General Motors confirmed that professional stock car racing driver Jeff Gordon is set to pace the 2015 Indy 500 at the wheel of a Corvette Z06. This bit of news marks the 13th time the nameplate has served as the official Indianapolis 500 pace car.
It was 1978 when the golden bowtie manufacturer first put the Corvette to the test at pacing the 500-mile race. If you count all Chevy-branded cars that had the same privilege, this year’s appearance counts as number 26.
Jeff is no stranger to what the motorsport community refers to as the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Gordon won the Brickyard 400 in 1994. After this seminal moment, the 43-year-old racing driver visited the winner’s circle four more times, making him one of the two 5-time winners at Indy in any series.
“Indy is hallowed ground for racers like me and I couldn’t be more thrilled to drive the Corvette Z06 pace car around the track that helped drive my success over the years,” Gordon declared.
“We also look forward to seeing him back here on July 26, to see if he can make it six wins for the Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard.” said J. Douglas Boles, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On the same day Jeff will drive the production-spec Corvette Z06 pace car, he’ll also compete in the Coca Cola 600 NASCAR race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
And on that bombshell, did you know that the NASCAR superstar is a Chevy driver outside his working hours? In the adjacent video, Jeff will talk you through why he chose the 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and LT1 V8-engined 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray as his daily drivers of choice.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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