Turn Around, There's Robby Gordon

By SHAV GLICK

May 17, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

INDIANAPOLIS —

In 1990, there was some question as to which Gordon would become the better race car driver, Jeff or Robby.

Both had been teenage phenoms, Jeff in United States Auto Club open-wheel racing and Robby in off-road and sports car racing.

Jeff switched to NASCAR stock cars and even casual fans know how that turned out--three Winston Cup championships, 53 victories and more than $35 million won, all for car owner Rick Hendrick.

Then there’s Robby. He switched too, from IMSA sports cars (for car owner Jack Roush) to CART (Chip Ganassi to A.J. Foyt to Derrick Walker) to Winston Cup (Felix Sabates), back to CART (Cal Wells, then with his own team), back to Winston Cup (Larry McClure), and now, here he is on the front row of the Indianapolis 500, back again with Foyt in the IRL.

The motor racing world is still waiting for Robby Gordon to live up to his long-range potential. There have been flashes of brilliance, such as last Saturday when he turned four laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Foyt’s Olds-powered Dallara at 224.994 mph, a speed that earned him a spot alongside pole-sitter Scott Sharp and Greg Ray in the May 27 race.

“I’ve always been like a cat; once I get thrown, I land on my feet running,” said the 32-year old Gordon, who has homes in Orange, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Parker, Ariz.

He was thrown for a loss last month when he was dropped by the Morgan-McClure NASCAR team after running only five Winston Cup races. But as he said, he landed on his feet.

“That same week I was released by McClure, A.J. called and told me he had an Indy ride for me. To get another opportunity to drive for A.J. was really good for me. And two weeks later, [Winston Cup car owner] Richard Childress bought into the team, so now I am working for two of the biggest names in motor sports. How lucky can you get?

“I think this time I made the right decision for Robby Gordon. And I hope for A.J. too.”

Twice, Gordon acknowledges, he has made bad decisions. First was when he left Walker’s Indy car team in 1996 to drive a Winston Cup car for Sabates. And the other was when he disbanded his Winston Cup team--a partnership with Mike Held and John Menard--to drive for the Morgan-McClure team.

“I can’t believe the same deal happened to me twice,” he said. “Both times, they said they were going to change their program, to work with me in taking their team to a new level. Both times I looked on it as a good opportunity, but as it turned out, neither worked with me.

“Maybe I expected too much. I blame myself for not having checked the details better. On the other hand, maybe it’s all worked for the best. If I was still in the [Morgan-McClure] No. 4 car, I wouldn’t be here. They wouldn’t give me permission to drive in the 500.

“And I think it’s kind of interesting that the No. 4 hasn’t done anything since I left, either.”

Despite his vagabond career, Gordon has been in six Indy 500s, has led three and finished four times in the top six.

In 1999, he was leading and within two laps of the checkered flag, then had to pit for a splash of methanol. Before he could get back to speed, he had been passed by Kenny Brack, Jeff Ward and Billy Boat.

“We made a mistake, no doubt about it, but it’s always easy to look back and play armchair quarterback and say, ‘If we would have done this . . . , if we had done that . . . ‘

“There was no doubt we had the strongest car that day. Simply put, if we had stopped earlier for a splash of fuel, we still would have been the first car back on the track. But we were gambling on one more lap of caution. Who would have thought in the last 40 laps of the Indy 500, you would go caution free. Go back and look at the statistics on it.

“We had all that stuff printed out. We felt we were very well prepared and it bit us. That’s part of the challenge of racing. You can’t count on anything because the next minute it changes. And the teams that recover from those changes quickest are the ones that get to Victory Lane.”

Foyt’s succinct comment: “Robby’s crew screwed up.”

Foyt was the beneficiary that day. Brack and Boat were in A.J.’s cars, as was Robbie Buhl, who finished sixth.

“We need to improve on that this year,” Foyt said. “Both Robby and Eliseo [Salazar, Foyt’s other driver] have the equipment to win Indy. Personally, I’m shooting for a 1-2 finish.”

First, however, Salazar will have to qualify in Sunday’s final round of time trials. He crashed in practice Friday and Saturday, and in Sunday qualifying he had three solid laps at 223 mph before the engine blew on the third turn of the final lap.

“Now I have to pray for no rain next Sunday,” said Salazar, who finished third in a Foyt car last year. “If someone says qualifying at Indy is somebody’s idea of fun, they must be a masochist.”

This is the second time at Indy for the Gordon-Foyt combination, and Robby doesn’t like it when people say he’s the reason A.J. retired from driving on qualification day in 1993.

Foyt was in his No. 14 Lola, driving practice laps when Gordon, then a rookie at Indy, hit the wall for the third time in practice. Foyt immediately drove into the pits and declared he was retiring from driving Indy cars. It ended his streak of 35 years in the 500, four of which ended in victory.

“Come on, you really don’t think I drove him into retirement, do you?” Gordon snapped at a reporter this week.

“When I drove for A.J. in ‘93, I wanted to be the quickest every session. I learned a lot from him that year. He likes to say he retired from driving Indy cars so he could baby-sit me. He taught me it doesn’t matter how fast you go if you’re not there at the end.”

In that race, Gordon started 25th, led two laps and finished 27th after suffering gear-box failure on lap 165.

“I think the last six races I’ve been here, I’ve learned a lot,” Gordon said. “Learned from the good things and from the bad things I’ve done, and tried to build on that. And I think coming back and driving for A.J. this year, I have a lot more experience than I did when I was a rookie here. You know, A.J. is the man around the Speedway. If we could do everything right next Sunday, we could be in a good position to pull down Victory Lane.

“Growing up, I always wanted to win the Indy 500. That’s been one of my goals for as long as I can remember. I can remember as a kid, waking up, watching A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan when he spun coming out of Turn 1. There was nothing more exciting than watching the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend.

‘Now to get the opportunity to compete in the 500 again, and be on the front row, it’s all I could ask for. Except winning, of course.”

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Indy 500

Facts

When:

May 27

Time:

9 a.m. PDT

Site:

Indianapolis

Motor

Speedway