“I’m speechless”: When Jimmie Johnson outran HMS teammate Jeff Gordon in NASCAR showdown

Happy as the owner, but frustrated as a driver. That’s how Jeff Gordon felt when he lost the 2007 Goody’s Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway to teammate Jimmie Johnson. For Johnson, however, the victory felt unreal, and for good reason.

Gordon has been a childhood hero for many of his fans today and for Johnson too, it wasn’t any different. Currently, the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports, Gordon was once an extremely competitive driver who delivered 93 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series and logged not one, not two, but four series championships between 1995 and 2001.

Knowing what he had just done, Johnson said, (via the New York Times)

“I’m speechless for that. I’ve looked up to him my whole career, before I was even actually racing.”

While battling Johnson during the final laps of the event, Gordon knew he had to wreck his HMS teammate to win, but he didn’t. Hendrick Motorsports teammates do not hit and run and, notably, Gordon owned the No. 48 car that Johnson used to drive.

“That was amazing there at the end. That was the hardest driving I have ever done. Then to have my bumper beat off by my teammate in a way that didn’t jeopardize either one of us, really class act by Jeff,” Johnson exclaimed.

It was Johnson’s third victory in what used to be known as the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series back then. He was the reigning series champion at the time and was vying to become the first driver since Gordon (1997, 1998) to win consecutive titles.

“Really upset” Jeff Gordon opened up about disappointing runner-up finish

Jeff Gordon wasn’t happy with the P2 finish. After all, Hendrick Motorsports had won the past four races and Gordon was going to get his team as well as Chevrolet their fifth straight win that year overshadowing Dodge, Toyota, and Ford. So Gordon had to do everything he could to bag the lead.

He even made contact with Jimmie Johnson’s rear bumper with 28 laps to go, with nine laps to go and then during the final lap. However, he wasn’t ready to put Johnson completely into the wall.

“I’m really upset that I’m sitting here talking about second,” Gordon said during a post-race interview. “Like I said, without wrecking him, there was no way I was going to get it done.”

For Johnson’s then-crew chief Chas Knaus, the victory was extra special. Even he wanted to defeat Gordon, who he thought was one of the best to have ever existed. As quoted by Hendrick Motorsports, Knaus addressed the win by saying,

“That’s one of my favorite wins, quite honestly. It was one of the coolest ones. Just to be able to beat Jeff Gordon, who is arguably the best to have ever raced there at that track, to really kick off an amazing streak of races there was a lot of fun. I really felt like we had reached legitimacy at that point. When you beat Jeff Gordon at Martinsville, you’ve notched it up.”

Johnson notched it up even further as he defended his title that year. Until 2010, no one was able to snatch the titular win from the El Cajon native. In 2011, Tony Stewart defeated Carl Edwards in a tiebreaker and took home the honor.