Jeff Gordon suffers back spasms, Regan Smith on standby for Coca-Cola 600

By May 24, 2014, 10:53 AM EDT
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Back spasms forced Sprint Cup points leader Jeff Gordon to cut short his Saturday morning practice session, caused him to skip the final afternoon practice session and his status is uncertain for the longest and most grueling race of the season, Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.

Although he’s been hampered by back issues in the past – at one point so severe that he began to consider retirement – Gordon told Fox Sports that the condition had been under control until a flareup Thursday.

“Unfortunately, I had a back spasm the other night in the last qualifying run I made,” Gordon said. “And I’ve been trying to get it worked out by today. I got in the car today and it just wasn’t (right).”

Gordon comes into this weekend still riding the momentum of his first win of the season two weeks ago at Kansas. And although Gordon was sixth-fastest in Saturday morning’s practice session, he could be seen walking and moving around slowly and gingerly.

“The good news is the car was awesome, so I made 11 laps and it was everything I could do to do that, Gordon said. “I told the team that I thought it would be best that I sit out the rest of the day so that I could be prepared for this long, tough race that’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 is a 400-lap event around the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Gordon is NASCAR’s reigning iron man, having made 736 consecutive starts since making his first Cup start in the 1992 season finale at Atlanta.

Gordon will skip Saturday afternoon’s practice and likely rest and receive therapy on his back. At this juncture, he still plans on competing in Sunday’s race, but provisional plans have come together quite quickly.

“At this point, we’re going to have Regan Smith standing by for tomorrow,” Gordon said. “But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more today. I have no doubts that I can be in this car and be competitive tomorrow if I just take it easy over the next 24 hours.”

After his interview on Fox, Gordon could be seen greeting a group of fans by his hauler. Despite the pain he was in, Gordon was ever gracious, managing to bend slightly and give a female fan a hug.

“It’s unfortunate,” Gordon said of the pain he and situation he is in. “I’ve had some spasms in the past, but this one is a little bit different.

“I just want to really be cautious and take care of it. It doesn’t do any good to be out in the car right now, especially with how good (the car) is. It’s really about getting prepared for 600 miles tomorrow.”

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Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”