Jeff Gordon’s shows great Sportsmanship
During the Chicagoland Speedway event, four-time champ Jeff Gordon and one-time race winner David Reutimann were head to head for a good portion of the race. When Reutimann finally managed to pass Gordon for the win, Gordon didn’t scowl or get angry—he instead opted to compliment the newcomer. After his defeat, Gordon radioed his team saying, “I’ll tell you, he’s pretty damn good.” This compliment not only displays Gordon’s sportsmanship, it speaks wonders of David reutimann’s talent as a racecar driver.
In fact, Reutimann was more than ‘pretty damn good’ at the Chicagoland Speedway, he was fantastic. Leading in 51 out of the final 55 laps, Reutimann finally redeemed himself as a worthy competitor rather than a circumstantially lucky winner of the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 last year.
While this bodes well for Reutimann’s future, Gordon’s second place finish tells another story. In the last five weeks, Gordon’s scorecard has consistently held a spot in the top five (3, 3, 4, 5, 4), but he has yet to pull in a win. In fact, since 2008, Gordon has finished in the top five 39 times, but has only won one race. His teammate, Jimmie Johnson, has also finished in the top five 39 times, but he’s won 19 of those races. It seems Gordon’s gotten in the habit of leading late in the race, then falling short in the end. However, it is possible that Gordon could still win a championship even without winning a race. His average finish is 3.8, plenty good enough to be eligible for a win. Despite his many losses, Gordon has stayed classy throughout all of his defeats, shaking each winner’s hand and congratulating their accomplishments. For his fans sakes, we can only hope he’ll soon on victory lane shaking his own hand.
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