Robby Gordon finds a home

Sporting News, The, Jan 28, 2002 by Lee Spencer

"Ninety percent of the races are won before the car ever leaves for the track, and RCR has the resources to win championships," Gordon says. "We should have won three races last year, and I'll be disappointed if we don't win four races this season."

M@IL BONDING

LEE SPENCER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

I really liked the idea of a senior tour for drivers over 50 that you wrote about. It also would be a good way to bring the younger guys, such as Jason Leffler and Andy Houston, along (in Winston Cup).

Armond Ealey, Wichita, Kan.

Armond: I think this is an idea whose time has come, and I had an even stronger sense of its viability after speaking with Dave Marcis recently during testing at Daytona. Marcis doesn't want to retire, but the economic realities of the sport make it impossible for him to compete at the level of a DEI squad.

First, I would lower the age requirement to 45 to open the field a bit, but a driver couldn't compete on the senior tour and in Winston Cup. The drivers would race in Craftsman Series trucks and run 200-lap events.

Watching Hershel McGriff, Marcis, Dick Trickle or Darrell Waltrip race in prime time on a Thursday night is reality TV the boomers can relate to.

RELATED ARTICLE: Inside dish.

By LEE SPENCER

Steve Park plans to run laps in a Winston Cup car this week for the first time since Labor Day weekend at Darlington, where he bruised his brain in a wreck in a Busch race. Park hopes teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip will test with him. "I want to run laps with them to know that I'm capable," Park says. "To come back, I need to be able to run fast laps, prove to my crew chief and the doctors that I'm capable of winning and to other competitors that I won't put myself or them in danger." Park recently ran some laps in a Legends car at Lowe's Motor Speedway to test his focus and depth perception. He is wearing glasses to help his vision, which he says is fine up close but "a little foggy" at a distance. Park says he could be in a car competitively as soon as the Daytona 500 if his sight clears up.... Rookie Jimmie Johnson says there's no pressure driving the No. 48 Chevrolet for Jeff Gordon, who is the car's co-owner with Rick Hendrick. "I just have to win four championships in seven years," Johnson says. Johnson posted the fastest single-lap time during testing sessions at Daytona.... Though test speeds don't mean a lot, Ford drivers came away shaking their heads and calling for modifications to the restrictor-plate aerodynamics package before the Daytona 500. Only three Fords placed among the top 25 cars in single-lap trials. Geoffrey Bodine had the fastest Ford, and it ranked 15th overall. At the close of testing, NASCAR allowed Rusty Wallace and Andy Hillenburg, who was subbing for Ricky Rudd, to experiment with the height of the Ford spoiler. Both ran three laps and took a quarter-inch off their cars' spoilers after the first and second laps. Wallace wasn't satisfied with the three-tenths of a second gained on his final lap time. "We need a half-inch off the rear spoiler just to be competitive," Wallace says. "Believe me, if it's not fair, I'll be up there complaining." He won't be the only one.... Many in the garage say the growing responsibilities of the business side of racing have siphoned a lot of the fun from the sport. Owner Robert Yates misses the grease under his fingernails. "I always worked on cars, and it was such a joy," Yates says. "Now I just stand around and worry about it." Perhaps Yates' load will become lighter when Rudd, recovering from back surgery, returns to the No. 28 Ford.... Kevin Harvick still is having fun. Of course, he's only 26 with one Winston Cup season under his belt. "There's a select group of people who like to have fun racing cars, and Tony Stewart is probably the only guy who likes to race more than I do," Harvick says. "Some of us are so obsessed that we'll race every weekend for a hobby." Harvick won't have to juggle two full schedules this season. He expects to run only three Busch races and five truck events.