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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Permalink Reply by Blues on September 9, 2008 at 8:15pm

That's the first thing I've heard that makes sense - you can take the boy out of SoCal, but you can't take SoCal outta the boy... He's got to be sick and tired of the whole 'good ol' boys' crap. I know as a fan, I sure am. And Nascar wonders why they do so poorly in Southern California - Nascar is completely out of touch with the 21st century, and their 'market share' crowd of old drunks is dying from liver disease... and why in the heck would he want to live in Charlotte instead of Orange County?

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Permalink Reply by Blue Ridge Rob on September 9, 2008 at 8:21pm

Soylent,
I am sure that Orange County and Lake Havasu are very nice but ease up on North Carolina friend. People from all over the country are moving here because they enjoy the wonderful four season climate, the wonderful state universities, the laid back life style, and the wonderful people. Robby doesn't have it that bad here lifestyle wise. He lives on Lake Norman which is a very large freshwater lake north of Charlotte and he probably has a very nice home. I know California girls are very pretty but Charlotte and Atlanta have plenty of absolute A number one fillys trotting around all over the place. So cut the old Tar Heel state some slack amigo.

BRR

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Permalink Reply by Ms Gibby on September 9, 2008 at 2:07am

So however this deal shakes out, who has dibs on the actual 7 car number? I know NASCAR owns it, but who will end up using it?

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Permalink Reply by Bigzoom on September 9, 2008 at 10:20am

WOah!

If the deal goes through, GEM would own the team, the #7 and RGM's shop and property. Robby would get in return $23 million and a 4 year deal at $5 million per year driving in the #7 for GEM. Robby would get to retian the majority of his employees and would have a seat at GEM as a board of director (another annual salary). Doesn't mean he couldn't start another Cup team (Dale Sr did why driving for RCR) or go full-time with a Nationwide team (Dale Jr does while driving for Hendrick). This would give Robby a chance to drive and race for wins and not have to worry about sponsorship and other stuff for his team. Get with an organization that has 4 teams and Chase potential. He would have a 4 year deal. (Supposively Dodge would be a sponsor in some form (Dodge Dealers or Mopar). Jim Beam might be a sponsor or could sponsor a Nationwide team for a full season for RGM. This would open up the possibility for Robby to put a development driver in a Nationwide or Cup team that Robby could own and start towards being just a car owner 4-5 years down the road.