Gordon’s detour to the bricks may be path of great resistance

Monday, Aug. 9, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jeff Gordon earned slightly more than $518,000 for his Brickyard 400 victory Sunday. He will find out sometime this week if he has to give some of that money back to NASCAR.

Gordon delayed the traditional -- and NASCAR-mandated -- trip to Victory Lane after his win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and instead stopped his No. 24 Chevrolet at the yard of bricks at the start/finish line and celebrated with his crew members.

Team owner Rick Hendrick said he was summoned by NASCAR officials to a post-race meeting about the incident and NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said the sanctioning body likely would meet with Gordon before deciding whether to hand out any penalties.

NASCAR last week fined Gordon's teammate, Jimmie Johnson, $10,000 for using a sign to obscure a sports-drink bottle NASCAR officials placed on the roof of his car after his victory at Pocono Raceway.

Johnson and Gordon have endorsement deals with a rival sports-drink company.

Gordon said he did not purposely delay going to Victory Lane Sunday to avoid the sponsorship conflict.

"I didn't do that purposely, to go out there and cause that and stir that up, and to make sure that Powerade bottle wasn't on my car," Gordon said. "I went out there because that's where I wanted to celebrate with my team.

"I think what the people watching at home and the people here want to see is they want to see the real emotions and feelings of what it's like to win a race that's this big."

NASCAR president Mike Helton has warned drivers against what has become a common practice of knocking off rival sponsors' products from their cars in Victory Lane.

"Everyone has their sponsorships to take care of," Gordon said.

"I think that there really needs to be a meeting of the minds to work this out because I don't think it's being worked out in everybody's favor.

"We all need to understand what it's worth to one another because there are things that are worth an awful lot to our race team, that mean a lot to our race team, and there are things that mean a lot to NASCAR, as well.

"We need to figure out what those meanings are and what those numbers are and how to come up with an understanding of it."