Well, we have a little more insight now on the situation.

Why did Gillett really file suit against Robbby?

There's a lot of stuff in the suit, with the biggest two that would have any merit being what has already surfaced. That Robby was shopping his team with other potential buyers while under contract with GEM (This will be highly unlikely to prove unless owners are called in to testify, highly doubtful), The other is defamation of character when Robby publicly expressed GEM wasn't giving him solid equipment equal to what was provided to their team (Again, if the performance isn't there and it's visible that the GEM teams were performing at a higher level this will be difficult for GEM to get a multi-million dollar release on this basis alone). I haven't seen anything that would give GEM leverage over RGM.

Which leads us to the real reason, Ganassi. GEM has an opportunity to get what they believe is a better deal. Why? The property Ganssi has and location is prime and very close to the airport. We know that, but teh other is both of Ganassi's teams are inside the Top 35, the #42 is 22nd and the #41 is 30th in owner points. By having both of these teams locked in for 2009, GEM would leave Juan Pablo Montonya in the #42 with sponsorship from Wrigley's and Target, The #41 would become the #10 for Reed Sorenson. This would guarantee all 4 GEM drivers for the first 5 races.

The biggest hurdle for GEM is the #10 car is outside the Top 35 by a pretty large number. If Robby's #7 car fails to reach the Top 35 by season's end this will cause an extreme hardship on GEM at Daytona.

In an earlier interview with Ray Evernham, he discussed the time and resources it took to trying to qualify for a race when you're outside the Top 35. Not to mention, the setups have to be totally different, meaning you can't share valuable information with the other teammates. He claimed it took about 4 times the preperation for the #10 car as it does for the other two cars combined every weekend, and twice the manpower.

Having one car out four trying to make a race is a hurdle, having two is a distraction.

Kirk was recommended by GEM to Robby. GEM is quite aware this suit really was filed in hopes of a settlement and hoping the contract could be voided. They also realize Robby has a strong arguement and is probably not in a position now to settle.

From everything I've heard, it's my opinion Robby will be with GEM in 2009, unless HE settles and goes a different direction. Ultimately, it will be Robby's decision, not GEM.

Views: 86

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I know somone was saying they heard that RG would be in a ford seat next season. The #28 has valvoline as a Primary this weekend. They have always been a staple at GEM. Just a little food for thought.
valvoline has been on the fords all year
as a primary? which one has had them as more than a small "oh by the way" sticker?
there was talk about Paul Menard moving to Yates...
Mark Martin drove for GEM?
***********UPDATE 6:00 PM CST ***************************************************************

Race Chat on The Sports Monster

Ganassi done with GEM?

Looks like Reed Sorensen could end any talks for GEM with Ganassi. The situation at Ganassi is getting very interesting, to say the least.

It appears Ganassi had dicussions with GEM about a possible merger (which Robby Gordon believes prompted the law suit as a way out of his deal). When Ganassi never responded, GEM moved forward and hired Reed Sorenson from Ganassi. Since the announcement on 8/26/08, Ganassi hasn't been very happy with Reed at all. Ganassi co-owner Felix Sabates even went public two days before the announcement saying, “I think Reed is today as good as he’s ever going to be. If somebody else wants to put him in a car, fine with us. We have a pretty good idea that he’s going to drive the 10 car. I wish him good luck, from my point of view, his contract is over.”

Word is Reed has avoided the shop, but when he came by this week he was snubbed by most of the employees and even exchanged heated words with Felix. Rumors are flying Reed could even quit before the season ends, or be asked to leave.

Word coming out today the GEM deal with Ganassi won't happen. This could mean good news for Robby Gordon. Gordon insists he doesn't want out of the original deal, and has done no wrong doing.

As for Robby Gordon, who had a miserable race sunday and fell outside the top 35:

Gordon's crew chief Walter Giles resigned after sunday's race. Gordon has filled the position with Kirk Almquist, oddly enough, his last job was with GEM.

Keep a close eye on these three teams, they might make more headlines than Nascar's playoff version, The Chase.
This site should be called "As the Robbyworld Turns". or is that too old for most of you???
Anything has to be an inprovement over the past few races. Something has to improve....Robby is way to good of a driver to relegated to a back-marker week after week.
Recently Robby has been doing a good job of demonstrating that either he, the team or both are a back-marker.
As an operations manager, one thing I know is that if the team is failing......Dont blame the team, blame the leader. There is an adage that says if a player is bad fire the player, If the team is bad fire the manager. Every organization needs leadership, and I doubt that includes being told anyone out of the stands can do their jobs. By the way I am not a RG basher, I am a huge fan, I just hate to see people blame team members for leadership missteps.
Some supervisors, managers, owners do not believe that the rules of good leadership applies to them. Just ask my former manager why half the exempt staff has left since he took over 4 months ago. We must all be poor workers and couldn't work as a team even though we had been together for several years. And why has the accident rate gone up the last few months?
Another tidbit from Mad Mike's
The recently announced lawsuit by GEM against Robby Gordon has me wondering. I had heard some rumors about Robby possibly selling his team after this season: the key word being possibly. Nothing definite. According to Jenna Fryer of the AP, there was a double secret probation deal between GEM and Robby in which Robby was going to sell his team to GEM at the end of the season. Part of the deal that I had heard about Robby and GEM was that GEM would provide technical support, information, and other things to Robby during the year as part of the deal with him switching over to Dodge but GEM hasn’t lived up to their end. Then it gets sort of weird. Part of the buyout deal was that Robby couldn’t talk to another team. According to Jenna Fryer, Robby was asked by Mr. Gillett to talk to Bill Davis, which to me seems like Gillett was foregoing the clauses in the contract about Robby talking to another team. If that’s the case, then Robby was working as a middle man for Gillett and as a representative of GEM. On Tradin’ Paint, Kyle Petty said it sounded like someone was trying to get out of their deal. I guess we’ll see what all shakes out on this as time goes on.

RSS

© 2024   Created by TOG.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service