NASCAR: Did Jeff Gordon almost switch to Formula 1?

Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon recently spoke on the Beyond the Grid podcast about his potential Formula 1 move.

In June 2003 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon took part in a car swap with Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya, giving him the opportunity to pilot Montoya’s Williams FW24 machine.

While the swap was ultimately something that was meant more for entertainment and a great experience, Gordon’s laps around the 13-turn, 2.605-mile (4.192-kilometer) road course in Speedway, Indiana got him noticed by several Formula 1 teams. This led to a number of doors opening for the man who was then in his 11th season as a full-time Cup Series driver.

After all, Montoya, who was in his third Formula 1 season when he got to pilot Gordon’s #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, ended up making the move to the Cup Series a few years later. He competed full-time at NASCAR’s top level form 2007 to 2013 after his Formula 1 career concluded in 2006.

Could Gordon have ended up doing the same thing, but in the opposite direction?

Here is what he had to say recently on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

"“There were a lot of discussions that went on that got more serious than I thought they would after that because I did have so much fun with it. Then I started thinking, ‘Could I train my neck enough to do this? Could I learn the tracks? Could I be competitive?’ To me, I thought it was too steep a climb to accomplish.“I was at a point…the opportunity somewhat did come along. I went to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and was just on vacation really, just walking around. It happened to be when the F1 race was happening so we went to the race.“Jimmie Johnson was actually with me and all of a sudden a couple of people were like ‘Hey, such and such would like to talk to you’. I am over in the Jaguar paddock and ‘Hey, tell us about what is going on with your future, we saw you drove the Williams’. It probably was, more than anything, did I have any money to bring to F1 and did I want to be an F1 driver?“I sat down with Frank [Williams], I think he came to Indianapolis after that test for the actual race. I went and sat down with him and talked about it. I think it might have been a similar type of probe. It never got seriously anywhere and at that time I didn’t expect it to because I was so established in NASCAR that…eight years prior to that had that happened, it might have been a different conversation.”"

When Gordon attended the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as a guest of Williams and Montoya, the year was 2004. Eight years prior to that would have been 1996, which was Gordon’s fourth season of full-time Cup Series competition.