Gordon's move was finally a good choice

Nascar Insider

Robby Gordon has survived another year as an owner - driver in the Nascar Cup series. His first year was a disaster with Chevy as he failed to qualify for several events. The next season Gordon stuck with Chevy, but leased high price engines from DEI. In 2007, Gordon switched to Ford in what was considered an off year with Ford. Ford only had two drivers make The Chase, both from Roush. Entering 2008, Gordon switched to Dodge days before the Daytona 500 with technical support from GEM. However, Dodge fell behind with the Car of Tomorrow and failed to place a single driver in The Chase lineup. This year, Robby might have finally hit a winner. Gordon switched to Toyota during the offseason. Toyota will enter it's 3rd year in the Cup series and finally has a good handle on the COT.

We won't know until the season reaches Daytona again in July if Gordon's move to Toyota was the right choice. As the season gets ready to start, it appears Gordon may have finally made the right choice this year. Look for Gordon to have his best chance at a win when the series goes road racing. Last year, Kyle Busch swept both road courses in a Toyota. Kyle is not know for being a road ace, imagine what road runner Robby Gordon will do if he has a good enough car.

This may finally be the year Gordon wins one for his own team...in a Toyota.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on February 2, 2009 at 1:37pm

Well, I certainly hope so.
Wonder what the party will be like after the first win??

But since PR is the place to keep it real, I think we all need to realize that the road courses no longer provide an advantage. Many drivers have caught up... Kyle Busch is one example. Please don't say it was the car that won... Driver and strategy had a lot to do with it.

RGM's most recent RC performances have been underachieving. Time to revamp the RC strategies to give Robby a fighting chance. TOY power won't hurt either, but I sure hope they got the fuel mileage/power evened out. I don' think I can bear another series of RCs in which we are forced to make one more stop than everyone else.

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Permalink Reply by john mcglasson on February 2, 2009 at 1:55pm

Dakar has brought RG alot of attention, he's got alot of new fans in Nascar, and with the momentum from Dakar and Laughlin, this is the most positive feeling around RG in a long time, I can't wait to get going. And while I know it won't happen, I'd love to see him put a sub in the car for the Coke 600 and run the Indy 500 again, he's got unfinished biz there...

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Permalink Reply by Mike/WC77 on February 2, 2009 at 2:59pm

Robby definitely has some unfinished biz at Indy. However, he has a ton of unaccomplished goals in Nascar...like our 3 wins in '08. RG is on a tear so far this year. His Hummer got him a great finish on the world's off-road stage. His Chevy got him a win in the LDC. Now, what will his Camry do for him in Nascar? I keep hearing about this Toyota power all the time. Now I don't wanna be the lingering gloomy cloud here. However, please don't be fooled into thinking that '09 (or any race in it) will be a cakewalk, becuase we've got "Toyota Power". Don't think for a second that ALL the competition hasn't taken notice of Toy's '08 performance. I'm certain there were guys scrambling around every competitors shop these last couple months, lookin for those extra horses they were missing last season.
As far as the road courses go, they aren't any specific advantage to RG anymore. if it were a match race, it'd be a diff story... but it's not. You just don't win trophies on driving talent alone anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Turtle7 on February 2, 2009 at 4:05pm

There was a article link on Jayski about Toyota's White saying the Nascar Test Ban is only going to widen the gaps between the big teams and teams like RGM. This tells me that the handling is going to be the deal breaker as to how Robby finishes. The good news is that Handling isn't important at the plate tracks like Daytona. Watch for another top ten!

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Permalink Reply by Marc Basham on February 2, 2009 at 4:54pm

If Robby wins one before May he will be at Indy. I just have a feeling, partially from the success so far this year, that if Robby finally gets that NASCAR monkey off his back early this year the Indy bug will bite him big time.

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Permalink Reply by alan4s on February 2, 2009 at 5:02pm

Nope. I f he has a win before May then he'll have visions of a Chase spot in mind. I doubt he'll go back to Indy unless the date/times change to allow him to do the double again.

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Permalink Reply by john mcglasson on February 2, 2009 at 5:38pm

I have to agree, the Nascar season would have to go south early for him to dream of Indy, and that's not what I want to see. It's a Nascar year.

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Permalink Reply by Blue Ridge Rob on February 2, 2009 at 7:56pm

There is no way in H*** Robby should try to run the 500 this year. The IRL is in deep trouble, NASCAR is in trouble enough but he needs to stay there and run Charlotte no questions asked. As a matter of fact it is one of the most important races of the year. That is NASCAR home base and all the shop people from all of the shops are there. It will help the whole team if he does well there.
And as far as handling not being important at the plate tracks, at Daytona you are dead wrong. Despite it's size Daytona is a handling track. Talledega is not but Daytona is for sure.
And as far as handling is concerned it is the major factor at most tracks. There are horsepower tracks but handling is super important just about everywhere.

BRR