Robby Gordon plans to have Kevin Conway in car rest of year while working on 2011 program

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Robby Gordon hopes to have a deal done soon to have Kevin Conway drive a Robby Gordon Motorsports car the rest of the season and possibly next year.

Gordon put Conway in the No. 7 car at Bristol Motor Speedway last week and Gordon qualified the No. 07 for the Saturday night race.

Conway, a rookie, started the year at Front Row Motorsports, but Conway and sponsor Extenze broke away from the team prior to the Aug. 15 race at Michigan. Conway, who has struggled with three lead-lap finishes in 23 starts and still has the backing of sponsor Extenze, plans to move the sponsorship to RGM. Gordon drove the No. 07 car at Bristol.

Gordon says he plans to run the No. 7 car the rest of the year to remain in the top 35 and have one of those 35 guaranteed spots for the first five races next year. Conway finished 36th at Bristol, and the No. 7 car has a 125-point edge on the 36th-place Latitude 43 Motorsports No. 26 car and 144-point edge on the Frown Row Motorsports No. 38 car with 12 races left in the season.

“I’ve got some things coming in for next year that are really good for our organization,” Gordon said last weekend at Bristol. “I believe it will give us the funding to do some races with the 7 car, and if we could do a good job for Kevin Conway, maybe we’ll get fortunate enough that he’ll come back next year and do some races with us as well.

“The plan is we’d like to [have him run the rest of year], but every weekend it’s see how it goes. … He’s got to build his confidence. The biggest thing is we need to build his confidence.”

Conway had run only 25 Nationwide races (with no top-10 finishes) before making the jump to Cup.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Conway said. “I’m very thankful for Robby Gordon and the whole team for giving us this opportunity here this weekend at Bristol and hopefully in the very near future we’ll have some exciting news to announce about what our longer-term plans are.”

Gordon’s team fell out of the top 35 for part of the year and missed the race at Pocono with Ted Musgrave qualifying the car. Although he has put two cars in the field in each of the last three races, Gordon said he won’t run two cars the rest of the year.

“We’ll focus once we get toward the end of the season on one car,” Gordon said. “We’ll get ready for next year and get our inventory built up for Daytona and Vegas.

“It’s just a fact of the economy. I feel like I’m a pretty good sales guy. I’ve been able to sell sponsorship for a long time now. I’ve got a new, creative way of marketing that I think will be able to change my race team, for sure.”

From Scenedaily

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Didn't the owner of FRM switch numbers numerous times to keep Kevin in the top 35? Sounds like the he wanted to keep Kevin racing. But I ma just a fan looking from the outside. I am sure there is some secret NASACR stuff about the whole number switching thing.
Of course they tried to make sure Kevin started the races,ExtenZe was footing the bill.Other wise FRM is self funding.
Yeah, its really not a fair comparison. I am going to give KC the benefit of the doubt for his learning curve.
the comparison may not be fair, but he had lots of critics, maybe that's why Conway there. I'm hoping that RGM see's something nobody else sees in him. If he has the ability to keep the fenders clean, then can improve on confidence and speed this might work. I can't believe that a crew chief and car chief would be that unprofessional, if so, a least Conway made the best move for himself and sponsorship.
You mean he ran in the same positions not lap number right? Hopefully the better RGM equipment can help Conway run faster.
TOG you think maybe robby will consider running the car in talladega?knowing he is very good there ,and well i think most of us would love to see him race there!!!!!! thanks .and i knoow still a couple months away but its one of four of my favorite tracks to see robby run in..
Lets hope so.
I hope so too, although I haven't ordered my tickets yet...
I think RG would love to have KC and Extenze for next year even if he gave up the 7 number,
That would leave RG to run a limited schedule in nascar off Road and maybe just maybe Indy.
and could possibly get the Monster Tuck going again. Regardless If he can just have the the rest of this year it's a plus. RG will find a way. I think!
I don't know, money is money and that is what RG needs the most. Besides what's in a
number
I disagree I think if Conway is back with sponsorship he wouldnt mind at all letting conway run the 7. This is a win, win for RGM. Get a full time sponsor with another driver to run the whole season and we have already seen this year that when Robby wants and needs to qualify on time he has no issues doing so. That said when he does want to run even if he doesnt have backing for that race it wont be as big of a issue running a car out of pocket when he has another with full backing.
Qualifying for the Daytona 500 if your not in the top 35 will be hard work. Oh no! The painful memories of that 125 mile qual race 2005 are flooding back!

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