His team, Robby Gordon Motorsports, does have a partnership of sorts with Gillet-Evernham Motorsports but for the most part Robby Gordon is a one man show.
Racing for RCR should have been proof enough for that. Gordon is a man who doesn't work too well with--and for--others because he wants to take charge.
He wants to be assured that everything is being done to benefit him best.
The natural assumption is the best way to achieve that is to own your own team.
This is definitely not the easiest task to achieve within the realm of the NASCAR empire. Large multi-car teams such as Hendrick Motorsports, and Roush Fenway reign. And though he struggles with penalties, appeals, and paying his bills, Gordon has managed to make it work thus far.
Staying afloat in NASCAR as a single car operation and being a driver/owner is difficult, and Gordon's on track behavior keep him skating on thin ice on the NASCAR skating rink.
After the little tet-a-tet with Marcos Ambrose at the inaugural Busch Grand National Series (Now the Nationwide Series, though I will always refer to it as Busch) in Montreal in 2007, NASCAR got their point across in a pretty direct fashion.
Stay out of trouble or get out of NASCAR.
Trying to be on his best behavior didn't keep him out of trouble too long though. After breaking away from Ford and switching to Dodge for the 2008 season, Gordon faced a stiff penalty for an illegal nose at Daytona. The $100,000 fine was painful, but the 100 point penalty was excruciating. It had Gordon thinking he may have to abandon hopes of success in NASCAR and return to racing in the Indycar series if he couldn't win his appeal. Very rarely do appeals against NASCAR penalties win.
Robby did.
I must admit my first impressions of Robby Gordon weren't too great.
Arguing with Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress (Though that could've easily been Jeff Green) at Richmond.
Spinning Dale Earnhardt Jr. out on pit road at Bristol after the race (Rarely is spinning a 3400 lb. car around in the general location of 200 or so people a good idea.) didn't quite portray him in his best light.
But the more I watched him, the more he grew on me.
Gordon is so passionate about racing, he races in virtually anything with wheels underneath it.
Racing isn't just a paycheck, it's what he truly enjoys.
And Robby Gordon does it on his terms.
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