Gordon still wants deal with Gillett, Gillett is who wants out?

Proposed merger may be in jeopardy

■ Robby Gordon said he still wants to merge with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, despite a suit just filed against him by Gillett-Evernham.

Gordon, who has been using engines supplied by Gillett-Evernham this season, said he expects to have a legal response in the next few days to the lawsuit filed against him by the Ray Evernham-George Gillett operation that claims a breach of contract on a proposed sale of Gordon's NASCAR operation to Evernham-Gillett.

But already there are rumblings in the NASCAR garage over what might be the real story behind the suit: whether Evernham and Gillett don't really want to do that deal with Gordon any more, perhaps because they have a better proposal, or for some other reason.

One key part of the entire situation is Gillett's plan to move his team from its relatively isolated Statesville airport location down much closer to the Charlotte-Concord heart of the sport.

Evernham and Gillett haven't been here to explain the situation from their viewpoint, but Gordon said he still wants to do the deal with them. One key to the proposed $20 million deal apparently is a sale of Gordon's shop and real estate -- some prime racing real estate -- to Evernham and Gillett.

There is increasing speculation that Chip Ganassi -- a Dodge team owner like Evernham, Gillett and Gordon -- might also be a potential merger partner with Evernham and Gillett. And Ganassi has prime real estate too, right next to the Concord airport.

"Unfortunately I guess you'll have to learn more about all that in our answers to their complaint," Gordon said. "But we have a deal with them, we have a contract that is still in effect.

"What they have asked -- I wouldn't say it's so much against Robby Gordon, but they have asked for release from the contract. But we've already done so many things together that I don't know if that's possible."

Might Evernham and Gillett want to drop the Gordon deal so they can do a deal with someone else? "Maybe that's what the case is, but I'm not privy to that information, so I don't know," Gordon said.


See the article here:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/sep/08/nascar-notebook-prop...

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Doug, I love this rumor! However, how many times can Mr. Menard bail out Robby? If this deal does work, I think John and BajaBob should ask Robby into a meeting, close the door and beat some since into him. It seems that Robby only listens to them. Well, maybe?
On January 29th of this year, struggling team owner/driver Robbie Gordon agreed to sell his team to Gillett Evernham Motorsports at the end of this season for $23.5 million, a 4 year driving contract and a possible seat on the board of directors.

The agreement had an exclusivity clause according to GEM which prevented Gordon from talking to other teams about a possible merger. GEM says that he broke that deal when he talked to other teams about a merger in exchange for engines for the season.

Gordon also made disparaging remarks about GEM regarding the quality of the engines he was getting compared to other GEM teams. "They want to fight this and get relief from the agreement, and we'll let a judge decide if they can get out of it,"

Gordon stated he still has an agreement to merge with GEM and plans to answer the suit filed this week.

Word from the garage this weekend was Gillett is now interested in Ganssi Racing which could provide attractive real estate property with their shop and Nascar star Juan Pablo Montoya. If GEM merges with Ganassi, it's likely that sponsor Target would move over to Juan Pablo's #42 car along with Wrigley's. If GEM stayed with Gordon, GEM was in negotiations with Dodge (Mopar) to join Jim Beam as sponsors for Gordon's #7. Negotiations with Dodge have yet to be finalized, and with the announcement of Dodge pulling out of Nascar's Truck Series, it appears to be in jeopardy.
where did this come from? how credible can it be with the name spelled wrong? This speculation is getting out of control. really
wow...PLEASE be true!!!
All this has been confirmed this morning.
I wonder if the deal included RG's plane too...
I heard the plane was not included but One of the H-3's was.........................Of course, The other part of the deal is GEM will not be allowed to tune the engine on the H-3.........
LOL... that's good.
Whos' gonna drive the H-3, Kasey with one of the Allstate hags as a navigator?
and at the end of the day, it is all speculation. until we see details of the suit, or until Ray or Robby sit down and make a statement giving full details, we don't know. It's not much better than he said she said at this point really. Some may be true, or have a little truth in it but we don't know. Rumors run rampant and that doesn't help anyone. Some of the rumors people have reported over the past almost year we've all been doing this have had bits of truth but none of us have had 100% of anything right. I'm just taking a await and see attitude. I'll keep watching races and hoping but not expecting much. I don't think he's focused on the racing right now.
Seems like RGM,& GEM are both running misdirection plays right now. Best bet at this point, is to let the dust settle,& see what all comes about.
True! It appears Robby will be with GEM next year.

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