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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Conway finished 14th at the July Daytona race.
I think they can switch numbers and points, nascar shouldnt care - its all in-house.
Could you find anyone worse than Conway! I think John Andretti is available.
Unfortunately John Andretti does nto bring sponsorship like Conway does
Everyone bitches about Conway, but let me point out something.

Robby Gordon has the most natural talent of any racecar driver I have ever seen. Keep in mind I'm only 20 though for those who may have grown up with Foyt and Andretti. No one on this site will deny that Robby is talented, so let me be the first to point out that Robby Gordon with all the talent in the world has a best finish outside of a RC and RP track of 14th at Phoenix. Now most other finishes have been from 30th and back. So that being said, what is the downfall of having Conway in the car. As far as I am concerned the funding he is bringing is a huge plus, and lets see in races they both ran the full distance (not start and park like we have been).

Kevin Conway finishes better than Robby Gordon this year at
California(Overheating), Atlanta(RG crash), Martinsville (both running at finish), Darlington, Joliet, the Brickyard, Watkins Glen
Yes RG has had some issues, but the fact is Kevin Conway scored more points than RG did in those events.

Now, I'm not saying Kevin Conway is fast, or a great driver. At this point its hard to tell, but the facts were he was in 2-3 year old Roush-Yates cars at FRM which is heavily underfunded. Now he has a chance with RGM to learn from one of the best, so lets not cast him off before Robby gets to work with him a bit.
Amen, Bristol was to be a S&P for conway and he managed to take an old engine 212 laps. He is always a couple of MPH off the pace but stays out of trouble and his average finish with FRM was right there with Gilliand/Kvapil. Let it go for a couple of complete races and then pass judgement.

MUBS
I'm with you guys, let's see how it goes. RGM probably has better cars than the old crap KC was driving at FRM. Who knows, maybe RG is a great coach and Kevin will get faster with RG coaching and he will gain confidence and speed.
Here's a big question - let's say Conway stays around for the rest of the season and between the two of them they keep the #7 in the top 35 (very likely) and let's say Conway and Extenze sign on for 2011. Who gets the guaranteed first five starts? Conway will surely use it as a bargaining chip to bring Extenze. RG will need it to get sponsorship. This, as Briscoe County Jr would say, is the next big thing.
Who cares...in 2012 the whole world ends anyway..I've already seen the movie!
hmmmmm.....good point....did anyone notice if the Nascar race dates were on the Mayan calendar?
I can see the sports headline now: Nascar season shortened due to impending cataclysmic event!
......and just when you thought it was getting interesting. LOL
Nope, Nascar will try to run the races no matter what the world is going through,

Medior shower, who cares, we need a race
Where did you get that from?? The piece I just read 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.”

Nothing about folding the team if Conway doesn't come back next year. The kid's a rookie and RG's giving him a chance. He must have liked something he saw, in addition to sponsorship. Pure genius. It can't be easy for Robby to step out of the cockpit and turn the wheel over to someone else. Yet it shows the lengths he's willing to go to try to build a stronger foundation for the team. Most of you folks have been whining for a long time that he should let someone else drive and concentrate on being an owner. He's doing that and folks still whine.

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