re: Jeff Gordon's last year for a championship

Gordon will be remembered as a legend in NASCAR. Phenomenal talent. Four season championships, and but for the advent of The Chase a few years ago, Gordon would have likely won two or three more.

I'm certainly not a friend or even a personal acquaintance on his, but I did get a chance to spend a fair amount of time with him over the years in professional settings off the racetrack. He was consistently one of the nicest and most down-to-earth people you could hope to deal with, particularly when you consider he is fabulously wealthy and one of the most recognizable stars in all of sports (not just racing).

There is a great deal of stupid in many of the posts in this thread, and I've no interest in getting into a slappy fight with folks. (I think baseball is the American equivalent of soccer - very talented players but the game itself is so incredibly boring that I won't watch it on television or in person. But I see no reason to jump into baseball threads and bash the sport - I'll let baseball fans enjoy talking about their sport.).

But as several posters have pointed out, unless you've actually attended a NASCAR race, and many of the negative-posters in this thread have admitted they haven't, then you've no idea of the talent these drivers have. And one of the most talented drivers of all time is Gordon. He's done so much for the sport - it will go on but he will be missed.