Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson’s friendship has been tested through competition

While Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have been great friends and teammates, their friendship has been tested through competition on the track.

Everyone knows Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson as the best of friends and two of the most dominant drivers to ever race in NASCAR. With their combined efforts, Hendrick Motorsports became one of the most dominant racing teams in not just NASCAR but all of racing.

The two drivers have combined for 10 championship, and potentially 11 championships if Gordon can win at Homestead on Sunday. Gordon’s style of racing helped paved the way for drivers like Johnson to make their way into the sport.

It was Gordon who helped get Jimmie Johnson a ride in NASCAR, as Gordon became a single-car owner with Rick Hendrick to provide a ride for a then young Jimmie Johnson to race. The story from there is history, as Jimmie Johnson would go on to win several championships in his career.

While Gordon showed Johnson the ropes, things weren’t always bright and cheery for the two champions. As noted in this week’s featured article on Jeff Gordon in Sports Illustrated, competition on the track tested the friendship of Johnson and Gordon.

"His friendship with Johnson loosened Gordon up, but eventually it hardened him as well. Those old fears about mixing business and pleasure weren’t unfounded after all. “Up until 2007, I was pretty O.K. with [competing against Johnson], and then in ’07 we had them on the ropes and he came back and smoked us,” says Gordon, who had the points lead with three races to go. “We started to be more competitors than teammates.”Dustups on the track soon followed. Bumping at Texas in 2010 led Gordon to tell his team over the radio, “Four-time is a little upset,” in a singsong voice. (Johnson would win his fifth title—in a row—that year and add a sixth in ’13.) They tangled again the next week, at Talladega, leading Gordon to announce, “It takes a lot to make me mad, and I am pissed now.”"

It became clear that with two great drivers trying to create a legacy on the track, that they would eventually have to cross paths as drivers. Just like two brothers going at it, both drivers were at each others wits end. However, just like two brothers, eventually they realized just how important their friendship with each other was and let racing be racing and friendships be friendships, thanks in part to the influence of their car owner Rick Hendrick.

The dynamic of Gordon leading the way for Johnson to follow suit and dominate has created one of the best stories in NASCAR history. It also was first of its kind in many ways. Up to that point, everyone had thought of great drivers like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. as single drivers. For Johnson and Gordon, everyone saw them as teammates, brothers and best friends. It was that friendship that allowed the two to move past their friction on the track.