Jeff Gordon is coming out of retirement and will be driving a NASCAR Cup Series car once again. Well, virtually, anyway.
During Wednesday evening’s International Race of Champions-themed iRacing event, the four-time Cup champion-turned-Fox Sports commentator announced he will compete in Sunday’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. It will be Gordon’s first event on the sim racing service.
“I’m gonna give it a try,” Gordon said during the broadcast. “We’ve been trying to get me behind the wheel of one of these sim races, and I’m coming out of retirement, boys!”
Considered one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, Gordon has enjoyed much success at Talladega with six wins, twenty top-ten finishes, and five poles in forty-six starts. At superspeedways in general like Talladega’s sister track Daytona International Speedway, he has won a combined twelve races, including two Daytona 500s.
Gordon retired from full-time Cup racing after 2015, during which he reached the Championship Round before finishing third in points, followed by a brief stint in 2016 as a substitute for Dale Earnhardt Jr. His ninety-three Cup victories are the third-most in NASCAR history, and he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019.
Details like Gordon’s car number have not been disclosed, but his famed #24 is currently used by Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron. The Trading Paints website, which allows players to create and share iRacing liveries, is capable of letting multiple drivers share a number in a race. Byron has won the last two Pro Invitational races.
Although the Pro Invitational Series field primarily consists of full-time Cup drivers, many retired racers have also made starts. Earnhardt and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Labonte are also entered for Talladega.
