Nascar 214 Mph: Jeff Gordon Hits High Speeds At Indy Tire Test

Nascar's best drivers surprised even themselves when figures like 214 mph began showing up on their official timing records at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. No one was more surprised than veteran Jeff Gordon, 41, who clocked the day's high of 214 mph. The Brickyard is known for high speeds in both Nascar and Indy-Car racing events held throughout the year at the historic rectangular oval in Indiana.

The lack of warmer springtime weather throughout much of the Midwest and Northeast likely attributed to perfect race conditions during the Nascar tire test at Indianapolis in advance of this weekend's Aaron's 499 at Talladega, Ala.

"They said [I clocked] 214 [mph] and I said 'My gosh, it really is fast," Jeff Gordon described the track's conditions to the AP. Cool weather in Indianapolis kept the pavement's 'track temperature' low, which in turn assisted the Nascar drivers' fresh tires to glide across the asphalt. If the track was warmer, the tires would have a better chance of causing friction between the tires and the track, similar to the phenomenon of 'suction' noises heard while riding a bicycle on a hot day. The fact that Gordon's and others' tires were not worn, meant that two evenly-graded surfaces were meeting each other, which attributed to higher speeds.

In addition to Jeff Gordon hitting 214 mph, Jeff Gordon was joined by fellow longtime driver Mark Martin who reportedly reached 212 mph. Jeff Gordon himself won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 back when "The Kid" truly lived up to his nickname.

While the Nascar time of 214 mph was set by Gordon during a tire test, and not a qualifier or race, there is no word as to how the milestone will be recorded. Former Nascar veteran Bill Elliott coasted his McDonalds Chevy to a record qualifying speed of 212.809 mph in 1987 at Talladega, breaking the second-place record that same year in Daytona Beach, Fla. Marcos Ambrose' 203mph at Michigan in 2012 and retired Nascar great Geoff Bodine's 197mph at Atlanta in 1997 follow close behind Elliott's times.