10 Years After Evernham's Hendrick Exit, Jeff Gordon Still a Force in NASCAR

10 years ago Saturday -- Sept. 26, 1999 -- was the end of an era for Jeff Gordon.

For as long as Gordon had been a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver, Ray Evernham had been his crew chief. The run produced three championships and 47 wins but came to end when Evernham decided to start his own venture into Sprint Cup ownership. The questions came quickly.

Would Jeff Gordon have the same success? Or would the loss of Evernham spell the end of Gordon's reign in NASCAR?

10 years later, Gordon's success has proved that Gordon could go it alone just fine, but also leaves the question of what could have been.
Starting with the final race of the 1992 season, Evernham and Gordon would join forces in the Sprint Cup Series for some 216 races, ending after the second Dover race of 1999. They earned their first win together in 1994 in Charlotte while their 47th and final together came on the road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y.

The driver-crew chief duo amassed a winning percentage of 21.76% -- winning one of every five races they competed in -- en route to making Gordon the youngest three-time champion in NASCAR history.

Since Evernham left, Gordon has hardly fallen off the map.

In fact, Gordon won the first two races immediately after Evernham left the team in 1999. He's tacked on 33 more wins to that number since 1999 -- a win total that by itself would put Gordon tied for 20th on NASCAR's all-time win list. Instead, his 82 career wins heading into Sunday's race at Dover leave him sixth on the all-time list, highest among active drivers.

The biggest number that seems to have fallen off since Gordon's days with Evernham is the championship count. In his post-Evernham career, Gordon has finished just one season -- the 2001 campaign -- at the head of the pack. That's not to say Gordon has lost his knack for consistency and performance, though.

NASCAR's switch to the Chase for the Championship in 2004 drastically changed what it takes to win the Sprint Cup title. Gordon's four titles came under a season-long cumulative points effort, which the Chase involves the points earned in the final ten races.

Had NASCAR not changed the point system for determining the championship, Gordon's point totals in 2004 and 2007 would have earned him two championships -- equaling the title production of the Evernham days.

Several of Gordon's stats have dropped in the 356 races he competed in since Evernham's departure, but their level is still high enough to be envied by most drivers in the garage area. The winning percentage has some dropped some 8 points, but his career percentage still sits above 14.

Gordon's average finish of 12.7 has dropped about a single position in 10 years, while he averages a start 2.5 spots back from the Evernham days.The number of lead lap finishes however has increased in Gordon's era after Evernham by some 10 percent to 73.31 percent.

A telling stat, though, for why Gordon hasn't won as often since Evernham left might have to do with his percentage of laps led. With Ray, Gordon led 16.48 percent of the time, but since then he's led 10.29 percent of the laps he's competed in. The percentage of top-five finishes has also dropped 13 percent, with Gordon finishing the top-five 40.17 percent of the time since Evernham's departure.

Look at Gordon's performance in two of NASCAR's crown jewels, though, and the difference isn't very big. Gordon won two Daytona 500s and two Brickyard 400s with Evernham, and since then he's picked up one more 500 and two more 400s.

Despite several of Gordon's statistical categories dropping since Evernham left, not all of it could be directly heaped on the crew chief change. NASCAR, as a whole, has gotten drastically more competitive since Gordon started his run to win all of those races.

Ask just about any driver in the garage area and you'll find that what used to a be sport that saw between 5 and 10 cars in position to win each week has become one where 15 drivers might have a car good enough to win today.

10 years ago, there were a lot of doubters of Jeff Gordon. They wondered if "Wonder Boy" could keep it up without arguably one of NASCAR's best ever crew chiefs, or if he'd fall back to the pack. And while his statistics aren't as gawdy or impressive as they used to be, it's a safe bet that Gordon is a safe bet for most races -- Evernham or not.