At Sonoma, Robby Gordon driver of the No. 7 Speed Energy Dodge said that it would probably be his last race of 2012 in NASCAR, and he wasn’t kidding. After the race he told reporters, “For 2012, this is probably my last event…Right now, today, we don’t have anything planned past Sunday.”
The Entry List for Watkins Glen, the road course in New York was released without Gordon’s name on it.
It is still possible that Gordon could be put on as a late entry but the chances are slim. Gordon said that without sponsorship he was not going to run the race. This would be the first time since 1999 that he would miss the race at the Glen.
Gordon has started at Watkins Glen thirteen times in his career. He won there in 2003 and has seven top tens and seven top fives. His average finish is 14.2 which puts him in the top 10 for average finishes among active NASCAR drivers.
Gordon has money lined up for two races in 2013 and 2014. Ideally, he would love to run a full Sprint Cup Series schedule but he has no intention of it unless a funding package, possibly from car manufacturer Dodge would come through. Without that he said he is looking at a 5 to 10 race schedule at the most.
But Gordon said that he is not ready to walk away from NASCAR completely, “I love NASCAR. But I come here and get … kicked, which is good for me because I’m not a good loser,” he said. “I’ve kind of been out of sight, out of mind.”
Gordon is not wasting any time though just because he isn’t racing in NASCAR. He is building all the trucks that he is going to use to compete in his stadium truck series that he plans to have running in 2013.
