Robby's Performance is taking some hits

Robby has done alot better than his results or standings indicate...just look at teh season so far:

Daytona- In position to get his lap back and finally had the car dialed in but gets knocked out when Junior & Vickers get together (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Fontana- Untimley caution puts the team 2 lasp down, never able to make up ground and car was Top 15 on the speed chart. (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Las Vegas - Finished 15th

Atlanta- Tire issue, finished 26th

Bristol- Finished 21st

Martinsville- Had a fantastic car, but engine let go. (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Texas- Another engine issue (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Pheonix - Gets wrecked by someone else (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Talladega - Avoided the Big One, making a late charge and gets hit by another car and taken out (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Richmond Finished 16th Solid day

Darlington - Caught up in another wreck (Just Bad Racing Luck)

Charlotte- Race strategy paid off finished 3rd

Dover - Robby has a fast car, but untimely caution catches Robby 2 laps down and gets wrecked by another car (Just Bad Racing Luck)

8 times Robby has had Bad Racing Luck wreck him, tire issue or engine problem. It's all part of racing but most of thsoe "bad luck" deals Robby was running well. The team has been solid with Kirk onboard. Biggest issue is slow pit stops. Robby is being forced to pass cars again on teh track he's already passed. Puts him in bad situations. Hopefully they can fix the pit stop issues. If you looked at last year, Robby typically showed up quick but would start to fade. This year Robby shows up slow, but seems to fast race day. Kirk must be making solid adjustments.

Listening to yesterday's race, what really hurt Robby was Robby. When Kirk called for 4 tires and fuel with no changes, Robby asked to take a little out to free him up. The car wasn't the same and then they went with 2 tires the next stop and that really bit them. Robby really needs to communicate what the cars doing and let Kirk make the call. Robby can drive better than most of the guys out there, but he tends to over adjust with his suggestions. Robby has great strategy with when to pit and when to stay out, but adjustments calls he rarely gets right. Listen to Tony on the scanner, he will tell Grubb what teh cars doing, then Grubb says let's do this, Tony then says okay. Robby should sit, playback and listen to Tony's scanner conversations. Robby & Tony are alot alike, and in my opinion two of the best. The edge Tony has is he lets his crew chief do his job.

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Permalink Reply by Mouseking7 on June 1, 2009 at 4:16pm

Dead on alan4s! DEAD ON!!!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Mouseking7 on June 1, 2009 at 4:27pm

IF Robby walked away from all of this today, he would NEVER have to work another day in his life!! YUP!! Pretty damn successful I'd say!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Shop Goddess on June 1, 2009 at 7:39pm

Very well put, alan4s.

EVERY Robby fan wants more for him, but we also have to accept and understand exactly who we are pulling for.

RGM is still alive and they race every week in the hardest series to compete in. How many other small teams over the last 4-5 years have been that successful?

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Permalink Reply by MTwomn on June 1, 2009 at 9:40pm

Sometimes the adventure is not measured by the destination but the road you take to get there.

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Permalink Reply by alan4s on June 1, 2009 at 9:52pm

Hey, I had that fortune cookie once too! ;-)

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Permalink Reply by alan4s on June 2, 2009 at 5:19pm

Yeah, but he races more than just NASCAR. The Dakar and SCORE efforts are championship caliber.

Of course we'd all like him to win more in NASCAR, and I'm sure he's not happy with the finishes he's been getting. But in the big picture, he really is doing damn well.

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on June 1, 2009 at 3:40pm

The difference is Robby has finally assembled a Top 15-Top 20 team. Last year, the issues were lack of horsepower, bad fuel mileage and balance issues. The biggest issue this year has been tires and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of the wrecks that have involved Robby have been just like yesterday. Car makes a mistake collects another car and finds Robby. It might be a stretch, but I believe Robby has the pieces this year to be in victory lane. Sonoma & Watkins Glen will be the best shot, but only if they get the pit crew dialed in. Robby dominated a few years back in the Monster car and fuel mileage stole the victory away. I believe Robby is loaded to have a repeat performance this year.

I really enjoyed Doug on the scanner, he was helping Robby manage the race and helping Kirk get more info. If they can work well together it won't be long before real good things happen.

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Permalink Reply by Zippy on June 1, 2009 at 4:57pm

I agree with you Bigzoom. The road tracks are his best bet and everything is going to have to fall his way. He has had a lot of bad luck again so far but that's always been the same.
Why would it change this year ?

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on June 2, 2009 at 12:02am

Toyota get better fuel mileage, he seems to have the horsepower he was lacking and Kirk seems to really be able to make the car run good on race day. Plus I think Robby is kinda put more into the road race this year, building 2 new cars and all. I think he's investing alot of dollars into these 2 races. A win today would be huge!

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Permalink Reply by James Tallant on June 3, 2009 at 2:04am

Good points Zoom, I see a top 15 team in RGM. They do alot with very little.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on June 1, 2009 at 5:50pm

I really do see both sides of the discussion here. Robby has had some TERRABLE luck this year, but I do feel sometimes that some of the decisions made on pit road put him in those positions to get wrecked or whatever. There are a lot of other guys out there that we don't follow that have a lot of bad luck too, but seem to overcome it better than RGM. However, the performance improvement over last year has been tremendous. It's been five years (or something like that...became a fan in 06) since Robby started his own team...from scratch I might add and I personally don't think that is a very long time. Like I said, performance this year has really picked up and as far as Robby playing crew chief, that seems to have slowed down a little as well. I don't think it is a stretch at all to think that Robby might win a race this year (especially a road course or plate race). I really think that when we start to going to tracks for the second time, Robby's going to steal back some of those bad finishes.

I like what you said Bigzoom, but I do have to disagree on the Martinsville car thing.