”You’re an Earnhardt Fan, You Can’t Pull for Gordon” – Jeff Gordon Made Poignant Admission About Dale Earnhardt, Years After His Death

The list of top rivalries of NASCAR history is still held by Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. Although the two drivers only had a few years overlapping in their respective careers, their rivalry being ranked so high goes to show the competition that existed between them.

Dale Earnhardt was undoubtedly one of the best, if not THE best, to ever race in NASCAR. Over his 27 years career in the NASCAR Cup Series, he earned 76 wins and 428 top 10 finishes. He was also the winner of 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championships – all of it only forming the peak of the iceberg that his CV was.

Jeff Gordon on the other hand his contemporary, began his racing career in the early 90s and competed for 25 years in the Cup Series. In his years, he earned 93 race wins and 4 Cup Series wins. Another stellar career by every definition of the word. The two however had face-offs regularly due to the ultra-competitive nature of the sport and their personalities. Similarly, their fans too remained excited and agitated for most of the time that they raced, always waiting for a slip-up from the other end.

Gordon said about the rivalry, “If you’re an Earnhardt fan, you can’t pull for Gordon. If you’re a Gordon fan, you cannot pull for Earnhardt. When his passing happened, it’s amazing how many of his fans said “Listen I’ve never pulled for you before, we missed out, and I know you respected him and for the first time I’m able to be an Earnhardt fan and pull for you.”

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Two brilliant drivers, a cracking rivalry, and unfettered love and respect for each other are what made their time in NASCAR so memorable for fans. It must have been an honor to watch the two masters at their best.

Jeff Gordon misses the rivalry with Dale Earnhardt, believes it helped him

Dale won the 1994 Championship after tough competition from a young Gordon, who was just in his 2nd season. Gordon won the 1995 Championship. The tug of war continued until that ill-fated race where we lost Dale to a crash at the Daytona 500.

Looking back at his career and especially the rivalry with Dale Sr, Gordon said “My time in the broadcast booth has helped me realize how important those roles or those rivalries and personalities are. I kind of wish I had played to it a little bit more at the time. Of course, if I had known the results on the track were going to turn out the way that they did, I probably would have.”

“For whatever reason, my time coming into the sport and being able to go up against one of the all-time greats, if not the greatest, and have his fan base and my growing fan base kind of going toe-to-toe, put me on the map and changed my life forever.”

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The untimely passing of Dale Sr took away the opportunity of the NASCAR world to enjoy more of what the legend offered. He is remembered fondly by any and all and will continue to do so.