It's been almost 20 years since Jeff Gordon's first Cup Series win
How old were you when Jeff Gordon scored his first Sprint Cup Series win? Heck, you might not have even been born yet.
May 29 is the 20th anniversary of Gordon's first career win in the Cup Series. It came at the 1994 Coca-Cola 600, 87 victories ago.
Those victories must have clouded Gordon's memory, because he said he doesn't remember too many details about the win. His win was honored Wednesday morning at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in honor of the anniversary.
"That's why I love this event that I just did," Gordon said. "They showed video from that day and some crucial moments. It really makes me want to go back and get the whole video and watch the race because it was such a special day. There are so many things that I don't remember about that day.
I remember I started on the front row, that we had a good car. We led quite a few laps. But Rusty (Wallace) was the car to beat. (Crew chief Ray Evernham) made that great call."
Actually, Gordon didn't lead quite a few laps. He only led 16 of the race's 400 laps. Wallace led 187. After leading the first lap, Gordon didn't lead again until lap 300. He then led the race's final nine laps.
"Even watching me coming down pit road for that final pit stop made me chuckle because they didn't measure pit road speed the same way we do now so it looked like I was speeding, but they didn't have a way to measure other than by a stopwatch," Gordon said.
"I'd love to go back and relive the race because there are a lot of things that I don't remember."
We'll make it easy for you, Jeff. Here's the entire race, and just looking at the starting grid is one big blast from the NASCAR past. Gordon's pole lap of just over 181 MPH is approximately 14 MPH slower than the pole speed at the 2013 Coca-Cola 600. And that year, John Andretti did what Kurt Busch is attempting this season; run both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
Gordon says he still has the trophy from the race, but it's not being displayed at the moment. He and wife Ingrid built a house a couple of years ago and Gordon needs to find a spot for it.
"Something I've really never done at home was display really many trophies. If I had a shelf maybe in an office or somewhere, I might put one or two," Gordon said. "The 600 from '94 has always been a prominent trophy that I've displayed."
"When we did this house, we made an area that has very, very important trophies to me. I have the four Cup trophies there. I have the first Brickyard, a couple helmets.
"The 600 is in the house but it's not currently being displayed there. It's one that has always been the one that I've displayed, it just didn't fit in there," Gordon said with a laugh. "I have to redesign that area so I can make sure it's there."
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is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @NickBromberg
