Tony Stewart’s and Jeff Gordon’s Forgotten but Memorable Feud

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are two of Indiana’s best-ever drivers from a sport that has given us all kinds of all-time greats in all types of motorsports. But while they get along now, early in their career. Their clash was not an uncommon occurrence, as seen in Bristol in 2001.

Stewart and Gordon’s Rivalry

During their time, these two dominated road courses, leaving everyone else to eat their dust. So, it makes sense that their first dustup was at Watkins Glen, but on lap 2, that’s unusual. Jeff Gordon came into the weekend to continue the history he already made by his six straight road course wins and was looking for 7.

Stewart, however, was tired of losing to the at-the-time 3-time champion, so he wasn’t going easy on him even at the start of the race. On lap 2, Gordon tried to pass Tony in the esses, a bold move at the best of times.

But Tony took the chance to brake late and slam into Jeff Gordon’s door, which forced him into the guardrail. An incident that sadly ruined Gordon’s race and all-time streak because he finished 23rd due to the damage. And neither were they hiding their true feelings about it from each other.

“You’d better practice what you preach,” Stewart retorted. “You’re always telling me to take it easy on the first lap. You think I did it on purpose?”Gordon had angry words for him, too. “I’ll slam you into the wall the first chance I get,” the future four-time champion hurled at the future three-time champion.

Stewart and Gordon Clash at Bristol

The final lap at the 2001 Food City 500 is go time, and Stewart, Gordon, plus everybody were doing everything they could to finish as best as they could. So when Jeff Gordon got a run out of turn 2, he wasn’t lifting and was going to get by Stewart no matter what.

In turn 3, he was on Stewart’s inside by a quarter panel, and he tried to squeeze Gordon and got him below the apron, but he wasn’t giving him any space, so they made contact, which spun Stewart around. At the same time, Gordon went on as if nothing had happened.

Tony Stewart doesn’t hide his frustration often, if ever, so there wasn’t a lot of shock when on pit road Tony accelerated into Gordon’s back bumper and spun him on pit road on what’s supposed to be the “cooldown” lap. And like last time they sparred, they didn’t bite their lips.

Although this time it wasn’t towards each other; instead, this time they were laying it all out on the mic. “That didn’t surprise me a bit,” Gordon said of the retaliation. “We’re both open-wheel racers who are stock car racers now, and we’re both aggressive, and we both want to win, and we both want to get every spot we can every time we’re on the race track,” Stewart said.

The Length of the Rivalry

“We just had a meeting of the minds in the last quarter of the last lap of a 500-lap race.” “I thought it was pretty clean,” Gordon said. “I did everything I could do to keep from hitting him. I didn’t want it to come down to the last lap like that, but if you’ve got a position and you’ve been working on it a long time, you’re going to do it, and you’re going to take everything you can all the way to the end.”

Now this rivalry wouldn’t last past this. Jeff Gordon went on to win the 2001 title, while Stewart won 3 Cup Series titles of their own. In 2016, they did a tribute lap together at their last start at their home track, Indianapolis. To the roar of the crowd. Thanks a bunch for reading!