Free of NASCAR commitments, Jeff Gordon focused on winning Rolex 24 at Daytona

Like many snowbirds, Jeff Gordon will be spending the weekend in Florida driving a Cadillac. That doesn’t mean the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is retired and enjoying his life now that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is healthy and returned to racing.

Far from it.

Gordon is part of the four-driver Wayne Taylor Racing contingent competing in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, one of the most prestigious sports car races in the world that sees four different classes of cars on the track simultaneously.

When Gordon retired from NASCAR in 2015, the plan called for him to take a reduced role within the sport, spend greater time with his wife and two young children, and pursue other opportunities to race.

Of course, those plans changed when Gordon was pressed into service as the substitute for the injured Earnhardt last season, which saw Gordon make eight Cup Series starts, more than the one or two he was thinking when team owner Rick Hendrick persuaded him to fill the breach created by Earnhardt’s sudden absence.

“I am anything but retired, I’m just not driving fulltime Cup,” Gordon said. “Of course what happened with Junior this year wasn’t something I was planning on doing. But this is something I hoped to be doing.”

WTR is one of two Cadillac factory-supported efforts, and its lineup consists of Gordon, brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor, and Italian Max Angelelli, who are on the short list of favorites to win the twice-around-the-clock event. Ricky Taylor qualified the No. 10 car fourth of 55 entries.

For Gordon, 45, the Rolex represents the exact diverse opportunity he was seeking after announcing the 2015 NASCAR season would be his last as a fulltime driver. Also on the list is tackling the 24 Hours of Le Mans and perhaps a sports car race in Belgium, the home country of his wife Ingrid.

“At this point of my life and career, this would be huge,” said Gordon of winning. “… The challenges you face over 24 hours to compete at that level versus your competitors, that’s what makes this race to me so thrilling. Gosh, I’d be very, very proud [to win] for sure.”

This isn’t the first time Gordon’s competed in Daytona International Speedway’s annual sports car race, doing so previously with WTR in 2007 that netted a third-place finish overall. But this outing is different. Back then it was about the experience, going outside one’s comfort zone, and checking off something on his bucket list.

Now the emphasis is on being as competitive as possible. Because NASCAR commitments precluded investing the necessary amount of time to properly acclimate himself, Gordon always said no about a return trip to the Rolex — if he competed he wanted to go all-in. And with his NASCAR career over, there were no obligations acting as a roadblock when team owner Wayne Taylor asked this go round. It took Gordon all of five minutes to check with his family and say yes.

“It was a slam-dunk,” Gordon.

Since taking Taylor up on his offer to team with his sons and Angelelli, Gordon tested extensively at Daytona and on the road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, in addition to spending time in a Dallara simulator, WTR’s chassis supplier. He feels rather comfortable behind the wheel of the Cadillac DPi-V.R. that produces approximately 600 horsepower.

There have been a couple of hiccups. But beyond just getting familiarized to a completely different car with virtually zero similarities to a stock car, one of the biggest challenges has been perfecting the key element of swapping out drivers. The acclimation process was so arduous, Gordon said it resulted in several bumps and bruises.

“Unfortunately I can’t share the pictures I took because they’re pretty nasty,” Gordon said. “After the test and the simulation, from the middle of my back down to the back of knees it looked like someone beat me up pretty bad.”