INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Ahead of Sunday’s Brickyard 400, NASCAR legend and five-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon visited the IMS Museum to see the new exhibit honoring his racing career. The exhibit, which initially opened on July 1, includes 13 cars from his career and over 70 of his helmets, rings, trophies, and so much more. Gordon saw it in person for the first time on Thursday, and he described how special it was to take a trip down memory lane alongside his parents and his son. “I don’t display a lot of my helmets and trophies and things,” Gordon said. “It’s just not something that I’ve done. All of these helmets have been sitting in cabinets and warehouses for years. To experience this with my son, my parents, this is a really special day for me.” Gordon, a Pittsboro, Indiana native, has childhood memories of coming to the IMS Museum and seeing some of his own racing heroes. “I can remember coming to this museum when I was probably 12 years old, 11 years old,” Gordon said. “This is where I, for the very first time, had a hero. I came in here, and I saw this list of names and helmets and gloves and cars from the Indy 500 history, and I became a Rick Mears fan because I came in here and saw his name on that list.” Since opening in 1956, this is the first time the IMS Museum has had an entire exhibition dedicated to a single NASCAR driver. Gordon extended a huge thank you to all those who made his exhibit possible. “I want to give a huge shoutout to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum folks, all the people in the archives, for Hendrick Motorsports as well as here,” Gordon said. “They’ve put in a tremendous amount of effort to catalog, locate, and pull it all together, and then display it the way it’s being displayed. It’s a real honor for me to be a part of that and to witness this.” Gordon’s five wins at the Brickyard 400 (1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014) are the most all-time. This year’s Brickyard 400 will begin this Sunday, July 26, at 2 p.m. ET. ...read more read less