When Jeff Gordon Found Jimmie Johnson - 2000 NAPAonline.com 250

It's more like when Jeff Gordon found Jimmie Johnson's driving abilities and discovered who he wanted for Rick Hendrick's "4th" Cup team to be co-owned by Jeff.

According to this NY Times/The Athletic article (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2180...) written by Jordan Bianchi in 2020, Jeff Gordon recalls when he first met Jimmie back in 2000. The first time was actually during a Darlington Busch Series test. But, it was the NAPAonline.com 250 at Michigan where Gordon really got to see Jimmie's talents. They had a brief discussion during the driver's meeting and asked Jimmie to stay in touch.

As stated during the ESPN telecast, Alltel was leaving the #92 Herzog Motorsports team and move to Roger Penske's Ryan Newman for 2001 and beyond. The #92 team didn't have a sponsor, so the future was unknown. Also, Jimmie was rumored as a finalist for the #01 Chip Ganassi Cup car (eventually went to a different Busch Series driver, Jason Leffler). So, there were plenty of discussions about Jimmie's future even before this race started.

Jimmie wasn't as fast as Todd Bodine and some of the Cup guys, but he really held his own, running in the top 10 for the entire race. Gordon states in the article that the restart is where Jimmie got his attention. He apparently passed him on the restart with a slide job. I couldn't really see it here as the cameras were focused on the fierce battle for the lead. However, Gordon does mention the restart and "those Busch guys" in his post-race interview. Looking back, I think he was referring to Jimmie. Jimmie finished 6th while Gordon finished 7th.

And as they say, the rest is history.

Race uploaded by Dave W. Video is for awareness purposes only. All credit to NASCAR and ESPN.