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Robby Gordon Turned Busch Race Into A Farce An Opinion
By Chuck Abrams
As most of you already know, Robby had a bit of a temper tantrum and not only purposely spun out a competitor, but refused to restart further back where NASCAR officials scored him and then he ignored black flags to pit his car. All of this due to what he, and many others, deemed an improper call by race officials of the yellow flag. To top it all off, he did a burn out for his “win” alongside race winner Kevin Harvick. You have to hand it to Robby, he sure has guts. For all his shenanigans, Robby was suspended from running the Pocono Cup race and seems to think he will be allowed to run at this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen. But I am not so sure he will be allowed to race. Robby not only gave the folks in Montreal an interesting show, but he broke new ground in NASCAR rule breaking. In fact he broke so many rules that his one race suspension may just be the tip of the iceberg. You can disagree with NASCAR’s decisions during a race and many a driver and crew chief has. But in the end, NASCAR is the ruling body and you have to line up how they tell you too.
Now, I appreciate all the Gordon fans out there and no one would like to see Robby win a race more than I would. He is David in a league of Goliath’s. And I also get easily perturbed by NASCAR’s imperfect rules and poor decision-making during a race. But this is not a race run by nor driven by a bunch of robots. It is not a perfect system and we all make mistakes. NASCAR is NOT going to back down on this one. If they made a mistake, they made a mistake and you won’t hear John Darby or Mike Helton come out and say that Robby was right. Robby turned what is the usual NASCAR circus into a farce and the governing body would be wise to make sure everyone knows just how embarrassed it is, by smacking Gordon with a heavy penalty. This was not saying BS on the air or a mere door slapping retaliatory move on the track. While you may think it was not as bad as Kurt Busch endangering lives by running into Stewart’s car on pit road, think again. Purposely spinning out Ambrose endangered not only Ambrose, but also anyone who may have run into him. When piloting 3000-pound missiles at high speed, you never know what can happen. You can also say that Robby had nothing to lose. He is not in the top 25 in Cup points so why not take a chance? A chance at what? He was not going to win the Busch race after his antics. And you think being suspended for the Cup race was no big deal? I think that his sponsors were not real thrilled about his actions or the fact that they spend millions of dollars to get their product on the track and he jeopardized that effort. Robby needs to learn to take his lumps and move on during a race. And I am sure NASCAR will mete out some extra lumps this week. You can be assured he will be heavily fined and lose points. I also suspect that he may be suspended another race. And not just a Busch race, but a Cup race. NASCAR does not take nose thumbing at their authority during a race very lightly. But it was highly entertaining during a rather boring race weekend.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN. 
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