"It's looking really well": When a young Jeff Gordon previewed beginnings of his NASCAR career in 1990

Before Jeff Gordon became a household name at NASCAR's highest level, he was a young, up-and-coming driver with big ambitions. This was reflected in an old interview from 1990 where Gordon spoke about his aspirations of racing in the stock cars, his immediate plans, and why he chose NASCAR over IndyCar racing.

During an interview with Dave Despain of Motorweek, Gordon opened up on his plans of running in NASCAR's second tier as he said:

"We're definitely interested in the stock cars and that looks like where I'm going to be going next year," Gordon said. "I ran the Busch Grand National Series. Not really sure exactly how many races right now but the Carolina Ford cars hopefully have my name put on right now. It's looking really well. I'm really happy to be working with Bill Davis, the whole team. I think it's going to be a really good team next year." (0:16 onwards).

As for his decision to pick stock car racing over IndyCar racing, Jeff Gordon said he had gone to some of the single-seater races and enjoyed it, but racing in the Busch Series opened the path for him to get to the NASCAR Cup Series.

Along with that, Gordon also credited two driving schools that played a role in his decision, saying:

"I went to two different driving schools. I went to Skip Barber and I went to Buck Baker and the opportunities that there with the stock cars, they didn't come along with the IndyCars. So that's pretty much why we run stock cars. I actually had an offer while I was at Buck Baker Driving School and here we are today," he added.

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Jeff Gordon had a meteoric rise in NASCAR in the early 90s

In his first full-time season in the Busch Series in 1991, Jeff Gordon went winless the entire year and had three top-5 finishes. However, his next season with Bill Davis Racing turned out to be a breakthrough one as he clinched three wins and seven top 5 finishes.

It was also in the same season (1992) that Jeff Gordon ran in a Cup race at Atlanta and finished in 31st place. Despite that result, he ran full-time in the Cup Series from 1993 with Hendrick Motorsports, driving the #24 car. He finished that year with seven top 5 finishes and no wins. In the next season, he won twice and finished 8th in points.

The 1995 season arguably turned Jeff Gordon into a superstar as he won 7 races that year on the way to his first Cup title. In 1996, he would raise the bar even higher by ending up with 10 wins.

Gordon would win three more Cup championships in the coming years with a total of 93 wins, a Hall of Fame place, and being mentioned as one of the best and most influential drivers in NASCAR history.