Jeff Gordon won the 1998 Pepsi Southern 500 in a very dominating fashion. With this, he added a 10th win to his season tally. Unfortunately, his victory was soon clouded by accusations of cheering from fans and fellow drivers.

But someone came to his defense, someone you might not expect.

A rival owner accused the #24 team of chemically treating their tires to improve grip. To add to it, Jack Roush, owner of Roush Fenway Racing, supported the chemical treating claims. Moreover, he declared that he too was sent a sample of this mystery tire “softener” by an unnamed distributor. Of course, he said, “my competition [Gordon] was using it.”

Surprisingly, Gordon had one person defending him. And that person is none other than The King, Richard Petty, who said, “In this sport anybody who wins is cheating–whether they are or not–it’s an automatic accusation.”

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NASCAR seized the tires of multiple drivers, including Gordon, for testing, but it was to no avail. On the other hand, a tire engineer argued that it’s nearly impossible to chemically treat a tire and have it be undetectable.

And this is how the iconic Tiregate Scandal of 1998 came to be in NASCAR. But do you think team 24 cheated?

Was Jeff Gordon’s Tiregate Scandal even real?

There is still no real way of knowing who was right back then. But what makes this even more interesting is the fact that even the NASCAR grid is pretty confused.

There are some who compare it to a drug deal. “There’s guys out there, they’re like drug dealers,” said owner and driver Ricky Rudd. “They’re like, ‘Here, I got this for you, I got that for you. I know you guys are having trouble qualifying. Put this on your tires. Soak your tires, I guarantee you’ll win a pole.’”

Some complain that it’s all just crap. “Somebody will come out with a new product and it’s usually just snake oil,” said Hall of Famer Robert Yates.

“And these salesman [always claimed to have] just come from the shop that just won the last race. They are so full of bulls—t.”

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But what do you think? Was this whole thing real? Do you believe Hendrick Motorsports were really using ‘softener’ for their tires?