Eye on a record?

Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington marked Jeff Gordon’s 700th start in the Sprint Cup Series, all consecutive.

That’s the longest consecutive-game streak in any of the major sports, but Gordon isn’t ready to contemplate breaking Ricky Rudd’s Cup mark of 788—not yet. Assuming a 36-event schedule and no break in action for Gordon, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet would break Rudd’s record in the 28th race of 2015.

“Never say never, but that to me is like David Pearson’s 105 wins,” said Gordon, who with 87 Cup victories is third behind Pearson on the all-time list. “It’s too far out there. You have to get closer before you can think realistically about those things. I never dreamed I’d make 700 consecutive starts.

“It’s just an amazing thing for me to try to swallow right now, because it’s been an amazing run of great teams and cars and going from like 28 races my first year now to 36. So a lot of things happened over the years. I’m just enjoying the moment right now of those 700 and not thinking ahead too much.”