Robby Gordon's romper room

Versatile driver says he's having plenty of fun in racing

DAYTONA BEACH -- There's been a lot talk lately about "real" racing being back at Daytona International Speedway this week with the Daytona 500 debut of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow. But stock car drivers can seldom be criticized for being too worldly.

It makes Robby Gordon a fine choice for putting restrictor-plate racing into perspective.

"Oh, it's really racing," said Gordon, who will start 26th in Sunday's 50th Daytona 500. "I think the cars are a bit of a handful to drive, and that's a good thing. If anybody can drive them wide open, that's not a good thing. It's not supposed to be a breeze."

Gordon is a champion of off-road racing, and he has also found himself behind the wheel in Indy cars, sports cars and stock cars in some of the most prestigious races in the world -- including the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Baja 1000. Even with that resume, he's a believer that the new NASCAR race car, with its severe limits on ingenuity in the garage, has made Sprint Cup Series racing -- gulp! -- fun.

"Of course we're having fun," Gordon said, sitting in his hauler following practice on Saturday, trading barbs with a couple of members of his team. "To do what you love to do, to have the comaraderie we have and be able to bitch and complain, that's fun. I mean, if you can't bitch and complain.... I mean, what good is it?"

Gordon likens life at Robby Gordon Motorsports to the long-running reality television show on MTV, "Real World."

"What's that show? 'Real Life?' " he asked. "We've got real life right here every week."

For a 39-year-old racer from Cerritos, Calif., who considers barreling off into the desert in a truck for days on end "fun," it's hard to see how the headaches of Cup ownership could serve any purpose for him. But you need only sit with Gordon for a few minutes to realize that there's a Type A side to his personality that ownership fits like a glove.

"Oh, come on -- it's a babysitting job," Gordon says, drawing chuckles from those who work closest with him, opening a discussion of who was in diapers longer. "It's a full-time romper room here.

"But I like that (ownership) part of it. Obviously, keeping all our sponsors happy is a big part of it, too, and that's a challenge I enjoy."

The challenge is made easier by the fact that Gordon finished last season in the top-35 in Cup owner points, securing him a spot on the starting grid in the first 5 races of 2008. That, he said, allows sponsors to put together incentive programs for customers -- knowing that the No. 7 Dodge will be around on Sundays.

Gordon recalled his first year as an owner-driver, in 2005, when he failed to qualify for the main event despite being a former winner of the Gatorade Duels.

"We've done the game before where we've come to Daytona and not had the opportunity to race," said Gordon, who has 3 career Cup Series wins, including one at New Hampshire, but has never finished better than 6th at Daytona. "Our first year as a team we did that. (Two years) before I won the 150 (with Richard Childress Racing), and then I went home the next year.

"The top 35 thing's tough, but I like it. It's good for the sport and good for the sponsors."
And no matter what he's racing, it's all with the same goal in mind.

"It actually doesn't matter if you're riding a Big Wheel. You want to beat them, beat the best," Gordon said. "It's a team. A race car driver doesn't make these cars go fast. You've got to have a good pit crew, you've got to have good race strategy, reliable race cars and a good-handling vehicle, as well.

"The most important things are those things, and the guys that get that the best are normally the teams that win."

In any form of racing.