FONTANA , Calif. -- Twice in the past week, a magazine story was brought up in conversation with Robby Gordon. With his well-groomed face on the cover, the headline read, "Robby Gordon's Last Chance."

The magazine was from the 1990s.

Gordon, the maverick driver and owner, seems to have more lives than a trailer park full of cats.

When the Auto Club 500 begins Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, Gordon will start from the 40th position after spending Friday practice working on race setup instead of a qualifying one.

He is hoping to improve on last week's 28th-place finish at the Daytona 500; he was 13th with half a lap remaining when he was caught up in Jeff Gordon's crash.

It was disappointing but also encouraging for the Orange native who says he won't run every race this season, even though his No. 7 Toyota Camry will.

So what gives for the 41-year-old?

"We're taking on more things, I'm not trying to cut back," said Gordon, who by the time 2010 ends figures to compete in the Indianapolis 500, the Baja 500, the Dakar Rally and even Monster Jam, in which he will add monster trucks to his already sizable résumé.

If that's not enough, he's working on resurrecting the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series. "We're about a week away from a really good announcement about that program as well," Gordon said of the off-road series that used to pack 70,000 into Anaheim Stadium.

Gordon, who made his NASCAR debut in 1991, is committed to going his own way and following the tracks of pioneers such as legendary car builder and racer Dan Gurney. Gordon loves building cars, such as the Hummer for the Dakar Rally; his is the only American team to ever win a stage, and he has won eight. But he is also looking to build a Toyota Camry that will bring him his first Sprint Cup victory as an owner.

It's a lot to do, and some might think he is spreading himself too thin. But selling off and running for someone else is not going to happen, even though he has two Indy car victories and three Sprint Cup victories driving for someone else.

"If I do that, where does the next Rick Hendrick come from, the next Chip Ganassi, the next Richard Childress?" said Gordon, who would have won the 1999 Indianapolis 500 with "a few more ounces" of fuel; he instead finished fourth. "By us doing what we're doing today, we're working on our program for the future. It's not about today or tomorrow, it's about building a company that can build the best race cars in the world. If the direction turns five years from now and everyone says we got to go back to Indycar racing because that's the popular series, that's obviously what we're going to do."

But Gordon long ago made the distinction between being a marketer who races, which he considers himself, rather than a racer who markets. Winning is important, but these days success can also be defined by Web hits, and he is one of the most popular drivers on the Internet. It's a reality of being a businessman who strings together sponsors to meet a 36-race demand and facilitates business-to-business opportunities, which he has done successfully for several companies. This weekend, Gordon sports a livery with singer Whitney Duncan and Warner Music Nashville. He credits his corporate sponsors -- his big one this year is Monster Energy Drink -- with helping him stave off that "last chance" prophecy.

"I told Monster the other day, I'm a racer's racer," Gordon said. "This is what I truly love to do. I dreamed to be able to have these opportunities as a young kid. I've had the opportunity to run the best cars in the world."

And just imagine how much better he has it than someone like 2003 champion Matt Kenseth, "who gets to run around in circles all the time in a stock car," Gordon said. "He's got a real good program over there at Roush, but I get to do the Baja 500. I get to do the Dakar Rally. I get to do the Daytona 500. I get to do the Indy 500. I'm very fortunate to get to do these things. This is what I dreamed to do as a young kid, so saying that we took on too much, that's what we had to do to be able to do these things."

And as long as he continues to take on more, Gordon figures he'll get more chances. Of that, he's sure. And there's not a last chance in sight.

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