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Gordon.
Chubby Robby Gordon Accuses Danica Patrick
But unlike Robby, Danica played by the rules. Why, it was only a few months back that Robby's car was caught running an unnapproved intake manifold at the Dayton 500 (2/11/05) and the team was fined $50,000 and docked 25 championship points. But that didn't stop Robby. A couple of months later, his car was caught running an unapproved deck lid at the Martinsville Speedway (4/9/05) but they only got a $5,000 fine this time. I guess Robby's philosophy is point out the rules that give someone else an advantage, but see how many rules you can break on the side.
It's interesting why he waited until the eve of the 500 to mention anything when he never complained about Helio Castroneves (won Indy in 2000), or Buddy Rice (won Indy in 2004 at 150 lbs) and Victor Meiro only weights 141 lbs or any of the other drivers who weighed 30 or more pounds less than he did back in the days when he was competing at Indy.
So, a chubby Robby "Flash" Gordon, who calls his web site "The online home to America's most dynamic racer", wants special rules to help make him more competitive. But, on the other side, men generally have considerably more upper body strength for endurance, something that is definitely an advantage when handling 1500 pounds of race car at over 200 miles per hour for 3 plus hours. Shouldn't there be a rule to equalize that also?
Teams are constantly looking for ways to use the rules to their advantage. That's part of racing. I think Robby was just looking for some publicity, which he sorly needs. You see, IRL doesn't include a driver in the weight of a car, but NASCAR does. That still didn't help Robby at the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 which ran the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500. He qaulified 25th.
It's rather a moot point on the big ovals which dominate the IRL schedule, since the cars can be held wide open virtually all the way around the track.
"If the weight of the driver mattered that much," Mike Hull, the managing director at Ganassi Racing said, "we'd have a field full of Willie Shoemakers."
2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon said "A lot of us have changed our training regimen for that," he said. "I'm not lifting as much weight as I used to, and I'm running like a son of a gun." Sounds like Robby needs to get off his butt and consider losing a few of those extra pounds, if he thinks it will make that much of a difference.
Gordon's threat that he will not compete in the (Indy) race again unless the field is equalized was rather idol since he wasn't able to get a sponsor and wasn't even planning to run this year. Sounds like he's more of a whinner than a competitor anyway and IRL is probably better off without him. I'd bet that Danica could add 100 lbs of blubber to her car and still wipe the pants off Robby. She's just a better driver.
Seriously, this seems to be a classic case of "driver needs a PR boost." Gordon, the driver Dale Earnhardt Jr once called "stupid" - and who is affectionately known by many in the garage as "Reckless Robby" - simply could not resist taking his ridiculous shot at Patrick. He owns his own team because he can't get another Nextel Cup ride.
Looking back in history, Janet Guthrie was the first woman to race at Indy (1977) and she also weighed around 100 pounds. Where was Robby then? He was 8 years old and probably chowing down on double cheeseburgers with a biggie fry?
* Danica weighs in at 105. According to Nascar's
driver profile on Robby (sports.yahoo.com/nascar/nextel/drivers/39
),
he weighs in at 180. Looks like he's going to have to chop another 25
pounds out of his racecar if he wants to compete fairly. But, who
said anything about fair?
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