Jeff Gordon entering final full-time NASCAR season in 2015

Jan 13, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon takes part in an in game tricycle race during the first half of the game between the Washington Wizards and the San Antonio Spurs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon announced that the upcoming Sprint Cup Series will be his last.

Jeff Gordon gathered his team today at Hendrick Motorsports and announced that this will be his last season of professional NASCAR racing. One of the most dominant racers from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, Gordon took pole position in the racing world at a time when NASCAR was just breaking through to the mainstream and growing into one of the most lucrative sports in the country.

Letting team know this will be my final year competing for a championship. pic.twitter.com/s7aH8OpGQZ
— Jeff Gordon (@JeffGordonWeb) January 22, 2015

At over 40 years old, Gordon is among the biggest names in the sport, despite the fact that he hasn’t won a Series since 2001. He’s remained competitive for most of the ensuing span of time and he was one of the preeminent names in NASCAR in the 1990’s.

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Jeff Gordon was the 1993 Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year. He would go on to win the Cup Series in four seasons between 1995 and 2001, cementing his status as one of the best drivers of his time. He had one of the best runs in history before the arrival of Jimmie Johnson between 1995 and 1998, when he won the Cup Series three times and finished runner-up the fourth.

Since then, Jimmie Johnson took over for a period in which he won five straight Cup Series, and Jeff Gordon has slipped some in success and profile, but his name will always carry weight not just in the driving world, but in the pop culture spectrum.

Gordon has finished sixth in each of the last two years in the Sprint Cup Series, which are his best finishes since a three-year stretch from 2007-2009, when Gordon finished 2nd and 3rd around a 2008 season in which he finished 7th.

While Gordon became a bigger name than racing at times, it’s the Cup Series that has always been his true passion. Since that 1993 season when he finished as Rookie of the Year, Gordon has participated in every single Cup Series race.

Now it appears that 2015 will be his last on the grind, and he’s earned it. Hendrick Motorsports will be fine as an institution after Gordon leaves, but the sport of NASCAR is deeply indebted to the contributions of Jeff Gordon and his team for their sterling record over the last 23 years.

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