Racing: Who Wears Nomex®

Racing professionals like Jeff Gordon, Ray Evernham, Robert Pressley, Gerhard Berger and Jos Verstappen wear racing gear of Nomex® for a variety of reasons: it's lightweight, flexible, breathable and comfortable. Most importantly, though, it's flame-resistant. And that performance benefit, more than any other, helped saved their lives.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, has been racing for almost 25 years. In 2001, Gordon won the Winston Cup championship, becoming only the third driver to win four championships in a career. He also led the Winston Cup Series in several statistical categories: Wins (6), Poles (6), Top-5's (18), Top-10's (24), Races Led (25), Laps Led (2,032). Last year, Gordon became the first Winston Cup driver to eclipse $10 million in a single season prize winnings. During a midget race in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1990, the racing gear of Nomex® that he wore prevented serious injury. Click here to read his story.

Ray Evernham has been hard at work in and around racing for the past 25 years, and his story is one of success. His innovations and leadership in the motorsports industry has earned him many honors throughout the years. Ray and his Rainbow Warriors won 45 races (including 13 in 1998 alone), secured 27 poles and claimed the Winston Cup Championship three times. In the fall of 1999, Dodge officials saluted Evernham by selecting him as the lead partner for Dodge's return to Winston Cup racing in 2001. He returns to the track in 2002 as Team Owner of Evernham Motorsports. He is living proof of what it means to count on Nomex® for flame-resistant protection. Click here for his story.

Robert Pressley is a veteran competitor on both the Winston Cup circuit and the Busch Grand National Series. In 1992, Pressley began driving duties in the #59 Alliance-sponsored car, owned by Daniel and Barbara Welch, and led the Busch Series with five victories and two pole positions that year. He won the event at Darlington Raceway after a last lap duel with the legendary Harry Gant, which remains his most memorable racing moment. Click here to find out how Nomex® helped save Pressley's life.

Austrian racer Gerhard Berger has had 210 Grand Prix starts and 10 Grand Prix wins. He has secured 12 pole positions in his career and earned 385 points. His most famous finish, however, may be the 1989 San Marino Grand-Prix, for that was when he walked away from a life-threatening accident. His car hit a wall at 270 kilometers an hour and burst into flames. Thanks to the rapid intervention rescue team and his protective race suit, head cover and underwear all made with DuPont™ Nomex® brand fiber, Berger suffered only hand injuries. He returned to racing within a month of his accident.

Thirty-year-old Dutch racer Jos Verstappen made the jump into F1 when he had fewer than 50 car races under his belt. While serving as the test driver for the Benetton team in 1994, Verstappen's car was engulfed in flames after a refueling spill during a pit stop at Hockenheim in Germany. Because he was attired in racing apparel of Nomex®, he received only minor facial burns. Approximately one month after the fire, he scored his best results to date, with second and third place finishes in the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix.

Professional racecar drivers aren't the only ones in the racing industry who wear protective apparel of Nomex®, however. New safety rules for the NASCAR® 2002 racing season also require pit crews, rescue teams and track officials who work in the presence of potential flash fires to wear fire-resistant protective apparel. Racing pro Jeff Gordon says that he's "...fortunate to have [his] crew members wear [Nomex®] up and down pit road.

"Maybe we don't all have to walk around on a daily basis wearing Nomex®, but in any situation where you're near or there's the possibility of a flash fire of any kind, it's extremely important to have this material on. I know that our guys wouldn't do their jobs on Sundays or Saturday nights, endless weekends, without it."