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December 16, 2008
Robby Gordon Motorsports Will Switch to Toyota for 2009
After being aligned with every other manufacturer in the Cup Series, Robby Gordon Motorsports is going to give Toyota a try in 2009. Robby said,
“We are excited to be partnering with Toyota in NASCAR in 2009. After watching their progress last season, we decided that a switch to Toyota was the right package for our team. We are confident that fielding a Toyota Camry will add to the success of our organization and the competitiveness of our performance on the race track.”
Just about anything would be an improvement over this season which saw Robby struggle so badly that he nearly fell out of the top 35 in owner's points. Details of the deal with TRD are skimpy so it's unknown where Robby is going to get his engines from, whether they'll be directly from TRD or via another Toyota team, but it appears there's no formal arrangement for RGM to be aligned with another Toyota team. I'd like this deal a lot better for Robby if that's what was going to happen. Robby's fans love that he's independent and loves to do things his way but at times I think his stubbornness and insistence on doing thing on his own hinders his chances for success. Maybe somehow Robby will add a second team in the near future, but it's extremely difficult for a single-car, small organization that's not got a lot of resources to have any kind of success no matter what manufacturer they're with. Unless there's more to this deal that hasn't been announced or Robby has other things up his sleeve for next season I don't expect the results to be that much more impressive next season than they were this.
But at least Robby's going to be around next season with sponsorship and racing a full season - that's better than a lot of teams and drivers. There's some discontent among some of Robby's fans about his move to Toyota because there's still a significant amount of anti-Toyota sentiment among fans across all fanbases. But I don't see where Robby had any other choice but to change manufacturers since being with Dodge didn't work out very well for him and given that manufacturer's financial woes there might not be much money or resources left to go to his team after what they provide to their primary teams. So even if the results aren't that great next season either at least Robby is trying to make the moves that he thinks will help his team move in the right direction.
I admit to being disappointed that at least for now there's no alliance between RGM and Michael Waltrip Racing - when I heard that Robby might go to Toyota I was really hoping that it would happen since it would get a lot of fans panties in a bunch. Even if there's no formal working arrangement there may still be certain things that RGM shares information about with MWR and the other Toyota teams - Frank Kerr being at MWR probably means that there likely will be at least some communication between RGM and MWR.
Posted by silverdsl at December 16, 2008 08:26 PM