Robby Gordon says he plans to start and park many of remaining Cup races

Robby Gordon plans to start and park in all but three of the remaining Cup races unless he can get additional sponsorship, he said at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Gordon said he planned to run the entire race at Chicago, Texas and Phoenix because he has enough sponsorship for those races. If he gets more sponsorship, he’ll run more races. Gordon also continues to build the energy drink company he created to help fund his racing programs.

So, wouldn’t it be better if Gordon skipped some races and be better prepared for the ones he ran instead of starting and parking most of the time?

“If you don’t come to the race track, you don’t learn,’’ Gordon said. “If you don’t come to the race track, I can’t help it that we can’t find a sponsor to pay for right now. I can’t help that. I’ve tried. Trevor Bayne doesn’t have any sponsors on his car and he won the Daytona 500. That’s the reality of it. We’ve tried hard, and this is what I love to do, so I’m going to continue to fight the fight.

“When I can learn to qualify my car back inside the top 15 again, then we’ll worry about racing. We can still come and get exposure. I get as much exposure starting and parking as I do racing. Because the only time they ever show me (on TV) is during qualifying. Right? They only show five cars on the race track.  That’s the reality of it. That’s the reality. There’s going to be more sponsors that look for exposure that are not getting the value because the media is so focused on Danica, Junior, Tony, 10 guys.’’

While Gordon continues to search for sponsorship and grow Speed Energy, the company scored quite a coup last week when it appeared prominently on “60 Minutes.’’ The news show did a story on the one-year anniversary of the Chilean miners’ rescue. One of the miners interviewed in the piece wore a Speed Energy cap.

“That just happened,’’ Gordon said, adding it was not a planned product placement. “Happened to be wearing it because I met him at the Dakar (Rally).’’

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