Insider's View: Robby Gordon

Right now things are great and I am running wide-open with Chevrolets in four different racing series.

I'm driving the No. 31 Cingular Wireless NASCAR Cup car, the No. 55 Fruit of the Loom Busch car, the No. 70 Meijer Special Indy car and the No. 55 Red Bull Trophy Truck in SCORE off-road.

I have to tell you that I'm the happiest when it's this way.

	Robby Gordon's No. 55 Chevrolet has put him 70 points out of the Busch Series lead so far this season. Credit: Autostock

I like being busy and I really love to race, and with what we've been able to accomplish running full programs in both the NASCAR Busch and Cup Series so far this season has been a lot of fun.

It has been a pleasant surprise, how competitive our Fruit of the Loom Chevrolet team has been so far this year.

Everywhere we've been for the first seven races we've been competitive, and that's been exciting because I didn't think we'd actually run as good as we have right out of the box with a new team.

We're 70 points out of the lead for the Busch Series championship and we're only now finally starting to get our new cars built. We started the season with a downforce car we bought from Richard Childress' Busch operation, and ran one of our own cars last weekend at Nashville.

With the way we've started the season, it's made us re-think the way we planned the year. We would like to compete for the Busch Series championship, but when I say that, there are a number of things that come into play.

ROBBY GORDON  •  Driver Page  •  2004 Nextel Cup Stats  •  2004 Busch Stats  •  Video Highlights  •  Driver vs. Driver

The first is that right now we have a deal with Richard for 25 races worth of engines, not the 34 races in the Busch season. We only have sponsorship from Fruit of the Loom for those 25 races.

But as we've seen so far, the better you run, the more opportunities open up for sponsorship. I would like to continue to race in all the Busch races, but only if it doesn't distract from my Cingular Wireless Cup program.

To this point, it hasn't been a problem, but of course all the races have either been on different weekends or at the same track. I feel like it's been much more of a benefit than a distraction, particularly as good as my Busch car has run, and I think Chris Andrews, my crew chief over on the Cup side, would tell you the same thing.

I have to give the credit to my people that I hired to run the Busch program, and I have to thank the folks at Fruit of the Loom for having the faith in us to assemble a good group of guys to do this.

The philosophy that we've taken in building the cars and the attention to detail that the guys are putting into them as they've built them, is a huge reason we're running so good.

We have assembled a mixture of experienced racers from NASCAR, Indy cars and Sprint Cars. We've been fortunate enough to acquire some really good people, from machinists to mechanics to fabricators.

The credit has to go to hiring the right crew chief, Bob Temple and my business manager, John Story. John helps me a lot with the day-to-day management of the team.

The Busch team is John and Bob's to run with. I just show up and drive the car, which is a pretty good deal.

	Gordon is currently 25th in the Nextel Cup standings. Credit: Autostock

I've got to stress that on the Busch side I'm fortunate that I have really, really good people that handle that for me. And it's the same on the Cup side in that I have a full-time job driving for one of the most recognized NASCAR teams in the business, Richard Childress Racing.

It's just something that I don't have to worry about.

Richard has assembled an awesome group of individuals on the Cup team, with Chris as crew chief and Scott Miller as team manager. We have all the right tools to win races at the Cup level: Good engines, good cars and a great team.

The only thing we haven't had is any good luck. We've been caught on pit lane three times already this season when the caution has come out and been involved in crashes at Daytona and Rockingham.

But for sure, there is a huge benefit to running both series at a lot of the tracks. The extra track time has been huge. The stuff that we've learned about the tires has been invaluable.

ALSO  Recent rumors of Robby Gordon's possible release from Richard Childress Racing were repudiated earlier this week by the driver and a team official.  •  Complete story, click here

A couple of times already, we've been able to hand some set-up information back and forth between the Cup and Busch cars and in that respect, it has been good.

When I say I love to race, this next month is going to prove it. And it may get a little overwhelming. After this weekend at Martinsville, I'll have stock car doubleheaders for the next three weekends at Talladega, California and Richmond.

We have the first test of our Indy car program next Wednesday at Michigan International Speedway before I go to Talladega to qualify the Busch car on Thursday.

The last week of April, Tuesday and Wednesday is the open test for our Meijer Special Dallara at Indy.