Time (and points) back on Gordon's side after appeal

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Robby Gordon is 1-for-1. And now it's business as usual. At least, that's what Gordon says.

After the National Stock Car Racing Commission ruled in favor of Gordon's appeal on Wednesday, NASCAR's last single-car driver/owner vaulted from 37th to 21st in driver points (read more). But he said that hasn't changed things at the racetrack.

"I don't approach it any differently. We were locked in for the first five races anyway," Gordon said before qualifying 26th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "Maybe morale has changed because we got what we feel was right."

Robby Gordon

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Gordon's penalty came following the season-opening Daytona 500. Initial inspection revealed the nose of Gordon's Dodge was not one approved by NASCAR, but rather one from the previous season. The mix-up came on the heels of Gordon's 11th-hour manufacturer change from Ford to Dodge just one week prior to qualifying for Daytona.

An outpour of support from fans, his manufacturer and sponsors came two weeks ago at California, and Gordon appealed the penalty. Wednesday, his 100-point deduction was reinstated and crew chief Frank Kerr's suspension was lifted, although his $100,000 fine was increased by $50,000.

"Points are a victory," Gordon said. "There are only a couple of things you can buy. You can buy points for the first five races only, but then after that you can't buy time. Those two things are on our side now."

In reality, the entire process was a victory -- and a rare one at that. Prior to Wednesday's ruling, the commission had upheld 68 of 99 decisions, or 69 percent. Just eight rulings had been overturned.

Gordon said he sought help from what he called "a group in California" to do some research on past penalties that fit closely with his. He particularly noted a penalty issued to the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team last year when a faulty carburetor was discovered. That team only received a 25-point penalty.

But aside from that, the presentation to the NSCRC pertained mostly to Gordon's No. 7 machine.

"We really just addressed the facts of our situation, 100 percent," Gordon said of his first appeal to the commission. "We built two complete front ends. We showed that templates fit both noses. You can see the detail right on the front. If we stuck that decal [of a 2008 nose] on our [2007] nose and it didn't fit, then they would have started raising questions. But because everything fit and we thought it was right ...

"At the end of the day when we sprawled out all the facts, I think the rules committee agreed there was no intent of a competitive advantage."

Now Gordon turns his sights back on the racetrack -- the NASCAR racetrack.

He was eighth at Daytona, then followed it up with an 18th-place finish at California. But last week at Las Vegas, Gordon blew a tire in Turn 2 on Lap 144 and wound up with a 42nd-place finish. That dropped him to 37th in owner points.

A day before the commission's ruling, Gordon hinted during testing at Phoenix that should the penalty be upheld he possibly would consider interest in the IndyCar Series.

Add to that his loose plans of doing the double this year -- race the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day -- and a jump back to open-wheel racing wasn't too far of a stretch.

Wednesday, however, changed all that.

"I'm not going to try the double right now unless something else happens," he said. "We're 50 points out of 12th. We had a bad run at Vegas because of popping a tire. Here we're just going to try to do the best job we can. We can run in the top 20 pretty easy right now. We need to position ourselves to run 10th."

He was 15th in Friday's practice at Atlanta (speeds), but he was the second-fastest Dodge during the session. He said his team came to AMS with a game plan -- trying a different approach with two setups for the car, opting for the tighter edition.

It was the beauty of winning his appeal. He could try things because he was safe inside the top 35.

"This is a perception-based business," Gordon said. "If you get labeled as a cheater and you try to take advantage of something for performance by trying something that's illegal, sponsors don't like that, fans don't like that, and neither does anybody else. We're just trying to keep our perception up."