s going to be a lot of pride in representing NASCAR and America and Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports in that iconic event.
“I’m looking forward to that just in general. But it’ll be hard to pick what drivers will be in it until we know schedules for next year.”
I know Chad Knaus has been to Le Mans a couple of times. Was that your first time at Le Mans?
“It was my first time ever at Le Mans.”
How many times have you been asked about doing Garage 56 since it was announced?
“(Laughs) A handful of times. I don’t know if I’m the natural choice. I don’t think that I am since I haven’t been racing competitively, but it’s also something that should be taken very seriously. It’s going to take a lot of prep. It’s going to take a lot of time to understand the track, the car, as well as the other series you’re going to be racing. The difference in speeds and obviously, we want to get as much publicity for NASCAR and Le Mans and Garage 56 with that program and what it represents. You want the right driver that can do that.”
