I get this vision of Jeff Gordon looking in the mirror last Sunday morning and singing, "I Got to be Me" to the man in the mirror. It seems ol' No. 24 has had enough. He's mad as the dickens and is not going to take it anymore.
NASCAR just says, "Pay up."
You probably saw the film of Gordon shoving Matt Kenseth after the insomnia fighting event at Bristol Motor Speedway. The clips usually ran right after the coverage of the IRL crash that took the life of driver Paul Dana. Those are the racing things that get coverage from the mainstream media.
Gordon still had his helmet and HANS Device on when he confronted Kenseth. With his multi-colored driving suit, it made him look a little like Darth Vader on Easter Sunday. And the disguise didn't work all that well…everybody recognized him anyway. However, keeping the helmet on was a good idea in case Kenseth wanted to escalate the confrontation.
The two had tangled on the track a little earlier, on the final lap of the 500 lap race and Gordon took offense, feeling that Kenseth's bump knocking him out of third place was intentional. He wound up 21st.
NASCAR officials this week fined Gordon $10 thousand and put him on probation until August 30th.
Gordon isn't protesting the penalty. From what he did say, though, one could assume we may be seeing a new Jeff Gordon.
Since his early years hitting the big time in sprint cars and dirt track roadsters, Gordon has cultivated his public image as a good-looking, squeaky clean, Goody Two-Shoes who squeezes the toothpaste from the bottom of the tube and puts the seat down.
This week he told the Associated Press that he has reserved a lot of his emotions in the past but that now he is not afraid to "show them."
It's not often that a person gets more emotional as he gains age and experience. But Gordon's new persona isn't just about "letting go." It's also about his racing career.
The AP story said that Gordon thought that part of the problem that led to his 11th place points finish last season may have been a lack of aggression on the track. He said that since the others on his team are working hard to give him the best possible equipment, it's his job to do the best possible job with it on the track.
He went on to say that, if that means he has to be more aggressive, he will be. He feels that being more aggressive is a 24/7 condition…that he can't turn it on when the green flag drops and off at the checkers.
Time was when it was the aggressive driver was the winner. Think Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts…even Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, David Pearson. The list could go on.
However, once NASCAR became the dominant force in stock car racing and saw the potential for attracting a larger audience, outside regional and socioeconomic boundaries, it began to sanitize and civilize its show.
More's the pity.
But don't expect "The New Jeff Gordon" to reverse the trend.