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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nostalgia is a powerful force. If you need a reminder, just head to your favorite social network to see how many of your best friends (and favorite brands) are sharing old photos for #ThrowbackThursday. It\u2019s why nothing is easier to greenlight than a familiar franchise. Fuller House? Absolutely. Mulder and Scully are back? Sure, why not. \u201CChewie, we\u2019re home\u201D? Just go ahead and take my money. It\u2019s why we hold onto yearbooks, and ticket stubs, and the old mix CD you burned when you were going through some really heavy stuff back in college.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There\u2019s a very basic human need to occasionally wrap ourselves in the comfort of the past. We romanticize the setting, the scenery, the characters from way back when, and we\u2019d love nothing more than to go back and savor some of those standout moments, with the benefit of all the wisdom we\u2019d like to think we\u2019ve accumulated since.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In related news, Jeff Gordon is \u201CWonderboy\u201D no more. He\u2019s 44 now, and a father to two adorable children. A few years ago, when he regrew his mustache to fulfill a promise to his team, it was speckled with more than a little grey. In recent seasons, he\u2019s dealt with recurring back pain, but it didn\u2019t stop him from passing Ricky Rudd as NASCAR\u2019s \u201CIron Man\u201D in September.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sunday will mark his 797th start in the Sprint Cup Series, all of them consecutive. He\u2019s literally sponsored by AARP now, and his commercials for the group demonstrate that even in this, his final season before retirement, his sense of humor hasn\u2019t abandoned him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[youtube:&amp;nbsp;https://youtu.be/7l9phqCKb7g]\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So yeah, this is not the same Jeff Gordon, and that\u2019s also the case now when he climbs into the No. 24 car.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Back in the mid-1990s, when Gordon first entered NASCAR, he was a revelation. By his second full season, he was winning races. By his third, he was a champion of the sport. Between 1995 to 1998, he took home three titles, and won approximately one out of every three races he entered. Under crew chief Ray Evernham, Gordon and the \u201CRainbow Warriors\u201D quite literally redefined the parameters of what was possible in the sport\u2019s modern era.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No one thought, in an age of big budgets, tight parameters, and a robust rule book that one group could so completely dominate a field of 43 cars, but Gordon\u2019s bunch did exactly that\u200A\u2014\u200Apiling up trophies, lapping the competition, building cars so obscenely dominant that NASCAR made sure they would never return to the track again.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those days long are over. Evernham departed years ago, and while Gordon added one more championship since, he\u2019s never recaptured that same level of supremacy. The No. 24 team has been on its \u201CDrive For Five\u201D titles for more than a decade now, and has been unable to close the deal. In the meantime, Jimmie Johnson\u200A\u2014\u200Aa protege of sorts who Gordon helped bring to Hendrick Motorsports as a teammate\u200A\u2014\u200Ahas won six Sprint Cups, and become the new face of the sport. Gordon has stayed around, stayed competitive, continued to win races, and serves as an elder statesman in the garage\u200A\u2014\u200Aa figure of undeniable talent and respect.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a long way from Gordon\u2019s heyday, when he crossed over strongly into mainstream popularity. He was the guy who emerged from what had always been seen as a \u201Cniche sport,\u201D and look perfectly at home alongside Griffey, Gretzky&amp;nbsp;and Jordan. Or, for that matter, standing next to Tom Cruise&amp;nbsp;and teaching him a thing or two about racing. Gordon wasn\u2019t just a race car driver, he was a &lt;strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\"&gt;&lt;em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"&gt;star, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;the likes of which the sport hasn\u2019t seen since.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gordon remains the only racecar driver to host Saturday Night Live, an experience he revisited in a fantastic profile, published this week, by Matt Crossman for Bleacher Report. And that evening, when the sport\u2019s biggest star took the stage at 30 Rock, and entertained the entire country for 90 minutes or so, may very well have been NASCAR\u2019s pinnacle in popular culture.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jeff Gordon was the right man, at the right time, to bring stock car racing to a new place in the country\u2019s consciousness, to take what the gold ol\u2019 boys had built down south, bring over a few more television cameras, and turn it into a truly national sport. An unknown kid from California, originally trained to be an IndyCar driver, made all that possible. He was savvy and handsome and charismatic, sure, but he also was so damn talented behind the wheel. Only the very greatest in their field get the opportunity to bring it to new heights, and racing had been waiting for someone like Gordon: Calm, cool and comfortable, inside the car and out.\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NASCAR itself got in on the nostalgia trend earlier this year, when the Sprint Cup Series\u2019 \u201CSouthern 500\u201D at Darlington Raceway returned to its traditional date on Labor Day weekend. Cars were outfitted in \u201Cthrowback\u201D paint schemes that harkened back to the days of Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough&amp;nbsp;and other past greats. The track itself got in on the fun, with classic signage and advertising. Even the broadcast partner played along, as NBC broke out its old graphics packages and theme music, and welcomed beloved broadcasters Ken Squier and Ned Jarrett back to the booth to call a portion of the race. All in all, it was a clever and well-received concept for a sport eager to celebrate its roots.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It\u2019s easy to understand why NASCAR, like so many of us, would want to take a wistful look back. Attendance continues to decline, TV ratings are down, and there\u2019s little doubt that the sport struggles to recapture the mainstream \u201Cbuzz\u201D it commanded years ago when Earnhardt, Elliott, Labonte&amp;nbsp;and, yes, Gordon, were all battling fender to fender for the lead. For those who love the sport deeply and those who only check in occasionally, there is a feeling that, maybe, the pinnacle has come and gone.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, you can\u2019t have a peak without a slope, and the sport remains the most popular form of racing in the country by a wide margin. Tens of thousands still make their way to the traveling circus every weekend (although there is no doubt that a younger, more diverse fanbase would be welcome.) As such, NASCAR plots its future with an eye on trying to recapture the energy and the excitement of the glory days, and wouldn\u2019t you know it, those efforts just so happened to push Jeff Gordon back to the sport\u2019s forefront.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The sport\u2019s most recent \u201CChase Grid\u201D playoff format, introduced last year, puts a premium on late-season performance, so\u200A\u2014\u200Awith just a single win this season, three weeks ago in Martinsville\u200A\u2014\u200AGordon clinched his place in Sunday\u2019s championship finale. He reacted, appropriately enough, like a young kid experiencing victory lane for the very first time.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[youtube:&amp;nbsp;https://youtu.be/OpnMWSQP6G8]\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On paper, he\u2019s the weakest of the four contenders for this season\u2019s title. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. all have led more laps, accumulated more top-fives, put together a better average finish. The days of Gordon overwhelming rivals, leaving them to vie for second place, are long gone. This weekend, he\u2019ll be the aging underdog, a role in which he has very little experience. Gordon doesn\u2019t have to recapture the past, though. He just has to find a way to be the best car for 400 miles at Homestead Miami Speedway. And if he can do it, what a delightful rush of nostalgia it will be.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So go find your Sony Walkmen, your POGs, your AOL Trial CD-ROMs. It\u2019s the '90s all over again! The Jeff Gordon franchise gets one last exciting episode.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/thecauldron/2015/11/19/nascar-nostalgia-jeff-gordon-final-ride>