NASCAR Hall of Famer and Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon has been in talks with close friend and actor Tom Cruise about a potential sequel to the 1990 film “Days of Thunder,” which starred Cruise as a young NASCAR driver.
Following William Byron’s second consecutive Daytona 500 victory, Gordon spoke about the possibility of bringing NASCAR back into the Hollywood spotlight, citing the resurgence of interest in the sport and the new landscape of opportunities with streaming services and docuseries.
“There’s this kind of resurgence, which is awesome, and there’s also a whole new landscape of opportunities with streaming services and docuseries and also the big screen, which I think it would be amazing to do,” Gordon said Sunday night. “I am seeing just a lot more momentum in projects like this coming through NASCAR and coming to Hendrick Motorsports and just more interest. So that’s good, right? It talks a lot about where the sport is at, where it’s heading, the amazing crowd that was [at Daytona], not just today, new TV partners.”
Gordon confirmed that he has discussed the project with Cruise, expressing his desire for the actor to be involved and for Hendrick Motorsports to be a part of the film if it were to happen.
The original “Days of Thunder” film, released 35 years ago, featured large cameras placed inside cars during races. With advancements in technology, such as NASCAR’s Driver Cam feature on Max, Gordon believes that creating a realistic and authentic sequel is a real possibility.
“Hendrick Motorsports being a part of that project, hard to imagine how you pull that off today because they actually had race cars with cameras in the race, and the cameras were big,” Gordon said. “Cameras have gotten a lot smaller so maybe you could pull it off, but how do you do it and make it realistic and really authentic.”
While the sequel is not yet confirmed, Gordon is confident that there will be a project in the future that will bring NASCAR back to the big screen or, at the very least, result in a compelling docuseries that goes beyond what is currently available.
