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Goodyear Chairman to Present Gold Car Trophy to 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion

3 December 1998

AKRON, Ohio, -- For the third time in four years, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will present Jeff Gordon with the coveted Goodyear Gold Car trophy in recognition of his winning the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship.

Gordon will receive the 1998 trophy in a ceremony tomorrow night at the season-ending NASCAR Winston Cup banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. He is the 30th consecutive titleholder to win the championship on Goodyear tires.

Goodyear Chairman Samir Gibara will present the trophy and a check from Goodyear for $10,000 to Gordon. Race fans can watch the action in a live broadcast from 9 to 11 p.m. on ESPN.

The trophy, a 1/12-scale replica of Gordon's No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo, was designed and built by artist Mike Dunlap. The 24-karat gold trophy weighs six pounds and measures 16 inches long, six inches wide and four inches high.

"The entire process to build the trophy took almost three months to complete and required 400 separate measurements and almost 200 photos of Jeff's actual car," Dunlap said.

"The Goodyear Gold Car trophy has been a part of our NASCAR program for more than 10 years," said Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of worldwide racing. "In that time, the trophy has become extremely popular among the drivers and we look forward to honoring the Winston Cup champion for many years to come."

Editors Note: The images displayed in this article (plus many more) can be viewed in The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.