Former NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon is undoubtedly a legend in his own right. However, every legend had to start somewhere. The Hendrick Motorsports star made his Cup Series debut in 1992 and went full-time in 1993. The #24 driver went from strength to strength and racked up 93 career Cup wins and four championships. Now, he is the Vice Chairman at Hendrick Motorsports.

Gordon’s rise to stardom boils down to the 1994 Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. You may ask what was so special about this particular race. The answer is that this race gave the #24 driver his big break and his first visit to victory lane. Even before that first win, he had shown that a win was not too far off. In fact, Gordon recorded seven top-five finishes, 11 top-10s, and 230 laps led in 1993.

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Jeff Gordon had plenty of downs to go with his ups in his debut season

Speaking to NASCAR Studios, Gordon said, “My rookie year was a real up-and-down year. There were highlights where we ran really strong. We sat on the pole at Charlotte late in the year. Ran second, I believe, in my first ever 600 to (Dale) Earnhardt. We really showed promise, but we also… not we, me… [I] wrecked a lot, tore up a lot of equipment, and it was not the greatest confidence booster.”

However, when the 1994 Coca-Cola 600 came by, it was as if all the stars had aligned for Gordon. The Hendrick Motorsports driver snatched pole position, but was aware of the threat of a dominant Rusty Wallace. Wallace was in excellent form, leading the pack for an astounding 187 laps in his #2 car. Geoff Bodine led around 101 laps in his #7 Ford, but Wallace looked unstoppable.

How did Gordon win that race?

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The 4-time Cup champion continued, “Rusty had that race won and was the dominant car that day. But we kept ourselves in position, we fought hard, and sometimes that’s all you need to do is be in a position to capitalize. We did by clearly a great strategy call, a two-tire pit stop, a fast two-tire pit stop, and then up against Rusty’s four-tire stop.

“There was a lot of emotion wrapped up in that win because I felt like it was a huge accomplishment. Number 1, you just want to win. You just hope you could win one race at that level, elite drivers, teams.

“I realized how competitive and hard and difficult it was going to be right away. So that day solidified my journey up to that point of, yeah, I have what it takes, we have what it takes and decisions that were made were the right ones to finally accomplish this. And there was no looking back after that.”

Safe to say, the clever strategy allowed Gordon to leapfrog the leader and lead 12 of the final 22 laps. This included the last nine laps en route to his first career victory. When the then 22-year-old drove to the victory lane, he declared that it was the greatest day of his life. Since that fateful day, he has never looked back and recorded some impressive statistics. It also propelled him to superstardom, and it all started with that first win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

WATCH THIS STORY: “The Thing He Kept Close to His Chest & Didn’t Share With You” – Jeff Gordon Reveals How Dale Earnhardt Kept Him in the Dark