Four Wide: The evolution of Jeff Gordon

CONCORD, N.C. – There's a gold medal, the kind you get in a 10-pack at The Dollar Store, hanging on the dresser in Ella Gordon's bedroom. I asked her where she got it, and she told me she won it at an Easter egg hunt.

Then, I asked Jeff Gordon's daughter if she has any trophies. She ignored me, as toddlers often do. So I asked a different way.

"Ella, do you like your Daddy's trophies?"

Jeff Gordon, the four-time NASCAR champion, laughed and explained that most of his trophies are put away until they can be displayed in a special room inside the massive house he's building in Charlotte, N.C.

"There's that," I sarcastically replied, "and you haven't really won very many in her lifetime."

He chuckled slightly, but otherwise ignored my too-close-to-home joke. Or so I thought.

The next day, Gordon gave a tour of Hendrick Motorsports, weaving through doors that required key cards and war rooms where photos were prohibited. When he led us into the main lobby, much to the delight of some surprised race fans, the reason for his detour became quite clear.

"See those?" Gordon said, pointing at a wall of encased hardware. "Just wanted to show you that I do have trophies."

That was one of the lighter moments from last week when I accepted an invitation to go all-access with "Four-Time" and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how Gordon, 38, balances his hectic work schedule with his growing young family. He splits his time between New York City and Charlotte, N.C., where the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday will mark the 16th anniversary of Gordon's first career Cup victory.

Here is some insight gleaned from the time spent with Gordon:

1. He loves New York City:

There was a striking difference between New York, where Gordon moves about the city in anonymity, and Charlotte, where's he's a recognizable superstar.

In New York, he took the elevator down to the lobby of his Central Park apartment and when the doors opened, a group of young boys just home from school didn't look twice at one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. When he stepped out into the rain, hidden slightly by the hood of his black Prada windbreaker, he passed unnoticed a group of autograph seekers standing outside Trump Plaza.

In the subway, the only attention he got was from someone asking him for directions.

Fast-forward to the newest steakhouse in Charlotte, where Gordon is quickly taken to the table and sent some "compliments of the chef, Mr. Gordon" appetizers as soon as he's seated.

Although he loves having the ability to live a life outside of the fishbowl in New York, he'll be full-time in Charlotte when construction on a new home is finished at the end of this year. North Carolina is where he plans to send Ella and her brother, due in August, to school.

But he worries about what small-city life can do to the children of celebrities. Ella, who turns 3 next month, is so far immune.

"She knows I'm on TV driving around in a car," he said. "She knows the car is different than other cars. I don't know [if] she understands why they're all going in circles. She's not there yet – recognizing anything like that yet. It's coming because we did a play date with all her classmates at our building in New York and had a blow up bouncy – a clown that did balloons. All the kids came over and everyone had a great time. Ella's popularity went up a couple of notches at school.

"I can see that those things start to affect kids. I think she's got another year or so. Might be different when we move to North Carolina. I don't know how you prepare for that."

2. Gordon has a very busy life:

Gordon, as one of NASCAR's superstars, has some pretty heavy demands on his time. There are team and sponsor obligations, and requests for appearances that he can do at his own choosing.

If he had it his way, he'd decline everything and spend as much time as he could with his family. He also likes his sleep, and is admittedly not a morning person. But, he understands how the game works and that sometimes he must lend his time to important events because, well, he's Jeff Gordon.

One of those events was ESPN's slot during the advertising sales period known as the "upfront," when networks give a preview of their upcoming season. ESPN asked Gordon to participate in their live presentation, and Gordon, recognizing that his presence could help the network's NASCAR coverage, obliged.

It required an early morning wakeup call, something Gordon dreads. But it's quickly clear that the appearance is worth his time as a steady stream of executives stop by his "green room'' inside the Nokia Theatre to see the champion driver.

So, this guy comes in and it's clear right away that Gordon doesn't really remember how he knows him or who he is. But the guy sure knows Gordon, and continues moving in with wide-eyes and a huge grin. Gordon, who was seated, stands for what appears to be a handshake greeting.

Not this guy, though. He's going all-in for the man hug, and what ensues is one of the more awkward moments I've ever personally witnessed. Gordon was a decent sport about it, and after his memory is finally jarred, he participates in polite small talk and some, uh, reminiscing.

Next up are the big dogs – Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN president George Bodenheimer – and Gordon does the appropriate amount of schmoozing with the TV executives. His actual appearance was short – less than five minutes on stage – but the waiting time was well over two hours.

He never complained, though. And the next day, in his weekly business meeting with stepfather John Bickford, it becomes clear just how many people want a piece of Gordon.

Bickford, his business manager, has a long checklist of items to discuss with Gordon, and many of them either appearance requests or the details surrounding something he's already agreed to do.

So-and-so charity wants him here on this date, and an awards ceremony wants him in the audience. Does he want to fly on Tony Stewart's plane home from the Prelude to a Dream? Does he need a stylist at an upcoming photo shoot? Where does he want to have his end-of-the-year luncheon for Jeff Gordon Inc. employees?

All the while, he's being passed checks in a carefully organized system in which he can see every invoice on everything he's endorsing to be paid. But Gordon, it turns out, is not the free-spending type.

During my time with him, he turned down wife Ingrid's request to stay in an expensive hotel suite during the season finale at Homestead, even after she lures him with "What if you are going for the championship? Won't you want us there?"

In a later discussion over Ella's schooling and her desire to ride a yellow school bus, the issue of whether buses are safe – or even available – is brought up. Ingrid's solution? "You'll just have to buy a bus and drive her?"

When this story is related to Bickford, the grandfather/business manager gets right down to business with Gordon.

"Am I going to need to start looking for used yellow school buses?" Bickford asks.

"No," Gordon quickly responds. "I am not buying a school bus."

3. There is no feud with Jimmie Johnson:

Gordon's aggravation and frustration with teammate Johnson has been well-documented this season. There was the on-track incident in Texas that caused Gordon to grumble over his radio about Johnson's alleged desire to be raced differently, and another run-in at Talladega in which Gordon told a live television audience that his patience had been officially tested.

Gordon has every reason to be sick of Johnson – Gordon was personally brought to Hendrick Motorsports only to watch Johnson surpass him on the track as NASCAR's most dominant driver. With 50 victories and four consecutive championships over the last eight-plus seasons, Johnson has clearly outrun his one-time mentor.

Naturally, everyone assumed it was jealousy that was at the root of Gordon's anger this season.

Not so, he insists.

"I never look at it that way," he said. "I wouldn't say jealous is the word. I feel like 42 other guys out there. Here's a guy dominating the sport, kicking everyone's butt, and everyone wants to take down. It doesn't matter if you're teammates or friends off the track. That doesn't change how you feel about a competitor.

"I'm tired of this person winning everything."

Gordon, no matter how many different ways I bait him, simply refuses to admit to any kind of envy toward his teammate. Instead, he points to his own shortcomings as the reason why Johnson has eclipsed him.

"I think that I very easily could have resented their success because I'm supposed to be the lead dog at Hendrick," he said. "I've never felt that. I've always been here knowing that if we do our job and I do mine, that nobody can beat us if we do our job as well as we're capable."

That doesn't mean things haven't evolved between the two drivers, who were very close at the start of Johnson's Cup career. Gordon was going through a divorce and Johnson, five years his junior, was also single. The two did a lot together, at the track and away from it, and they celebrated each other's success.

I'll let Gordon explain their relationship.

"We were pretty tight the first couple of years because we were both single, and we spent a lot of time together," Gordon began. "There's no doubt his success put a change in his relationship with every driver out there. I don't feel I'm alone. I tell him this as well, that what happens on the track is competition. When that competition gets fierce, I hope that it doesn't affect our friendship down the road.

"I think years down the road we'll laugh about all this stuff. I like him as a person. I think he's a great person, a great driver. And what happens on the track happens there. The competitor in me wants to win. It doesn't matter if [it's] Denny Hamlin or Jimmie or Kevin Harvick. They're the team to beat. I don't want to finish second. The difference is because of Jimmie coming into Hendrick the way he did, we got very close.

"I'm not close with anybody. I have guys I get along with. I'll play poker with Denny, but I'm not really close to him. But with Jimmie, that's not the case. Even with [Brian] Vickers. But I'm not teammates with Vickers. I've always been one to distance myself from all my competitors. I can't do that with Jimmie. That's what created a little bit of a strain.

"I don't want to look at him as a friend on or off the track when things don't go the way I want them to go. That's the way I deal with it. There were adjustments in how I dealt with him. But at end of the day, usually when we've had a couple of drinks, I tell him how I feel and he tells me, and it's all good. He does a lot of 'I love you's.' But don't put that in there!"

4. So what's been the big difference this season?

The natural assumption is that after two subpar seasons Gordon has been re-energized and maybe even motivated by Johnson's success. He doesn't think it's that deep, though, and lays out a more surface explanation of simply having better cars.

The truth is, though, that Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte had a series of heavy conversations over the winter in which they both laid out their issues. Letarte wanted to see more commitment from the driver and better communication. Gordon wanted more confidence from his crew chief and for his team to step up a notch and give him better equipment.

The end result of those discussions was a homework assignment for Gordon, who was given audio tapes of his Hendrick teammates to listen to how they communicated with their crew chiefs during a race.

Gordon learned what longtime listeners to his radio channel already knew: The dude whines an awful lot during a race.

"The one thing I came up with was that I'm giving useless information 60- to 70-percent of the time," Gordon acknowledged. "What he and I talked about was, "When I start doing that, remind me to shut the hell up.' "

But I don't think that's such an easy task. After all, how do you tell an 82-race winner to zip it? So I challenged Gordon on that, and asked him what would be the consequences if the next time he started flipping out about adjustments that harmed his car, Letarte responded with a "Shut the bleep up!"

"I'd be mad if he did at the time, but I'd respect him for it," Gordon responded. "It's what needs to happen. But that's not his style."

So during several conversations Gordon and Letarte discussed how things could be different, and Gordon believes they now have "a tighter bond and confidence in one another."

The cars are definitely better, and Gordon has been in position to win four races so far this season. But the three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish have hurt him, and he takes a 42-race winless streak into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

I asked Gordon if he's struggling to close out races, and is he the driver he once was?

"I'm smarter today than in the past,'' he said before offering specific details of the endings at Phoenix, Martinsville and Richmond. The most striking explanation was Richmond, where Kyle Busch, who had fresher tires by three laps, beat him on the final restart.

"All I could do was try to get a good start. I didn't get the best start, and he just drove right by me," Gordon explained. "That's not, 'Well, if [the] old Jeff Gordon was here, he would have won that race.' Put that restart in the Chase, and there's a different outcome.

"I do think that, but I don't want to say what I mean by that, because I don't want to give too much away. But there's a difference between coming back and finishing second and third, and in the Chase, you have to win."

And trust me, after spending so much time with Gordon, I'm convinced his desire has never been greater and he's got a championship run in him this season.