Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Sr. weren't rivals in all areas - SFGate
In the 1990s, Gordon was the young hotshot from California, well outside stock-car racing’s Dixie fan base, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. was the sport’s reigning monarch, by far its most popular driver. Their fight for the NASCAR championship in 1995 in what was then the Winston Cup series — Gordon won that one — “created a rivalry among our fans and somewhat among ourselves as well,” Gordon said Friday as he prepared for his final race at Sonoma... Publicly, he said, there was definitely a rivalry between the two camps, and Earnhardt fostered it. “At the racetrack, he had that demeanor of ‘The Intimidator,’ and he showed it on the track, walking down pit road, anywhere around the track and... Gordon said Earnhardt introduced him to his son when Junior was 16 or 17. “Maybe the respect that his dad and I had, maybe that transferred over to Dale Jr. and myself,” Gordon said. Earnhardt Sr. died in a wreck in the Daytona 500 in 2001. The Earnhardt family’s legion of supporters kept the rivalry with Gordon alive as it embraced Earnhardt Jr. ’s racing career. Gordon and Junior haven’t vied for the Cup title, but some Earnhardt fans didn’t like it when Junior joined Gordon with Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. Source: www.sfgate.com
