Gordon busy criss-crossing country and racing events

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Monster Energy is a staple of Nextel Cup owner/driver Robby Gordon's daily existence, and not just because the energy drink company's decals are affixed to a lot of his race vehicles.

Gordon, a multi-faceted individual whose involvement in a variety of motorsports' areas is unmatched by anyone else in NASCAR's three national tours, has criss-crossed the country several times in the past six days to ultimately land in pastoral Martinsville, where his Nextel Cup team is competing in Sunday's Goody's 500.

Gordon's primary businesses are Robby Gordon Motorsports, which fields teams in the Nextel Cup and Busch Series; and Robby Gordon Off-Road, a multi-purpose operation in California that does both customer work and fields vehicles in everything from Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) to the Dakar Rally.

This week's Gordon odyssey began on Tuesday with a Nextel Cup test for Martinsville at Greenville-Pickens Speedway outside Greenville, S.C. He followed that by flying to Ohio for an appearance for sponsor Menards.

"Then, I had a sponsor meeting in Las Vegas, and after that I went to test the [Dakar] Hummer around Barstow and Daggett [Calif.] on Thursday morning," Gordon said. "I left Daggett and went to a sponsor meeting with Menards, actually with MAPEI and they're coming back next year [as a Sprint Cup sponsor] so we're real happy about that and just finalizing that deal.

"For next season we're good with Menards and MAPEI and we've got a couple new ones, we believe, though they're not fully signed yet -- but I'm pretty confident our 7 car is covered."

The life he and many in the upper realm of NASCAR live was brought home to Gordon when he tried to fly to the Martinsville area Thursday evening.

"We tried, but it was foggy -- a little sketchy," Gordon said, smiling. "I didn't want to take any chances so I went back to Charlotte, because I felt like with a 12 o'clock practice it wasn't going to be any problem.

"At 8 a.m. I was sitting at Exit 28 on the approach to I-77 and I called my crew chief, Peter Sospenzo, and thanks to a miscommunication, because NASCAR told him originally they were going to dry the track, then run the Craftsman Trucks before the Cup cars.

"So I thought I had enough time to make it from Charlotte to here and then at the last minute they changed their mind and made the Cup practice go before the Truck. So I missed it by about 15 minutes from the time they started drying the track to the time I got here.

"I wasn't home sleeping late or laying on the couch. I was at the office working with my general manager, Ed Guzzo, just trying to get things better organized for the 2008 season."

Organization put Gordon in a position to potentially salvage his Cup weekend. He had off-road buddy and Craftsman Truck driver Brendan Gaughan lined up to practice Gordon's car and, when rain cut Nextel Cup practice way short, Gaughan reciprocated by making his No. 77 truck available to Gordon to satisfy NASCAR's requirement that Gordon practice something before he attempt to qualify.

"Brendan set the official times in both vehicles [Friday]," Gordon said. "He was 15th in my car and that really made me happy, because it just showed that Brendan can drive, if you give him a good piece of equipment; and he was better in the car than he was in his truck."

After he made his token two laps in his Cup Ford Fusion to earn the 41st starting position for Sunday, Gordon flew to Fort Worth, Texas, where he competed in the Jason Baldwin Cup, a CORR event on a special course at the Short Track at Texas Motor Speedway that will be telecast by NBC Sports next Sunday.

"I started eighth and got to the lead," Gordon said. "I was leading with two to go and bicycled it in one corner, Carl Renezeder had gone inside of me and when we went into the next corner it bicycled again and we touched with my right-front tire to his left-front tire and it just stopped my truck and flipped it over.

"It was a bummer, but we had a good run. We ended up having a DNF in that race and then the next race I got a right-rear flat tire, so hopefully [Saturday] night will go better.

"We're pretty well prepared. The truck was good when I got there and then; obviously, my Nextel Cup car with being 11th-fastest in practice makes us happy here, as well."

Gordon, who returned to Virginia late Friday night, kept his Cup running to a minimum Saturday, running 73 laps between the two sessions, but was 11th in both. After Happy Hour, he returned to Texas to race his Ford truck.

"I wasn't intending on missing any [NASCAR] sessions in the beginning [Friday], but Brendan drove my car just a little bit due to that little bit of a miscommunication between NASCAR and myself," Gordon said. "I had fun [Friday] night, it was fun going down there and I'm looking forward to going [Saturday] night."