October 30, 2005

By Carol Einarsson

I read with interest the press release that John Menard has sold his engine company to Honda. Curious, in light of other information I have about Robby Gordon (driver of Menard-built engines), and a rumored partnership with Toyota.

Robby Gordon

My friend Rick Dupuis (of The Truro Daily News, in Nova Scotia) writes a NASCAR column for his local paper. While on a southern field trip recently, he stumbled upon a nice little bit of information that I hadn’t yet heard, but here it is, and you can decide for yourself…

Rick was visiting some small race shops around town in Charlotte, and at one of the shops from one of the crewmen, he hears something that the crewman immediately knew he shouldn’t have said. The best the crewman could do, though, after letting this cat out of the bag was to request anonymity, which of course, Rick granted. Here, though, is what the crewman said:

"I had to go to Bill Davis Racing to pick up some parts. I walked down a corridor and a door was open. I looked in and saw at least twelve Caterpillar Toyota Cup cars as well as another Toyota. There was no sponsor name on the car, but it was painted in the scheme Robby Gordon uses and it had the number 7 on the doors and roof."

Rick goes on to say, “I think it is one of two things... either Gordon is going to Toyota, or he had a Toyota built and decked out in an effort to get Toyota to give him a contract.”

Michael Waltrip

The more I thought about this and digested it for a few hours, it all started to fit with recent events.

Menard’s sells to Honda; Robby knows he’s soon to be out an engine supplier, so he goes to Toyota. He can tell them that his supplier has gone to Honda, and from there, Toyota (Honda competitor that they are) suggests that THEY provide engines for Robby! Honda might be thinking that if they buy Menard’s, they will have an “in” with some teams to make their way to NASCAR for 2007. But Toyota moves in first, maybe not for their own advancement, but in order to undermine any plans Honda has. Next thing you know, it’s a done deal, and Robby’s got a contract with Toyota.

I imagined that Robby and Michael Waltrip were both competing with each other for top-dog honors with Toyota. “Pick me...” “No, pick ME!!” I can see them both vying for the bigger piece of Toyota pie, and each hoping to be chosen as the ultimate Toyota spokesman. The Ray Evernham of Toyota, if you will. Robby already owns his own team, and Michael is in the middle of building a veritable Waltrip World with Toyota t-shirts in the gift shop.

And all of this explains a little bit more about the on-track issues, the helmet throw, the “Michael isn’t the nice guy everyone thinks he is” and the offer to give Robby a car, doesn’t it? The two of them are forced to work together if this is all true, and it might turn out to be some kind of amusing.

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. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.