Celebrity Autographs And Celebrity Addresses

DAYTONA BEACH, Feb. 21 -- The mechanics who built the No. 24 Chevrolet that carried Jeff Gordon to his third Daytona 500 victory on Sunday spent nearly six months, the equivalent of a motor sports lifetime, crafting the strongest possible motor and the sleekest body possible for NASCAR's biggest race.

And they had such a powerful feeling about the car that, before loading it onto the hauler for its trip to Daytona International Speedway, they signed their names on a piece of vinyl that was just the perfect size, they figured, to glue on its rear bumper if the car ended up in the Daytona USA museum, as is custom for every machine that wins the Daytona 500.

_____ Daytona 500 _____

• Jeff Gordon clinches his third Daytona 500 title, edging Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday.
• Final Results
• Hendrick Motorsports overcomes tragic plane crash to remain favored team in Daytona.
• Michael Waltrip edges teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the early qualifying race and Tony Stewart wins the nightcap.
• The Daytona 500 has served as the personal playground lately for Team Earnhardt.

Gordon did his part Sunday, holding off a furious charge by Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the race by 0.158 of a second and claim nearly $1.5 million. And no one was more proud, save for crew chief Robbie Loomis, to see the No. 24 Chevy -- complete with the autographs of every Hendrick Motorsports employee who turned a wrench on its engine, hung its sheet metal or sanded its side panels -- take its rightful place at the motor sports attraction Monday morning.

"You can call it cocky; you can call it whatever you want to call it," Gordon said later. "But they wanted that car to be in Daytona USA. I know the pride that goes into it for them, whether they're sitting at home watching on TV or whether they're here as part of it. The joy that comes out of seeing that car go to Victory Lane -- you can't describe it!"

Added Loomis: "That [race shop] floor this morning is completely shining because there's not a sole hitting the floor. They're all walking on air! They all have that sense of pride, knowing the part they played in it -- from everybody that fills the drink cooler up, sands a part, sweeps the floor and makes every piece of it."

At 33, Gordon has won more NASCAR Winston/Nextel Cup races (70) than any active driver on the circuit. But he's the first to say that teamwork has played a more critical role in his success than gasoline. And specifically, the sort of teamwork that seems to thrive among the 450 employees of Concord, N.C.-based Hendrick Motorsports, the only team Gordon has raced for since he moved up to stock-car racing's big leagues in November 1992.

Though it's foolish to draw sweeping conclusions from a team's showing in the Daytona 500 -- given that it's one of four races on the sport's 36-race schedule that requires carburetor restrictor plates, which make for a peculiar sort of competition -- it is clear that Gordon and his team are fixated on reclaiming their perch atop the sport this year. Gordon last won a NASCAR championship in 2001. He stands alone among active drivers with four titles; a fifth would move him closer to that hallowed mark of seven, which only Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt reached.

But Gordon freely admits that he exceeded his wildest dreams long ago, even before winning his first major stock-car race. It was February 1992, the first time he came to Daytona International Speedway as a driver in NASCAR's second-tier Grand National Series, competing in the No. 1 Baby Ruth Ford. He was a skinny 20-year-old then, with a wisp of a mustache that was more fuzz than hair. And he nearly fainted when car owner Jack Roush came up to him in the garage and asked him to give Mark Martin's No. 6 Ford a spin around the track.

"I thought it was the coolest thing," Gordon said. "I just remember how honored I was to be asked to get behind the wheel of that car."

Gordon got even bigger goose bumps last week, when he entertained his childhood hero, Rick Mears, on his 106-foot yacht, 24 Karat, which he brings each year to Daytona. The two racers talked about Mears's four Indianapolis 500 victories and Gordon's four wins in NASCAR's Brickyard 400. Gordon insisted there was no comparing the feats, since open-wheel racers have been competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for nearly a century, and stock-car racers have been there just a decade. Mears politely disagreed.

"I was just star-struck," Gordon gushed. "I said, 'Rick, I've got to admit something: People come up to me all the time and say: 'It's such an honor to meet you! It's so cool!' ' And I've got RICK MEARS on my boat!"