R. Gordon brings special toy to home track

FONTANA, Calif. -- There are few places the NASCAR Winston Cup Series travels at which you would expect to walk the driver/owner motorhome lot and find a '56 Chevy street rod parked outside a coach.

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Welcome to Southern California, where the car is king.

And the license tag on the candy apple red ride Robby Gordon took to his home racetrack this weekend for Sunday's Auto Club 500 said it all.

"PRO ST 56."

The 14-inch Mickey Thompson rear tires were the dead giveaway that this was not a fan of Formula One icon Alain Prost.

"It had a big, blown motor in it at one time and I want to say it was an eight-and-a-half second drag race car," Gordon said while showing a visitor the impeccable engine compartment that held another blast from the past -- a 396-cubic-inch engine.

"It's a nice, mellow motor," Gordon said. "It probably makes about 550 horsepower. It's not a complete rocket ship like an off-road truck I have that's making 750."

The car is a Gordon family heirloom that originally belonged to the Winston Cup driver's late uncle Jack, who passed away 12 years ago.

"I believe it's going to be passed down through the family," Gordon said. "Right now I consider it my grandpa's car, because it belonged to his son, my dad's brother.

"Last winter when I was here we picked it up from my grandpa's house -- it hadn't been run in 12 years -- and we took the gas tank out of it, the carburetor off and drained all the fluids and basically rebuilt it."

But make no mistake about it -- the car is pure California custom.

"The car was in this condition, basically," Gordon said, smiling. "It's California, after all -- that's kind of why I brought it this weekend. It's not an everyday driver.

"I guess I could have something like that in North Carolina, but I would never take something like that out if there were clouds in the sky."