Driver Profile: Robby Gordon, A Breed Apart

It somehow seems fitting that NASCAR’s lone, single car driver/owner team is headed by one Robert W. Gordon. There truly (for good or bad) is no one else in NASCAR quite like Robby Gordon. A look at his career suggests he was meant for the path of a lone wolf.

One thing you can say for sure: anyone who thinks NASCAR is overrun with the politically correct has never heard of this guy.

NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s “other” Gordon was born January 2, 1969 in Bellflower, California. “Flash” is the son of legendary offroader “Baja Bob” and Marlene Gordon. We really don’t much of anything about Gordon’s youth except to say that his one dream was to race, and he’s achieved that in spades. Robby got his first job working for his dad- not in the garage- but on his feed lot raking chaff. Hence, one of his nicknames besides “Flash” is “Feed.”

Robby Gordon could very well be described as one of the hardest working drivers in motorsports, a distinction often overshadowed by notoriety gained for his numerous on-track skirmishes with other drivers. For numerous years, Gordon gained fame by racing in the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s marathon known as the Coca- Cola 600 both in the same day. You serious fans know that as I write this, Gordon is currently running in the Dakar Rally, one of the world’s most famous off-road races in a Hummer.

One of his early successes came in winning the SCORE Off-road championships for 5 consecutive years from 1985-1990. Along the way, Flash won the Baja 1000 in 1987 and 1990. Though he’s run a pretty consistent full-time schedule since 2002 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, Gordon still keeps one wheel in Champ car and off-road racing. Robby won a 6th SCORE championship thanks to 6 wins in 1996 and also picked up another Baja 1000 in 2006.

In 1990, Robby started racing sports cars, placing second in the GTO standings. In 1991, Gordon 5 IMSA GTO races for Roush Racing. He also was a winner for Roush at Long Beach in a Sports Car Club of America race in 1992. Between 1990 and 1994, Gordon won four consecutive class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 1991, the hard-racing driver in the spirit of Curtis Turner made his NASCAR Cup debut- qualifying 35th and finishing 18th at the Daytona 500 driving for Junie Donlavy. Around this time, Gordon also won 3 consecutive 12 Hours of Sebring class victories.

Robby Gordon made his IRL debut for no less than 4-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt in 1993. In his Indianapolis debut, Gordon finished 27th. That same year, made a start for Robert Yates, taking over the #28 for the deceased Davey Allison at Talladega.

From 1994 through 1996, Robby raced for Derrick Walker, winning CART races in Detroit and Phoenix in 1995. The wins vaulted Gordon to a 5th place finish in the points standings.  In this era, Gordon only dabbled in Cup racing, one of his notable starts came racing in one of the first ever for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

Making 20 starts for Chip Ganassi in  1997, Robby Gordon picked up his first top 5 and his first top 10, as well as a pole at Atlanta. It was also at this time, Flash placed second in the IROC series for the second consecutive year.

In 1998 and 1999, Gordon made his first run at team ownership in the CART series. Success would prove hard to come by, though he came oh so close to winning the 1999 Indianapolis 500. Gordon was leading on the final lap, when he ran out of gas. He would finish 4th after 33 laps in the lead.

After a year away, Robby returned to NASCAR Cup racing in a car co-owned by Mike Heald and John Menard. His top 5 finish with 2 top 10s earned him a 43rd place finish in the season’s standings have run 17 starts. Gordon also put in another top-10 finish at the Indianapolis 500, placing 6th.

2001 proved to be a year of firsts for Gordon. He debuted in what was then called the Busch Series, making 3 starts in the #21 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet racing for Richard Childress. Gordon’s road course skills were on display as he finished 5th at Watkins Glen. On the Cup side, Robby started the season with 5 starts for Morgan- Mc Clure. After being released, Gordon came very close to a win at Sonoma (Sears Point), getting passed by the victorious Tony Stewart while Gordon was battling Kevin Harvick. Later in the season, the feisty Gordon picked up a ride with Richard Childress in his #31 car, taking over for an injured Mike Skinner. It was with this team he picked up his first career win at New Hampshire. The win had a tinge of controversy when contact with Jeff Gordon resulted in “The Rainbow Warrior”  ramming Flash during a caution flag. The black flag came out for Jeff, paving the way for Robby’s trip to victory lane. This race got moved to the end of the season due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Gordon showed a generous side to counter his aggressive on-track demeanor by donating his winnings to  the families of the victims of the terrorist attack.

After qualifying 3rd for the Indianapolis 500, Robby finished 22nd in the race while driving in a car jointly owned byRichard Childress and A.J. Foyt.

2002 marked the first year Robby Gordon ran a full NASCAR Cup schedule, continuing to drive for Childress in the “31″ now occupied by Jeff Burton. Though he was winless, Gordon finished 20th in the points with 5 tops 10s and a top 5.  He also kept his name “out there” by virtue of a number of on-track controversies. Call him what you want, but “Wallflower” won’t be one of them.

Besides making history as one of only three drivers to pull the Indy 500/ Coke 600 double (John Andretti and Tony Stewart are the others), Robby Gordon also made NASCAR history by being the only driver besides Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch to sweep the Cup road courses in a single season. For Robby Gordon, it occurred in the 2003 season. The win at Infineon came after a controversial (but legal) pass of Kevin Harvick- a teammate at that time. Gordon wound up 16th in the points- ringing up 4 top 5s and 10 top 10s to go with the pair of victories.

Gordon’s run for RCR came to an unceremonious end in 2004, after Gordon intentionally put a fender on Greg Biffle. The melee in this Chase race also took out chasers Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield. The incident marred a season in which Flash picked a pair of top 5s and 6 top 10s. On the positive side, he ran 25 races in the Busch Series and got a win at Richmond.

Gordon ventured out on his own, fielding his own team in 2005. Mechanical issues derailed a number of starts. He ran in 29 races, finishing 37th in the points with a top 5 and 2 top 10s. New Hampshire once again proved to be the site of controversy when he threw his helmet at Michael Waltrip’s #15 NAPA Chevy after the two got in a wreck. The incident cost Gordon $50k in fines, and Gordon would later put the helmet up for auction. It went for $51,000 with the money going to Harrah’s employees whose families were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A switch to DEI engines would help better his performance. In 2006, Gordon moved up from 37th to 30th and cut down on his DNFs.

Jeff Burton was the racer who replaced Gordon at Richard Childress and an incident during the 2006 led to Gordon affecting the outcome of the “31’s” finish in the Chase. In Atlanta, Gordon threw roll bar padding onto the track, causing the caution flag to come up. He says he did not throw the padding on the track intentionally, but events on pit road led to Burton finishing 13th, and that would affect J.B.’s run at a title. NASCAR fined Gordon $15,000 and docked him 50 points.

The 2006 Baja 1000 proved a family affair for the Gordon’s. Robby’s sisters Beccy and Robyn fielded an all-girl team known as All-American Girl Racing.

2007 would find continued gradual improvement for the veteran driver and more on track flare ups. Gordon finished 26th in the Cup standings, up 4 places from the year before, and while running the road course at Montreal in the Nationwide Series got into quite a stir with Marcos Ambrose.  Gordon passed Ambrose as an accident was unfolding and the Australian spun Gordon out, under caution, and Ambrose re-took the lead. Well, you can guess R.G. wasn’t having any of that.  Gordon was placed in 13th by NASCAR on the re-start. Gordon disputed the position and refused to re-start there. Once the green came back out, Gordon tracked down Ambrose to spin him out- prompting a black flag. While Kevin Harvick was celebrating his win, Gordon was doing the same as if he had won. In spite of his protestations, Gordon was ruled to have finished 18th.

Gordon apologized for his actions, but maintained NASCAR was in error concerning his re-start position. As a peace offering, Flash offered a Cup ride for Ambrose in the upcoming Watkins- Glen Cup race. Ambrose was more than happy to accept the overture. Rain washed away a Hollywood end to this story as rain kept Ambrose from being able to qualify.

The recently completed 2008 season had more plot twists than a Stephen King novel. After two seasons of running Chevrolets and a season in a Ford, Gordon switched to Dodge at the outset of the 2008- entering into an alliance with Gillett- Evernham Racing.

Security issues pertaining to threats from the Al-Queda terrorist threw a monkey wrench in planning for the 2008 Dakar Rally. Gordon would face legal entanglements pertaining to problems with sponsors of the canceled event.

To make matters worse, an inspection around Speed Weeks at Daytona revealed an unapproved bumper cover, which led to crew chief Frank Kerr’s suspension, a $100,000 fine to Kerr and the docking of 100 points- something Robby could ill afford.

Gordon fought the charges- saying it was an honest mistake made by someone not a part of his organization. The noses came from Dodge and had not been approved yet. Gordon’s nose said “Charger”, but was actually an “Avenger” and had a part with  an approved part number. Upon review of the facts of the case- the penalty was rescinded, the suspension lifted, the points restored and the fine was increased to $150,000.

His deal with GEM fell through in mid-season and Gordon ran with Penske engines for the balance of the NASCAR schedule. Gordon’s performance slipped in 2008, falling to 33rd in the points with 3 top 10s.

For 2009, he will run with Toyota for the #7- back in control of his destiny. According to reports, Jim Beam and Menard’s will be back to sponsor Gordon and he says he has the money he needs to run a a full season.

As of right now, Gordon is running in the top 5 at the 2009 Dakar Rally, being held in South America. He’s coming on strong as the marathon event enters its final stages.

Robby Gordon is a different sort of guy, reminiscent of old dirt track racers just looking to keep doing what they love doing. He can be overly aggressive, but he’s quick to try to take his negatives and do something positive with them. Acts of atonement? Perhaps.

Whether you love Robby Gordon or hate him- he’s one guy about which everybody has a strong opinion. One thing for sure: he’s his own guy and there’s not another driver in NASCAR like him. He’s a racer’s racer.

Someone once said of Tony Stewart, that he could put four wheels on a cockroach and win a race with it. Robby Gordon would be right there with him….running a special off-road edition cockroach and pushing Smoke all the way home.

His way may not always be right, but it’s his way. 

CREDITS: (First two photos courtesy of ROBBYNEWS, and 2009 Dakar Rally photo courtesy of Scotty Jive. To see more from these photographers, visit flickr.com).