There are always things that change in racing. From rules, drivers, and crew members shifting teams. However one thing that doesn't change is a point of time when a driver just has a period of dominance. That's what was about to happen to Jeff Gordon. In 1995 he went up against the Intimadator himself Dale Earnhardt and won his first championship. Things only seemed to look bright for him and his 24 team nicknamed "The Rainbow Warriors" but oh boy the first two races of the season were an entirely different story. The Daytona 500 only lasted 13 laps for the 24 car after wrecking early, and in Rockingham he blew an engine 134 laps in. Couldn't have started the year off much worse being 298 points in the hole but there are 29 races left in 1996 and plenty of time to recover. Jeff Gordon and company would do just that at Richmond in a day that was full of comers and goers the Dupont Chevrolet fluctuated in the top 10 but was still very fast and would remove the monkey of their backs by claiming victory leading 124 of 400 laps. At Atlanta the 24 would lead 24 laps and finish 3rd. Darlington would be a more dominant performance. Gordon was trapped a lap down after a caution came out in the middle of green flag pitstops at lap 90 so he had to stay out and be on the tail end of the lead lap and hope for a yellow to cycle back around which occured from debris on the 121st lap of the race. By lap 143 Gordon finished his march back to the lead. Hardly anyone could challenge the 24 but in the end fuel was a concern and a fast charging Dale Jarrett who even passed Jeff. However Jarrett was pushing so hard he hit the fence while trying to pass a lap car Gordon got the lead back and had the fuel for the victory at the track too tough to tame. Next was another very tough track, it is known as the last great colosseum also known as Bristol. But what wasn't great is the rain being a factor cutting the race short but the winner even though they are a racer and want to to the entire distance will definitely take it anyway and that's what happened to Gordon who made his way up from 8th lead 148 out of the 342 laps ran. North Wilkesboro Jeff finished 2nd just continuing his terrific climb up to the top of the championship now 5th 93 points behind Dale Jarrett. Martinsville was up next and early on the 24 was not flashy just clicking off laps then before you realize it halfway is approaching and Gordon now has the strangest car on the track leading for the first time at lap 225 in the 500 laper. Once again for the 3rd time in for races the Indiana native has lead the most laps in this case 211 but in the end came up short fading late to 3rd. But that isn't a big deal, the fact that after beginning 2 races this season in rock bottom to have no finish worse than 3rd in the previous 6, lead in 5 of them, lead over 124 laps in 4 and so on he is now 2nd 76 points behind the 7 time champion Dale Earnhardt and it was only a matter of time with this hot streak that Gordon and the Rainbow Warriors would lead the points right? Well he ran like usual, up front and even lead 18 laps along the way but got caught up in what is known as "The big one" ruining his day and left Talladega with a 33rd place finish. His climb to the top came to a halt going from 2nd in points 77 behind the lead Jeff is now 4th in the standings 177 behind. At Sonoma he bounced back with decent speed early on but as the race went on the closer the 24 got to the front from his 6th place starting spot. He runs 2nd at the halfway point of the race behind Rusty Wallace the 1989 Cup champion. He was close behind ready to take advantage of any mistakes but none came however eventually with 18 laps to go the Rainbow Warriors on pit road got Gordon out ahead of the 2 car. Now the shoe is on the other foot but Wallace is breathing down the neck and putting a lot of pressure on the young reigning champion but Rusty was making mistakes allowing Gordon to drive of into the distance.....until the yellow came out. So now he has to hold off the hungry pack behind him and it all goes wrong as he spins the tires getting a horrible penultimate restart going costing him the lead resulting in a 6th place finish. Going to the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte the 24 crew showed up with a car they named "Blacker" it has poles in Indianapolis, Darlington, and Rockingham along with a combined 4 wins at those 3 tracks along with a victory in Atlanta in the span since 1995. Can't win them all though as Gordon lead 101 laps early and finished 4th. Still with the amazing track record Blacker had they went to Dover he was setting a blazing pace from the pole absolutely dominated the early stages of the 500 lap race. He pitted at lap 196 just after a set of green flag pitstops putting him in the middle of the pace restarting 13th. He was able to make up the lost track position at a consistent pace but by lap 363 under yellow stops and hardly ever looked back going on to claim his 4th victory of the year and already the 13th of his career in 105 races leading 307 of 500 laps. This is his 4th season in the sport and has already accomplished stuff like that and even a Cup championship to his credit he is taking the Cup series by storm. But despite winning a quarter of the races in 1996 so far Gordon is still 182 points behind his great rival Dale Earnhardt. Jeff and his team decided to take the Blacker car to the racetrack once again, next up is Pocono and didn't even skip a beat by claiming the pole once again. However he did fall back early on and didn't lead till lap 56. Some strategy taking place here at the place known as the tricky triangle with Mark Martin 2 tires early on along with some others. The track was actually repaved so you could get away with it WAY better than you could on a abrasive surface such as Darlington and Richmond. Anyway as the race continued on long runs the faster Gordon's car got. From about a quarter of the way on the Dupont Chevrolet was the one to beat. But as always in NASCAR and motorsports, it isn't straight forward when Rusty Wallace takes the lead at 111. It looked like it would be a duel between 2 champions on track till a pitstop when the clutch burns out of Rusty Wallace's car putting him out of the race. After that Gordon could just cruise on home to victory for the 5th time of the year. Jeff Gordon gets his 14th win in his 106th start in the NASCAR Cup series and with Earnhardt having engine problems the 24 has gotten within 64 points of the 3. At Michigan the Rainbow Warriors began 7th and lead 42 laps in the middle stages but had to go back and get a missing lugnut and restarted 32nd and finished 6th. Daytona was much better for Gordon and company the 2nd time around finishing 3rd. Now at the halfway point 37 points separate the top 3 which are 7 time champion Dale Earnhardt, 1984 champ Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon. New Hampshire was deemed as the turning point of last year for the 24 because they took the lead after this race and never looked back but all that matters is that Gordon leads the points after the season finale. Well track position was the name of the game. Gordon started his Dupont chevrolet from 16th position but early on he just couldn't go anywhere especially since this is a fairly new racetrack to the Cup circuit being introduced in 1993. Plus since the pavement is still fairly fresh you can take 2 tires and get away with it and crew chief Ray Evernham was not scared to do that. However that work would get undone when there was miscommunication if Gordon was gonna pit or not and now fell to 30th at lap 55 and literally once again is trapped in traffic only gaining one spot from lap 55-71 until staying out to reclaim the track position that was once his now being up to 4th. Now that Gordon is back up front he has the speed to get the lead and after pressuring the then leader Robert Pressley into making a mistake the 24 was head of the pack once more. But there is still a lot of good strategy left that always jumbles up the leader in the middle stages. After being unable to outright get the lead again the strategy was made to stay out again at lap 190 because no matter what everyone needed one more stop for gas. But sadly with 63 laps to go his car just died in turn 2 and he would slowly creep into the pits to retire from the race from an ignition faliure and finish 34th after leading 59 of 300 laps which made it the 6th time in 16 races Gordon has lead the most laps in a race. Now one year ago after Gordon was leading after Loudon this time it's his teammate Terry Labonte who would be the new points leader by 116 over the 3rd place 24 crew. We are officially halfway home now as points begin to be more and more of a conversation going to Pocono where Jeff won 4 races earlier in the year. This time it was not the case, even after a gear oil leak towards the end he still finished 7th. Talladega he had a fast car as always but in the second trip of the year hasn't been to kind for the Rainbow Warriors at this facility. In 2 of the 3 fall races he has DNFed from engine faliures. Also in the 7 races he has run in his carrer there he has DNFed 3 times and only 2 top 10s and a DNF would really hurt him in his championship defense. Gordon was one of the obvious 2 best cars of the race. The other one was 7 time champion Dale Earnhardt, the man who nicknamed Gordon wonder boy cause entering Cup in your early 20s was not normal but that hasn't slowed Gordon down at all but beating Earnhardt at a restrictor plate race was no easy task. Dale was so good at Daytona and Talledega people thought he could see the air. Yep, obviously you can't see air but people say that over 9 of his 70 wins he had to this point were at those 2 tracks so he is legendary at this type of racing. But for the 3 things did not end so well this time.

Dale unfortunately would suffer a broken sternum, broken collarbone, and bruised pelvis. Dale would continue on racing to the end of the season despite his injuries. He would have to get a substitute driver, the NASCAR rulebook states that the driver who starts the race will be credited the points. So at Indianapolis Earnhardt would have to give way to his Truck series driver Mike Skinner who actually was the reigning player of the series. Speaking of Indianapolis Jeff Gordon will enter his home track as the points leader by 9 over his teammate Terry Labonte. Sadly the 24 was off in practice compared to his competitors but the Rainbow Warriors were able to tune up that car to a fast hot rod as the crowd went nuts when they realized that Gordon who grew up not far from the Brickyard was gonna start from the pole just like he did the previous year! NASCAR first arrived on the scene at Indy in 1994 when Jeff got a storybook win in dominating style which is what Gordon aims to do in 1996. He would lead the first 3 laps then fell to 3rd in line. Still very early on in the race for great things to happen.

So much for a happy birthday for Jeff Gordon who would turn 25 the following day and he would be back following Terry Labonte in the points by 104. Next up on the schedule was Watkins Glen and despite getting damage left front trying to make a move on Terry the 24 had no worries and finished 4th. But despite that and a 5th place at Michigan Gordon would only lose more points to his teammate now 134 points behind tied for 2nd. With the final third of the season remaining Jeff and the 24 crew had to keep up his strong performance and have to outdo the 5 team of Labonte. At Bristol Gordon started off 2nd but looked very fast early on just like he did the first trip to the last great colosseum. However he would not have the fastest car and not go to victory lane coming up just short. Nonetheless he gained 20 points on the leader. 2nd trip to Darlington for the crown jewel that is the Southern 500 and Gordon starts 2nd yet again. He lead some laps early but Dale Jarrett looked to have the car to beat. Luckily Gordon wouldn't have to deal with him but unlucky for Jarrett because after a car leaked oil on the track Dale along with a few others ran over it and hit the turn 3-4 wall. Afterwards Jeff logged laps in between 3rd-9th. However as the laps winded down the speed increased for the 24 who was catching the leader Hut Stricklin from 9 seconds back who claimed he might be overheating which if that is so that will make things easier for Gordon. In fact on the final pitstop NOBODY cleaned the front grill of his car so unless the temps went down it is gonna hurt that motor worse. Some cars are overheating from debris and rubber on the track. Darlington is in South Carolina towards the beaches on the coast so sand can get on the track to making it the abrasive track we know today no matter how many times it gets repaved lol. One of the cars suffering from overheating is the championship leader Terry Labonte who lost a strong position to cool his car down to finish the race. with the final run to the finish underway it was gonna be a duel between Stricklin and Gordon. Gordon's crew chief Ray Evernham thinks Hut will not make it to the finish with a possible hurt engine. Nonetheless Gordon passes him with 14 to go and wins Darlington to become the first driver to win the last 3 Cup races at Darlington since Dale Earnhardt? This is the 7th trip to victory lane for the 24 and now 24 points is all that separates the 2 Hendrick Motorsports teammates. The momentum continues onward to Richmond when 2nd is starting to be the lucky number for the Rainbow Warriors as they got 6 of their 1 wins from 2nd. In fact they got 1 of 1 wins from starting 8th or better so definitely great possibilities are in the cards which showed out on track driving off into the sunset right? Nope, he had company. Some might have heard of the Dale and Dale show by Earnhardt and Jarrett well here is the Jeff and Jeff show staring Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton the driver of the 99 Exide Batteries Ford for Jack Roush. They would battle for the lead but after 113 laps lead Burton made contact on pit road with Ken Schrader costing him valuable time on track. Now this seemed to leave Gordon with the main fastest car. But when it looked like Gordon was gonna drive away a new blue oval driver showed up to challenge, and his name is Ernie Irvan driver of the 28 Texaco Havoline Robert Yates machine. With 100 to go Gordon lost the lead to him, another factor was fuel mileage which is very uncommon at short tracks but tires are and the 24 was fading from using up his tires and wasn't gonna make it to the checkered flag as well as the rest of the field. But a caution with 33 to go eliminated fuel mileage. Gordon was breathing down Irvan's neck for the last 6 laps but it wasn't enough. After leading 168 of 400 laps Gordon came up short for the win, but still a great points night now being only 4 behind. We have hit a short track trend where Gordon has been OUTSTANDING not finishing worse than 3rd all year on short tracks. 2 of the next 3 races will be at short tracks but the next race won't be at that type of track. Next on the calendar is more of a superspeedway and this one can be a monster. If you thought Dover was next you are correct. Gordon once again appeared to dominate once again with Blacker arguably the best car Jeff has been able to drive in his short carrier. He just used that car at Darlington two races ago along with all the other success I mentioned earlier. Like it was in the first trip at Dover it wasn't so straight forward, Gordon actually fell back to 16th early from a bad push. In other words it is understeer or tight. But it was a 500 mile race at the 1 mile track so it's a very long race and plenty of time to get the handle right. Crew chief Ray Evernham said that it was a set of tires that the car just didn't agree with. As weird as that sounds it has happened before in racing which is good for the Rainbow Warriors seeing their driver work his way back into the top 10. Fast pitstops also helped massively with the progress as Jeff was on pit road for a scheduled pitstop under green 277 miles in as the caution comes out! Caution is out for debris from flat tires by multiple drivers on track. Tough break for Gordon, why? Because back then the cars would actually race back to the stripe to take the yellow flag meaning Gordon would have absolutely lost a lap if he didn't just go straight through the pits like he did. Now he is back to 10th but way better than his championship nemesis Terry Labonte pitting from a flat left front tire 10 laps after the restart on lap 297. Big opportunity to officially get the points lead away from his teammate after the 5 machine is stuck a lap down and out of the picture. Especially after getting the lead under yellow flag stops at lap 338. NOW this looks like the 24 of the summer trip to Dover being dominant up front leading laps. One thing that was different in the fall race though is Gordon had to hold off a pack of hungry hounds the last 50 laps of the race on 5 restarts. One thing that remained the same was VICTORY for Jeff Gordon, not as dominant though only leading 204 laps to the 307 he lead previously to complete the Dover sweep just like he did at Darlington and to add the cherry on top the 24 is on top in the points by 76 over Labonte with 6 races to go! Onwards to the paperclip half mile Martinsville. The 24 was 10th at the start but quickly the reigning champion went up to the front right behind the iconic 43 driven by Bobby Hamilton and owned by the king of NASCAR, Richard Petty. Those 2 were head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Gordon was chomping at that rear bumper of Hamilton trying to either find a way past Hamilton or force him into a mistake. But early on Bobby was having none of it. Even with beating the 43 off pit road or moving through lapped traffic better Gordon couldn't hang on for long or fell back to 2nd. However the closing stages is when Gordon was at his best getting the lead and THIS time he was able to escape Hamilton. However there was a restart or two he needed to execute with the whole pack behind him, including a final one lap shootout. Yep, green white checkerds/overtime didn't exist back then.

Oh that's as close to a dominant Richard Petty simulation as he'll get lol. Anyway it is a good points day adding to the gap a little more over Labonte who had clutch problems. It's always a good thing to have the points lead going into future races as some drivers absolutely adore a track and some dread going to a racetrack. Few had anything negative to say about North Wilkesboro and the fans could testify which made it a bigger blow when this would be the final race at the track made in 1949. This would be the last chance to make some history at a track that has created many historic moments. Gordon started 2nd and ran in the top all day long. There were times that some cars would rise to the front or fall to the back depending on how good you looked after those 4 tires. Gordon was consistently running his pace but when the curtain falls for NASCAR Cup races at North Wilkesboro Jeff Gordon would score win number 19 and his first at this track. On a positive note during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic outbreak Dale Earnhardt Jr lead a cause to clean up the facility for Iracing to scan the track and make it available for fans to race online! Also you could race the 1987 Monte Carlo used by Dale Earnhardt and the 1987 Ford Thunderbird piloted by Bill Elliott! On another happy note for Jeff Gordon and company is they would hold a 111 point lead over Terry Labonte after claiming win number 10 of 1996. With only 4 races left and ALL the momentum that the Dupont crew had it looked like it was only a matter of time till they'd win back to back championships. Charlotte was up next for Gordon to try to get 4 wins in a row. That was previously done by Mark Martin in 93. I get that I'm a broken record at this point but Gordon was up towards the top leading a few laps here and there staying between 3rd-5th early on. Just a testament of why they won the championship a season ago. Still even with adversity they fight through to come out on top. That's what they need to do now with Gordon fearing the engine is starting to skip beats. Evernham told him to switch ignition boxes to avoid another Loudon incident but the temps are pegged and Jeff Gordon is spilling water! The 24 needs to come to pit road! What looked like a good day for their standards have completely fallen apart! They now need to just survive and not DNF that'll be worse case scenario. Even though a possible cracked cylinder head ruined Gordon's race his point lead has been demolished. He now went from a 111 point advantage to a SINGLE point advantage over Terry Labonte who lead the most laps and won the race. Things just got tightened up bad, but with the way 1996 has been whenever the Rainbow Warriors have a bad race they come back with a lot of speed. They hope to rock at Rockingham with a win. They start off 3rd and that is as high and as well as that 24 would run ALL race. Yep, the 24 missed the setup really bad on that car even going a lap down halfway through the race. By the time the crew got the car handling better it was too late. While Gordon finished 12th Terry finished 3rd. Now the gap between Gordon and the lead is 32 points with 2 races to go. Another wrench was through in the championship battle but not to Gordon but to Terry Labonte at Phoenix. While these drivers don't wish for bad things to happen to their competitors something bad did happen to the championship leader. In a Friday practice session coming out of turn 4 the throttle stuck on Terry's car and while he reached to a switch to shut the car off he ended up breaking his left wirst. So he had to get checked at the hospital he is still ok to race but he did get some assistance from rival organization Joe Gibbs Racing. They gave him a modified steering wheel that was once used by Dale Jarrett when he raced with a hurt hand. Plus he also was given a tinge unit that shoots electrical stimulation shots in his hand to numb the pain along with other things from his doctors. His performance on track really did deliver pain to Gordon's championship aspirations. While Gordon finished a solid 5th Labonte finished a stellar 3rd. Wow how things could change really fast. Jeff Gordon went from being the odds on championship favorite to now playing catch up to his teammate who is known as the "Ice man". The 24 needs to make up 47 points in order to claim his 2nd career title in Atlanta. That won't be easy cause no matter what Gordon does if Labonte gets an 8th or better the championship goes to Texas Terry. But there are 328 laps to run and LOTS of things can happen between the start and finish so let's get into the details! The 5 would start 3rd while the 24 rools of 2nd. So early on 5 bonus points would be up for grabs which will be key in this challenge. Things would be made harder for the Rainbow Warriors when Labonte got past them and the leader meaning now his magic number is 10th at the moment. And JUST when things couldn't get ANY worse on lap 14 Jeff Gordon pits with loose left rear wheel! But wait THERE'S MORE! the caution comes out trapping him not 1 but 2 laps down! The luck for the 24 has gone down and its almost looking like his championship hopes might have just ended right then and there. But Ray Evernham said that he has a plan to get this 24 back in the race. He'll probably have to go outside the box with 2 tires or even gas only maybe. But it is CRUCIAL that Gordon gets those 2 laps back, after restarting alongside the leader like you could back then at lap 44 he does get 1 lap back. Now if a swift yellow comes out he'll be back on even ground and could fight Labonte for the title. He has the speed to outright outrun the leaders and just needs one more yellow and sooner the better. Just when the luck went down ot just goes up! With a caution at lap 53 Jeff Gordon is back on the lead lap!!! The Rainbow Warriors are ecstatic as crew chief Ray Evernham says "Now lets go win a championship!" You could see it out on track that you didn't need to motivate Jeff Gordon much to charge towards the front of the pack by lap 125 Gordon went from 40th to 10th, AND in eye sight of Terry Labonte! But however things equaled out though up in the top 5. Jeff couldn't just zoom past like he did earlier in the race and honestly didn't have the speed he needed to win the race which is what he needed to do all he can to gain the most points on Terry. But there was one last ditch effort to go back to back as the 24 team continued to work on the Dupont Chevrolet when Gordon then looked like the car to beat at lap 223 and beyond! But now Jeff needs to lead the most laps which is basically leading to the checkered flag. If he does that he'll have the most laps lead with 12 laps to spare at best. The most laps were lead by Bobby Labonte 105 and if Jeff lead to the finish he'll lead 117 and with Bobby and others behind Gordon needed to lead AS MANY laps as he could. But sadly at lap 270 he lost the lead and eventually by lap 328 the Labontes won the battle and the war. Bobby Labonte won the season finale and Terry Labonte wins his 2nd NASCAR Cup title with a 5th place run by 37 with over Jeff Gordon who finished 3rd. Definitely a disappointing end to such a dominanting season but little was it known at the time the domination was only beginning. Gordon would go win 3 of the next 5 championships and get a total of 93 career victories. But still as Youtuber The Iceberg once said "makes many wonder What if Gordon had merely finished one of  the first 2 races? What if he hadn't had an engine problem at Charlotte? What if in 1996 Jeff Gordon captured his missing ring?" And little did we know it at the time if he won the championship in 96 HE'D be the first driver to win 4 consecutive championships. The guy that would complete that task was ironically his prodigy Jimmie Johnson. So definitely a situation of what might have been.