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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 24.236.123.166 (talk) at 02:07, 7 October 2015 (Consolidated links; only one needed.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


Correct spelling of Gordon's first name

It's J-E-F-F-E-R-Y.

Source: Hendrick Motorsports' website, via Internet Archive / Wayback Machine (scroll down for his bio.): https://web.archive.org/web/20150825082642/http://www.hendrickmotorsports.com/news/articles/51426/jeff-gordon-to-run-final-full-time-nascar-season-in-2015 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.236.123.166 (talk) 01:58, 7 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Remember, there is always a chance that it could be spelled wrong by HMS. If you were to look through other reliable sources besides HMS, they use "Jeffrey", as seen here, here, here, and here, while the source used in the article ([1]) also says "Jeffrey". Zappa24Mati 02:05, 7 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This article is very long

I've tagged this article as a very long article. We need to think of ways to shorten it.

I suggest that we divide the Sprint Cup Series section, along with it's 1994-2015 subsections, into an article of its own, as it is a very long section.
I suggest that we either eliminate the second infobox or find a way to combine it with the first one. Also, perhaps not all of the information on the first one is relevant to an infobox. It is awfully long.
I suggest we put a link in the infobox to the Career achievements section and move the content from the infobox to this section. There's also a section at the bottom of the page, Achievements, which could somehow be merged into the Career achievements section.
I also suggest we limit the amount of photographs in the article somewhat, especially where they appear in close proximity to each other, and choose the best to keep.

Please state your own suggestions for shortening this article and whether you support or oppose my ideas above. Louieoddie (talk) 08:19, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Louieoddie: Regarding the first suggestion, I think we can include the Busch Series and other racing sections as well, though he might not had spent long enough in those series to warrant moving those as well. Maybe we can call the page Sprint Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon or Racing career of Jeff Gordon if we add in the other series? We'll still have to add concise summaries of his career if we do split it. Zappa24Mati 15:42, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie: The more I think about it, I think if we do the entire racing career, that article could be pretty long as well. If we do split it, maybe we should just do his Cup career. Zappa24Mati 01:17, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati:, yes I agree the whole racing career might be a bit long for one article. Sprint Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon would work for an article on the Sprint Cup Series. As to the Achievements section, I've been looking at some of the other NASCAR Cup Series champions' articles and found that this table and it's placement are fairly standard. However, the table never has it's own section, it's just at the end of the External links section. I'll fix that here. Louieoddie (talk) 03:40, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie: Well, assuming we do follow through with the article split, I've been trying to shorten the section at User:ZappaOMati/sandbox/2. I could use some help. Zappa24Mati 04:13, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie: Since the new page would be more detailed (more "race-by-race", for lack of a better term), some phrases from the original would probably stay behind while the others get moved, like the "Gordon's early success in the sport reshaped the paradigm and eventually gave younger drivers an opportunity to compete in NASCAR. However, during the 1993 season, many doubted Gordon's ability to compete at such a level at such a young age because of his tendency to push the cars too hard and crash. His last-place finish at the 1993 First Union 400 was a firm example of this theory.[6] Additionally, driver Darrell Waltrip wrote he told Hendrick during the 1993 season that Gordon had "hit everything but the pace car that year."[7]" portion. Zappa24Mati 04:31, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati: I looked at what you did so far and have managed to compress even further. If we separate the section into it's own article, we would need a concise summary of the whole section, to leave in this article, and another version that is compressed to about half of that, for the lede of the new article. I'm working on a possible summary for the current article, based on that section and what you were doing so far. I also like your idea of making a legacy sub-section. I hope we can continue to collaborate on this.
Here's what I've got so far:
In 1992, Gordon's stepfather, James Bickford, declined Jack Roush's offer to sign Gordon due to Roush's policy of hiring his own crew chiefs.[1] Later that year, Rick Hendrick signed Gordon to Hendrick Motorsports.[2] Gordon made his Winston Cup debut in the season-ending race, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta, finishing 31st after a crash.[3]
Gordon opened 1993 with a win in the Gatorade Twin 125's race,[4] and finished 14th in points and with the Rookie of the Year Award.[5] During this season, many felt that Gordon was too young to compete at such a level due to his tendency to push cars too hard and crash. His last-place finish at the 1993 First Union 400 seemed to prove this theory.[6] Driver Darrell Waltrip said that Gordon "hit everything but the pace car that year."[7]
In 1994, Gordon won the Busch Clash exhibition race at Daytona[8] and took fourth-place in the Daytona 500.[9] He collected his first career win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600.[10] He scored a popular hometown victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the inaugural Brickyard 400.[11] He finished eighth in the Winston Cup point standings for the season, just 918 points behind Earnhardt.[12]
Legacy
Gordon's early success in the sport reshaped the paradigm and eventually gave younger drivers an opportunity to compete in NASCAR.
He was given the nickname "Wonder Boy" by Dale Earnhardt,[13] and his crew was called the "Rainbow Warriors".[14]
In 1998, NASCAR named Gordon to its 50 Greatest Drivers list.[15] In 2008, ten years later, ESPN's Terry Blount ranked him 10th in his list of the 25 Greatest Drivers of All-Time.[16] Foxsports.com named him as the fifth-best NASCAR driver of all time.[17]
Louieoddie (talk) 12:32, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie: The main concern I have about the Legacy section is what to add, then. I think we could move some info from the Career achievements section to it, but I don't really know. Zappa24Mati 18:01, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati: I see what you mean. Rather than having a Legacy section we could use the material in it to make a nice closing statement for the summary of his Sprint Cup Career on the current article. Alternately, we could instead use it as a thesis statement for the summary by putting it at the beginning. I think this sentence in particular would look good near the beginning of the lede for the new article:
Gordon's early success in the sport reshaped the paradigm and eventually gave younger drivers an opportunity to compete in NASCAR.
Louieoddie (talk) 00:45, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati and Louieoddie: Justin, I know you have ambitions to get your driver's article up to GA status. I strongly recommend you try to cut it down and trim some of the fat away, and of course, split Jeff's career achievements into the separate article you're working on. Wikipedia suggests articles should generally not exceed 100,000 bytes. At the moment, this page is three times that amount and the 105th longest article on the entire English Wikipedia. Now of course, Jeff's results tables alone are going to add a ton of bytes; however, 300,000+ is still definitely a point where the "too long" tag is merited. Good luck with this and 2013 Mudsummer Classic! If you need any help, don't hesitate to let me know, and I'll see what I can do. --Bentvfan54321 (talk) 01:43, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Bentvfan54321 and Louieoddie: Well, I just spent an hour trying to condense the article as much as possible at User:ZappaOMati/sandbox/2, and counting the bytes in comparison between it and the current one, my rewritten version is 39,251 bytes, much less, but I still feel like it could be slightly shortened a little more. Any ideas? Zappa24Mati 03:57, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati and Bentvfan54321: That really is a lot shorter. I'll see if I can reduce it further later. Best if we all help each other. Louieoddie (talk) 08:34, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie and Bentvfan54321: I've tried, and I'm pretty much done and happy with what I did. I could use some help on adding the finishing touches, though. Zappa24Mati 18:05, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati: If you need anything, you can let me know; right now, I'm trying to clean up Sam Hornish, Jr. It's incredible how overly-detailed the article is and how much unsourced fancruft those IPs have added in. Thanks, --Bentvfan54321 (talk) 18:27, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The individual year sections in the back half of his career are much longer than the front half. Use that as a model for cutting out chunks of prose. The tables documenting his career can easily be broken into its own article and there is plenty of precedent for that.
As a condensation tip, inidividual race victories should not be highlighted without special significance. He won five races in 19XX, can reduce several sentences into one. --Falcadore (talk) 15:42, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati: I read your latest revision of the Sprint Cup summary and it is really a lot shorter. For my part, I think we should go with that. I suggest that we wait a week to see if anyone opposes and if not we go forward with this summary and the new split article. We would need a lede for the new article. I'll start working on a lede in my sandbox, if anyone else wants to give it a shot we can all post here and compare. Louieoddie (talk) 10:22, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Louieoddie: Well, it's been over a week, and since no one's opposed, I've moved my shortened section into this article, while splitting the longer one into Sprint Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon. All I need now is to deal with the placeholder lead I added to it, and we'll be good. Zappa24Mati 21:59, 17 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@ZappaOMati: It looks great. That really does reduce the Jeff Gordon article a lot. I'll have to look soon for more categories to add to the bottom of the Sprint Cup Series career of Jeff Gordon article. Louieoddie (talk) 23:46, 17 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Jeff Gordon Early Racing Career

Jeff Gordon first started racing BMX bikes at age 4, and the year after he drove a quarter midget for his first time in competition. He won the national quarter-midget championship when he was 8 and 10 years old.He went on to dominate older children in go-kart racing events. When Jeff was 13, the family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana, so he could race sprint cars without a minimum age requirement hindering him.He joined the United States Auto Club when he was 16, and won their National Midget championship at 19 and the Silver Crown championship the year after.Gordon got interested in stock cars and started driving for Hugh Connerty in NASCAR's Busch Grand National Series in 1990. In 1991, he took the Rookie of the Year title. He signed with Rick Hendrick in May of 1992. In 1993, he obtained the title of the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.In 1995, he won his first series championship.Overall Jeff Gordon won 4 championships and that was in only a 7-year span.Jeff Gordon will turn 44 years of age on August 4, 2015.He retires from full-time racing after the 2015 season to go on to be an analyst for Fox Sports in 2016. Maryennis 15:35, 3 August 2015 (UTC)MaryennisMaryennis 15:35, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Possible lede for split article

This is what I've got so far. If anybody knows how to compress it further or generally make it better, please have at it.

Jeffrey Michael "Jeff" Gordon is an American professional stock car racing driver who, since 1992, has been driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Gordon made his Winston Cup debut in the 1992 Hooters 500, finishing 31st with a crash. In 1993, he won the Gatorade Twin 125's race, finished the season 14th in points and won the Rookie of the Year Award. Early on, Gordon's tendency to push cars too hard and crash caused many to feel that Gordon was too young to compete at this level. In 1994, he won the Busch Clash exhibition race, the Coca-Cola 600 pole and race and scored a hometown victory at the inaugural Brickyard 400. In 1995, Gordon won a total of seven races and nine poles and secured the Cup Series championship. After winning the Sprint Cup championship for the first time in 1995, Gordon went on to win it three more times in 1997, 1998 and 2001.
Gordon's 1996 title defense featured ten wins. He finished second to teammate Terry Labonte for the championship. In 1997, he became the youngest driver, at the time, to win the Daytona 500 and was the first driver, since Bill Elliott, to win the Winston Million. He won the Daytona 500 again in 1999 and 2005, for a total of three wins. In 1998, Gordon set a modern-era record of 13 races and won his third title. He set Cup records during the season, including four consecutive wins and 17 consecutive Top 5 finishes. Despite offers in 1999 from the owner of Chip Ganassi Racing and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Gordon signed a lifetime contract with Hendrick Motorsports starting in 2000, allowing him to become an equity owner in his No. 24 team.
Gordon recorded his 50th career victory in 2000. Then, in 2001, he became the third driver to win four Cup championships in NASCAR history and earned Hendrick Motorsports their 100th win. Gordon won three races in 2002 and 2003 respectively. In 2004, Gordon's team recorded five wins and he finished the season third in the points standings. Gordon won his third Daytona 500 plus three more races in 2005. Gordon recorded two wins and two poles in 2006. In 2007, he won six races and seven poles, tied Darrell Waltrip's modern-day record of 59 poles, Dale Earnhardt's record for sixth all-time in overall number of Cup wins and recorded his 77th career Cup victory. Gordon finished the Chase second in the standings and finished the year with 30 top tens, setting a new modern era Cup Series record. From 2008 to 2010, Gordon struggled, recording a total of one win and six poles during the three seasons. In 2009, Gordon became the first driver in NASCAR history to pass $100 million USD in career winnings.
In 2011, Gordon won for the first time in 66 races, broke his tie for the third-most poles with Cale Yarborough and tied Bill Elliott for the most wins at the Pocono track. He claimed his 85th career win, third-most of all time and became the winningest driver in the modern era of the sport. In 2012, Gordon earned his 86th and 87th Cup victories, surpassed Elliott with his sixth win at the Pocono track and made his eighth Chase for the Sprint Cup. In 2013, Gordon made his 700th consecutive Cup start and marked his 300th and 301st career top-5 finishes, tying with David Pearson for third all-time. Gordon set track time and speed records for his first pole of 2013 and broke the tie with Mark Martin for most poles at Richmond among active drivers. His winning a pole in 21 consecutive seasons set a NASCAR record. Finishing one point behind Joey Logano, Gordon was knocked out of the Chase until it was found that Logano's team had collaborated with David Gilliland's team to secure Logano's position. In 2014, Gordon recorded four wins. To mark the twentieth anniversary of his 1994 Brickyard 400 win, Indianapolis mayor, Greg Ballard, declared the day "Jeff Gordon Day". Gordon's 10th place finish at Homestead marked his 454th top-ten, surpassing Mark Martin for second in all-time top tens.
On January 22, 2015, Gordon announced this would be his last season as a full-time driver. On January 29, Gordon stated he does not plan to run any more Daytona 500s after 2015. He started the season by winning the pole for his final Daytona 500, but crashed on the final lap, finishing 33rd.
Louieoddie (talk) 12:40, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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