Rumors ring true: Gordon gone from MMM

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
March 21, 2001
7:12 PM EST (0012 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. - Just five races into a five-year contract, Robby Gordon and Morgan-McClure Motorsports have reached an agreement to part ways, the team announced Wednesday afternoon.

“We just agreed to terminate the contract,” said McClure late Wednesday evening from the team’s shop in Abingdon, Virginia. “It was just best for both of us. As far as specifics go, we just decided not to comment on that.”

McClure went on to say that due to the nature of this termination, he is not required to pay Gordon for the five years originally agreed upon. He also said that the team would definitely be at Bristol this weekend, and that Kevin Lepage is tentatively slated as the driver. Lepage told many last week at Darlington that he had been contacted to drive the car.

Gordon had been a mainstay of the rumor mill over the past three weeks; word of his demise first began to sift through the garage at Las Vegas.

Gordon was named driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet near the end of the 2000 season, and took the wheel full time at Speedweeks 2001, where he raised eyebrows early by posting the fastest speed in the season’s first practice session. Since then, it's been headache-upon-headache for all involved with the No. 4 Chevy.

Gordon was seen as the cause of the two biggest wrecks in the season’s first two races. With 25 laps remaining in the Daytona 500, Gordon tapped Ward Burton’s rear, triggering a 19-car pileup that sent Tony Stewart airborne, where he eventually came to rest on teammate Bobby Labonte’s hood.

Then, at Rockingham, Gordon got loose in Turn 3 on the first lap of the Dura Lube 400, forcing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to check up and subsequently get hit in the rear by Ron Hornaday.