Did Robby Gordon do it, did he not? That is the question
November 2nd, 2006
Wednesday was a turning point for NASCAR racer, Robby Gordon. He was penalized by NASCAR for causing a caution at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Robby Gordon got fined $15,000 for throwing debris onto the track and in so far as Gordon is concerned, he denied that he did. So, did he or did he not? By virtue of the fact that Robby Gordon threw the piece of roll bar padding onto the track, Jeff Burton is no longer a championship contender. Is Burton mad? You bet he is. More so since the act itself helped Robby Gordon get his 10 th place finish.
On the race day itself, at around lap 35 from the finishing, a caution was issued and Robby Gordon's car was the first car not on the lead lap, hence issued a ‘free pass' to get back on it. Because of this, he finished 10 th .
For the behavior, NASCAR went a little further than to fine Robby Gordon monetarily. NASCAR took away 50 drivers points and 50 car owner points. On top of that he is now on probation until the end of the year. As if all that is already not bad enough, the Chief of his crew also got fined $10,000.
So far, Robby Gordon have made repeated attempts to clear his own name and denied that he threw debris onto the race track but upon reviewing footages of the race, NASCAR has every reason to believe that Robby Gordon did, indeed, throw the debris onto the track. This was further established after a detailed inspection on Robby Gordon's car was done.
Is NASCAR a little too harsh on Gordon for an act we cannot be 100% sure that he did? Perhaps…but necessary. The NASCAR officials believe that this is the right time to issue a tougher-than-concrete penalty on Robby Gordon to discourage other drivers from doing the same in future.
NASCAR officials believe that this is a very serious offence because NASCAR feels that they, the drivers and their teams, should not involve themselves in such tactics to manipulate the result of a race.