Gordon v. Gordon: The last NASCAR race on Thanksgiving weekend

NASCAR is known for traditionally giving drivers Thanksgiving off but there are a handful of exceptions.

In 1960, Ned Jarrett pulled off a Thanksgiving win with a not-so-gracious third-of-a-lap margin of victory.

Three years later, racing at a quarter-mile track in the Petty hometown of Randleman, N.C., Glen Wood had the field covered for all of the first 173 laps. Then, Wood blew an engine, allowing Jim Paschal and Petty Enterprises to claim hometown glory by two laps over Joe Weatherly in the Turkey Day 200.

The NASCAR Cup Series has never raced on Thanksgiving in the 21st century. One year, though, the series did provide a special Black Friday matinee.

If you turned the clock back 22 years and tuned to NBC the day after Thanksgiving, you would’ve seen an old-school NASCAR Winston Cup Series duel that pitted Gordon against Gordon.

The 2001 New Hampshire 300 was originally set for September 16. Then, in the wake of 9/11, NASCAR joined other sports in pausing activities.

That led to a brisk afternoon November 23, 2001, at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Fans in attendance, full of turkey dinner but hungry for racing, felt the above-average 50° warmth.

That warmth led to a competition caution on lap 50 so teams could check the tires for blistering.

Michael Waltrip didn’t make it that far. He popped a tire on lap 31, prompting the first of three cautions in the first 100 laps — bookended by another competition caution on lap 97.

Nothing could stop what appeared to be a pulverizing coronation for Jeff Gordon who clinched his fourth Winston Cup Series title at Atlanta Motor Speedway just five days before.

Gordon pulled out to a comfortable lead before the lap 50 caution. After Sterling Marlin took over under caution, Gordon took it back on lap 64 and set sail for quite a while.

Gordon and fellow frontrunner Bobby Labonte weren’t immune from the blistering issues, however. Each of them had to adjust as the green-flag runs became longer and chaos mounted around them.

As Gordon tried to lap Kenny Wallace and Buckshot Jones on lap 142, Wallace wrecked Jones in turn four.

That allowed another opportunity for adjustments and for another Gordon to mount a charge.

Robby Gordon was wrapping up a treacherous second year running NASCAR full-time. His two open-wheel wins in 1995 and some strong runs in year one of NASCAR attracted the attention of Morgan-McClure Motorsports.

Unfortunately, after five races, Gordon was cut. Then after a notorious blown win at Sonoma and a crash at Chicago, all driving the No. 7 for Jim Smith, Robby Gordon was a free agent.

Where one door closed, another opened. Mike Skinner also crashed at Chicago but sustained far-more severe injuries.

Gordon filled in and nearly won at Watkins Glen until a freak electrical fire involving an in-car camera quashed his chances.

Richard Childress took note of Gordon’s skill, however, and put him in the car when Skinner called the season quits to have further surgery after running a few races on the mend.

Now entering the second half of his final start before going full-time in 2002, Gordon sat 11th on lap 150. 51 laps later, when the next caution fell, he was in sixth.

Another 11 laps and Gordon moved to fourth.

Then, on lap 259, Gordon looked on as Bobby Labonte ended the other Gordon’s 195-lap reign up front.

Jeff Gordon got back by Labonte on lap 263 and Robby Gordon followed him through to second.

“How about that run for Robby Gordon?” Benny Parsons remarked.

Everyone held their breath as pit stops began with 30 laps to go. It was the longest green-flag run of the race so tensions mounted over tire wear.

The tension snapped on lap 273.

“We’ve flirted with that all day. We couldn’t be aggressive all day because we’d try running hard and we’d burn up the right-front [tire],” Craven told NBC after popping a tire and bringing out a caution on lap 273.

As Sterling Marlin did earlier, Robby Gordon’s crew had a faster, 13.9-second stop and passed Jeff Gordon whose crew posted a 14.6-second stop.

Swallowed in lap traffic that restarted ahead of them, it was Gordon v. Gordon. Jeff took his chance on lap 282 when Kyle Petty threw a fierce block on Robby on the backstretch.

Robby wasn’t done. As Jeff tried patiently maneuvering around Mike Wallace’s lap car, Robby bumped into Jeff, who bumped into Wallace. That sent Wallace into the wall and Jeff back to third under caution.

Jeff, got back to Robby, bumping him multiple times until NASCAR threw the black flag.

With Jeff in 15th, a lap down after leading 257 laps, Robby Gordon led the final 12 and earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win.

“I wish I would’ve taken his tire down so he wouldn’t have won. I know it wasn’t sportsmanlike but his actions weren’t sportsmanlike,” Jeff Gordon said.

“That 31 should be embarrassed he won that race.”

Robby was unabashed.

“I remember Jeff Gordon wrecked us someone to win at Bristol so I’m not embarrassed,” Robby Gordon said.

The race marked the end of Jeff Gordon’s final NASCAR Cup Series championship season. He raced until 2015 with starts in 2016.

In 2002, Lowe’s moved from Robby Gordon to Jimmie Johnson and the Jeff Gordon-owned No. 48 car. The rest is history.

With changes such as the Chase, the wave-around and no racing back to the line made in the next 10 years, there would never again be a race like this.

Where Gordon took over the other Gordon’s coronation race.