From Scene Daily 2-10-11

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Robby Gordon plans to run 18 NASCAR events and will do so in a Dodge, he said Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

His Robby Gordon Motorsports team will get its engines from Penske Racing and will have factory support for the first time in several years. The last time Gordon was with Dodge, as well as when he was with Toyota, his was not a manufacturer-backed team.

When he was with Dodge a few years ago, Gordon was getting engines from Gillett Evernham Motorsports before switching to Penske late in the season. When Penske went from three Cup cars to two for 2011, the opportunity came up for Gordon to get some Dodge help.

“I’ve known Roger [Penske], heck, for my whole career,” Gordon said. “I’ve idolized him and love the way that he runs his programs. I respect him tremendously. … If Penske [had not] reduced down to two cars, there wouldn’t have been an opportunity for me just because they had their [Dodge] program. When that happened, it opened up a great opportunity for us.”

Gordon does not have a specific number of Cup events he must run under the Dodge deal. He said he likely wouldn’t do the Indianapolis 500 program as his ability to sell his new Speed energy drink was delayed because he had to change the logos on his cans following a lawsuit from bicycle company Specialized.

The energy drink, owned by Gordon and his partners, was created to generate income to go racing.

“With my Specialized situation that happened with Speed, that put us back about 60 days,” Gordon said. “That probably jacked our Indy 500 program. We’re really starting to gain some momentum.

“We’re selling product and that’s a good thing. We’re gaining more distribution on a daily basis and we’re kind of controlling our own destiny.”

Gordon started the energy drink during a frustrating 2010 campaign. Gordon is involved in lawsuits with BAM Racing and Extenze’s parent company over sponsorship money in two different deals from last year. He claims in a lawsuit in North Carolina court that BAM owes him $838,455.54 from a nine-race deal to field cars for BAM for $2,445,340. His lawsuit against Biotab Neutraceuticals (Extenze) in California court claims he’s owed $690,000 for three races.

Both Extenze and BAM dispute what Gordon is owed, if anything, in court documents. Extenze also is in a lawsuit with Front Row Motorsports over sponsorship from last year.

Gordon also had originally expected sponsorship from Monster in 2010 but that also never materialized.

“Last year, I didn’t anticipate getting jacked out of about $6 million bucks when it is all said and done between all my sponsors,” Gordon said. “That was the reason we did our own program. All of them. … BAM, I have nothing nice to say about them.

“The guys from Extenze, I can’t even believe they’re on the race track this weekend. How do you come around and just jack two teams [and still be here]?