He took NASCAR by storm in the 1990s, becoming the youngest driver in the modern era to win a premier series title as a 24-year-old in 1995. He went on to win three more championships (1997, 1998, 2001). Gordon is a three-time Daytona 500 champion and won the Brickyard 400 a record five times. Jeff lived in Findlay in the Summer of 1985 while racing sprint cars across the Midwest.
(b. 1971: NASCAR driver)
They could have lived anywhere. In fact, Pittsboro wasn’t the first stop for Gordon and his parents, John and Carol Bickford, when the family looked to move from Vallejo, California.
“In 1985 when we came back to race (in the Midwest), we lived in Findlay, Ohio,” John Bickford said. “We knew a guy in quarter midget racing that lived in Findlay … He said, ‘Hey you can work out of my shop if you want, I’ve got an apartment here with two rooms I don’t use, you can stay in here this summer.’ So we lived in Findlay, Ohio for the summer of ’85.”
But Findlay proved too problematic. It wasn’t centrally located, it wasn’t close to those that built Gordon’s sprint cars and it wasn’t close to the tracks where he competed each weekend.
Gordon Goes Home: ‘One Of The Best Days Of My Life’