Being solidly in the top 35 in owner's points each week has allowed Robby Gordon to concentrate on his other job. Credit: Autostock

Gordon making gains as single-car owner/driver

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Robby Gordon hopped onto the counter inside his hauler at Phoenix International Raceway and pulled his feet up into a comfortable position.

	Inside the Numbers Robby Gordon at Talladega Year Start Finish Laps 1993 14 42 55 2000 34 37 136 2001 39 19 188 2002 2 33 176   20 12 188 2003 6 10 188   34 12 188 2004 21 5 188   36 9 188 2005 22 23 189

"That's better,'' he said.

Life in general is more comfortable for Gordon these days.

Better, too.

He's qualified for each of the first eight Nextel Cup races, which already is an improvement over a year ago when he began his second attempt as a single-car driver/owner.

Because he's in the top 35 in owner points -- 32nd after engine problems left him 41st at PIR -- he's arrived at the track the past month without worries of making the field on speed.

Gordon missed seven races last season, not good when you're trying to impress your new sponsors and get more sponsors. Among those was the season opener at Daytona, which gave the team a bad mindset for the entire season.

"Mentally, it did," Gordon said. "A lot of these top teams don't understand what it's like to be outside of the top 35. But it is a nail-biter all day Friday, Thursday, whatever day they do qualifying."

Inside the Numbers Robby Gordon in 2006 Site Start Finish Driver Pts. Daytona 20 13 14 Fontana 34 26 17 Las Vegas 32 12 14 Atlanta 36 28 19 Bristol 37 26 20 Martinsville 27 43 27 Texas 29 20 27 Phoenix 25 41 31 Averages 30.0 26.1   ROBBY GORDON •   2006 Driver Page

Gordon finished 37th in points last season. That meant he had to qualify on speed the first five races this season, when 2005 points were used to lock in spots.

He did, finishing 14th at Daytona and 12th at Las Vegas two weeks later to leave him solidly at 20th after five races.

Although he's slipped the past three races with engine problems at Martinsville and Phoenix, he's still got wiggle room heading to Talladega Superspeedway.

"I feel good when I look at some of the cars we're parked around now," Gordon said. "To be able to park two haulers away from Chip Ganassi and three from Roger Penske, it's pretty cool."

Gordon then pointed to the other side of the garage where the top 15 to 20 haulers were parked.

"We're going to park over there next to Jack Roush pretty soon," he said of the owner of five Cup teams. "I actually think we have a Jack Roush car not far from us."

Robby Gordon 2005 Statistics Starts 29 Wins 0 Top-5s 1 Top-10s 2 Poles 0 DNQs 6 DNFs 13 Avg. Start 27.0 Avg. Finish 30.1 Rank 37 Career Statistics Years 13 Starts 207 Wins 3 Top-5s 12 Top-10s 29 Poles 1 DNFs 46 Avg. Start 24.7 Avg. Finish 24.7 Career as Owner/Driver   2000 2005 2006 Starts 17 29 8 Wins 0 0 0 Top-5s 1 1 0 Top-10s 2 4 0 Poles 0 0 0 DNFs 7 13 2 Avg. Start 29.9 27.0 30.0 Avg. Finish 29.2 30.1 26.1

Gordon never got this confident in 2000, when he entered 17 races as a single-car owner with business partners John Menard and Mike Held. He gave up ownership the following season, when he was offered a full-time ride by Richard Childress Racing.

He has no immediate plans to give up ownership this time around, although there are reports that Toyota and Red Bull want to buy out his General Motors team.

"I've known those guys for a long time," Gordon said of Toyota and Red Bull. "I consider [Toyota senior vice president for racing] Lee White a close friend. Lee trained me to race at a young age.

"But I believe they've picked the teams they're going to work with for next year."

Gordon is more worried about this season than what may or may not happen with Toyota in a couple of years. He wants to prove wrong all the owners that said he couldn't make it in an era where established three- and four-car teams are the norm.

"We're parked right around them now," Gordon said of the non-believers.

If all continues well, Gordon sees a second team in his future.

"If we can post some Ws out here and get some better final results, get inside the top 15 or top 10, that will open it up for more sponsors," he said.

Despite two top-10 finishes, as many as he had all of last season, Gordon feels a bit snake-bit. Three times he's been caught in the pits when the caution came out, costing him a lap and a lot of track position.

That happened earlier this month at Texas while he was sixth with 24 laps remaining.

"Honestly, we'd cruised all day long and thought we had an easy top-five finish," said Gordon, who finished 20th. "The problem is, we've run better than we've shown."

MartinsvilleRobby Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. collide on Lap 2 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

At least Gordon has been running. He failed to finish 13 of 29 races last season, with eight of the DNFs credited to failure by his Menard-built engines.

Gordon stands by his decision to stick out the year with Menard, a highly successful, open-wheel engine builder making the transition to Nextel Cup.

He also can't deny the switch to Dale Earnhardt Inc. engines has improved his program.

But Gordon said the biggest improvement is preparation. He recalled how a year ago he had only four or five cars in his inventory when he got to Phoenix.

"When I walked out of the shop [last week] I had cars for Talladega ready," he said. "I have Richmond cars that will get done before we get home from Talladega.

"We're able to spend more time fine tuning my cars. Everybody wants to say it was engines. It was a lot of things."

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J.D. Gibbs, who helped start Joe Gibbs Racing as a single-car team in 1992, can't imagine doing what Gordon has done in today's environment.

"My hat's off to him," he said. "The problem you have now is it's not a great business model. To get into it like that you have to do it because you love it."

Eddie Wood, a member of the Wood Brothers team that has been a single-car organization for most of the past 50-plus years, said being an owner/driver makes what Gordon has done more remarkable.

"It's tough enough just being an owner," he said. "To drive and handle all the problems of running a race team day to day, on a good day it's still hard."

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Wood reminded that very few owner/drivers have succeeded, with Alan Kulwicki being the biggest exception.

"And it's harder now than it was then," Wood said of Kulwicki, who began his own team in 1986 and won the championship six years later.

"Robby has done a good job of putting it together. I like to see people like that make it. It's good for the sport. Not making the Daytona 500 last year had to be tough for him, but he toughed it out and look at him now."

Gordon adjusted himself on the counter. He likes being his own boss and making most of the decisions. He likes being popular enough to attract major sponsors.

But he doesn't want to get too comfortable, on or off the track.

"Being [30th], that doesn't make me feel good," he said. "What makes me feel good is being competitive. We have been, but we know we could be so much better than we are."