Robby Gordon's Penalties: Right Or Wrong?

February 24, 2008

By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

When did Robby Gordon become Michael Waltrip?

A year ago, all the NASCAR world could talk about was the mystery (and still unknown) gunk in Mikey’s engine, and you had every feeling from “He should have been sent packing at that instant” to “He didn’t know it was there, why penalize him"? Penalize the guy who put it there!” The debate went on for weeks, and then faded away.

Now, here we are 365 days later, and that same discussion has now found a home with Robby Gordon.

All week, the discussion on the radio, in the news, and on the message boards has been “What happened to the 7 nose?” When the penalties came out on Tuesday, they went crazy.

Fans of the 7 were screaming that NASCAR was out to ruin Robby. NASCAR supporters said that NASCAR was being consistent with every other Car of Tomorrow penalty they had handed out since it was introduced a year ago.

Even the sponsor of the 7 car, Jim Beam, got involved when they submitted the following letter to the leaders of NASCAR:

Dear Mike, Robin and John:

As a proud sponsor of Robby Gordon for the past four years, Jim Beam believes that the 100-point penalty handed down by NASCAR is excessive – we support his decision to appeal.

Robby’s team earned an honest 8th place finish in the Daytona 500 through tireless dedication, quality, and character – not because of rule violations. As your own officials have stated, there appears to have been no intent to circumvent the rules in order to gain a competitive advantage. It amounts to an honest mistake that was corrected before the race.

Your decision unfairly penalizes Robby, his sponsors and his fans. In fact, nearly 70 percent of racing fans on NASCAR.com are standing up for Robby and agree with our assessment. While we fully support the rules NASCAR has put in place to keep the playing field level, we ask that you closely review all the facts. Please consider not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the rules of competition.

At Jim Beam, we believe in doing the right thing. Robby is a man of true character who has the stuff inside to compete at the highest level in racing. As the only driver/owner to finish in the top ten this past weekend, Robby is giving NASCAR fans something to talk about. When Robby succeeds, NASCAR also wins. Robby’s passion is contagious.

If you look at the facts, we think you will see not only our perspective, but that of the millions of NASCAR fans. We look forward to your decision.

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Flocco

The team has begun printing off “Rally for Robby” T-shirts. Fans at Trackside Friday night had “Free Robby” signs.

Rumors in the garage indicated if the penalty isn’t overturned, the end could be near for Robby Gordon Motorsports’ (RGM) Cup efforts.

That said, how did this all come about to begin with? Sure, there was a crazed dash to get Fords changed over to Dodges when Robby made the last minute decision to join forces with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports (GEM). Robby’s team, which had built Chevy’s and Fords over the last three years, had not done Dodges, and had members from GEM’s engineering team come over to help. Parts were brought over from GEM and Dodge, and put on the cars.

Including the noses.

So, where did this nose come from? Why wasn’t it caught before it was put on? Why didn’t someone realize when the decals for the headlights didn’t fit the nose that something might be up?

It has been suggested the easiest way to have caught the error was to check the part number against the approved parts list. Well, it seems the part number was the same….save for an “a” at the end.

So, who is to blame for this? RGM? GEM? Dodge?

It looks like Dodge is taking most of the blame, according to Kipp Owen, director of Dodge Motorsports Engineering.

"While the nose meets the template for the car of tomorrow, it has not yet been approved by NASCAR for use in racing," Owen said in a statement. "The prototype parts were in the warehouse, and share the same basic part number as the approved ... nose.

"It was an unfortunate series of human errors compounded by the very short time frame [Gordon's team] had to get their cars changed to Dodge Chargers in time for the Daytona 500.

"Dodge has taken the appropriate steps in the warehouse to make sure that prototype parts can not be mistaken for approved parts in the future and hopes that the circumstances surrounding this error are considered.''

So, Dodge takes the blame, but how does that ultimately help Robby? They can pay the fine, but they can’t remove the points penalty that took Robby from 8th to 40th in points.

Should NASCAR change the penalty points knowing that Dodge sent RGM the wrong nose? Almost everyone agrees that there wasn’t an “intent” to cheat, that it was an honest mistake. However, if you bring intent into the penalty decision making, every team could claim they didn’t “intend” to have a penalty-incurring part on their car. If they lower the penalty, then that blows their promise to “keep the penalties for the COT the same” in an effort to curb cheating.

My friend Kenny laid it out like this:

“NASCAR fans have whined bitched and moaned for years about the etch-a-sketch, invisible, make it up as you go rulebook. NASCAR has for the most part looked at each infraction as they occurred. Results appear to show favoritism at times ( I agree). So the majority of fans have railed that if NASCAR wants integrity they have to write the rule and enforce it evenly. So NASCAR writes some hard and fast rules about the COT body.

A written rule that is to be applied consistently by it's very nature takes intent, performance enhancement, favoritism, etc., out of the mix. It doesn't matter how, who, what, when or where. It is what it is. End of story. And it IS the end of the story. No wiggle room.

Now....if peeps want this instance looked at from a judgment, oops my bad, clerical error angle then they have to accept that for ALL teams...ALL rules....even the ones they dislike. IMPOSSIBLE!!

So which is it? Each infraction looked at individually or hard fast rules. It CANNOT be both ways. So it seems that at least as far as the body of the COT goes NASCAR wrote rules...and now peeps want them to ignore those rules and look at intent, performance etc...

Me you ask? LOL I've ALWAYS been a gray area, look at each deal as they happen kind of guy. That applies to NASCAR and real life.”

In the end…it looks like the penalty will stand. Dodge will take the blame, but Robby will be left with the damage. Jim Beam has a ton of publicity, and becomes one of the first sponsors in recent memory to poke their nose in NASCAR’s business. I doubt RGM will fold as a result of this, and it looks like they have gotten more publicity than money could buy due to the week-long media frenzy. Knowing Robby, this is just the impetus he needs to show NASCAR and any detractors out there what he is made of. He has already proven that he can be competitive in a Dodge. His sponsor is sticking with him, as is his new manufacturer. GEM will continue to help him build new cars (with the proper parts), and supply him with engines. He’ll go out on the track, and he’ll have a point to prove.

That said, what a way to kick off the season. Heaven forbid any year is boring, but this 60th year of NASCAR seems to be shaping up to be a memorable one. I wonder what we’ll be talking about next week?

Discuss this and other racing matters in the Prodigys@Speed Forum

You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News

    Read other articles by Kim Roberson

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.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web Insiderracingnews.com