NICE GUYS FINISH…FIRST?
With his latest win at this years Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon was propelled to the rank of third all-time in racing history. While the win was only his third of the season, it constituted his 85th lifetime, placing him on the top-3 list behind only Richard Petty and David Pearson. And while it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to overtake Petty’s 200 wins all-time, he does have a legitimate shot at Pearson’s record of 105.
Now I don’t fancy myself a super-fan of NASCAR, as it’s been my experience that you’re either a ‘race guy’ or your not. A solid case in point, the producer I just worked with on my last project certainly was…Brian, you know who you are. Having said that, claiming to not know who Jeff Gordon is because you’re not a race fan is like saying you’ve never heard of Tiger Woods because you don’t follow golf. After all, guys like that are just as much pop-culture icons as they are representatives of their respective craft.
I, for one, found Mr. Gordon to be a swell fellow when I had the unique opportunity of working with him ealier this year. I produced a spot for a pharma client that used Jeff and his wife (model Ingrid Vandebosch) as its lead spokes-folks. The campaign, directed by Kevin Hack of Get-Kinetic and shot on the RED One by DP JR Campbell, was aimed at raising awareness for parents to the dangers of Pertussis (also known as whooping cough). Both Jeff & Ingrid were enjoyable to work with, making the otherwise hectic production schedule far smoother than it likely should have been.
So again, my hat’s off to a nice guy who actually does get to finish first…apparently 85 times and counting.
