There's little time for offseason rest for former champ

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A makeup artist leaned over Jeff Gordon, touching up his cheeks and hair. A director then walked him through his marks on a sound stage while a small group of sponsor representatives huddled behind a monitor watching it all unfold.

Sometimes being a Winston Cup star isn't so glamorous, with the worst of those days happening now -- during the so-called two-month offseason.

Instead of lounging on a beach or relaxing in front of the television, Gordon and other drivers spend countless days in front of cameras filming sponsor commercials, or standing for hours with a frozen smile for pictures that end up in press kits, hero cards and the rest of the souvenirs that teams must sell.

"If I had my choice, sure I want to be in the car driving the race car," Gordon said. "But you get used to this time of year, this being the routine ... the photo shoots, the commercials, all that."

Drivers can choose when they want to do all this work, but like most, Gordon tries to knock it all out during the offseason so he's not bothered with it when he should be focusing on the car.

So that's what brought him out to a Charlotte studio last week for an eight-hour commercial shoot for sponsor DuPont.

Fulfilling these responsibilities meant Gordon, one of the greatest race car drivers in the world, had to switch gears and become an actor.

He had a 10 a.m. call and a handful of scripts to learn. This ad was for a DuPont StormRoom with Kevlar, a safety room designed to protect people from tornadoes.

So Gordon stood stage left, a huge microphone in his face, repeating his lines over and over to get them down pat. Then he had to pick what tone they'd be delivered in.

"Now here's something to protect you and your family," he said softly, changing the part of the sentence he needed to emphasize.

Getting it right

His first try with the cameras running was flawless, but the director spotted a shadow behind Gordon's head.

Gordon left out a word on the second take, delivered the third take seemingly perfectly, stopped himself in the middle of the fourth take when he jumbled some words, and finally seemed to nail it on about the sixth try.

"The attitude was good on that one," the director said.

"Yep, absolutely," the sponsor chimed in.

This segment was a wrap.

But his day was just beginning. Next it was off to another part of the studio to film a public service announcement, then over to a barren stage to act like he was ducking flying objects during an actual tornado.

The filming goes on all day, with a short break for lunch.

"When you see the final product, it's a little more glamorous looking," he said. "They make it look like a really cool piece, which it is, but it's weird to see how much really goes into it.

"It's like you do a minute of shooting things that takes 15 minutes to set up. And then, of course, you do it over and over and over again. It's not near as glamorous as you see."

This side of the business is perhaps the most tedious in an action-packed schedule that has drivers on the road at least 40 weekends a year.

The additional work is part of the contract the driver works out with the sponsor, which in Gordon's case means at least 15 appearances a year for DuPont, at least one commercial shoot and another photo shoot with an added on autograph session.

But Gordon also is teamed with Pepsi, an associate sponsor, which also means a heavy workload of commercials, appearances and autograph sessions.

"This is the time of year when the sponsors put all their marketing to work," Gordon said. "I'm at the point in my career where I am used to it."