Robby Gordon: Off-Road Champion, NASCAR Winner and Stadium Super Trucks Founder

Robby Gordon has raced across off-road desert events, stock cars, open-wheel racing and rally raids. He raced in NASCAR for a number of years before founding the Stadium Super Trucks series, which he announced in 2012. He now leads a group of energy and vehicle brands under the Speed name.

How did Robby Gordon begin in off-road racing?

Gordon grew up around off-road racing as the son of Bob 'Baja Bob' Gordon. He won five straight SCORE International class titles from 1986 to 1990, followed by a sixth in 1996 and a seventh in 2009. He also won the Mickey Thompson stadium series championship twice.

His Baja results were especially strong. He took three Baja 1000 victories, in 1987, 1989 and 2006, and three Baja 500 wins in 1989, 1990 and 2005. His final SCORE event at Riverside Raceway, held in 1988 before the track closed, was also a victory.

Off-road work ran alongside his car racing. In 2005 he competed in the sixteen-day Dakar Rally for a Red Bull-backed Volkswagen team. He was the first American to claim a stage win among cars, and he ended the event twelfth in his division.

The following year he returned in a Hummer H3 for Team Dakar USA. A damaged radiator caused a late arrival at Atar, Mauritania, and the team was disqualified after stage nine.

Seven off-road titles, nine Dakar stage wins and a stadium truck series he built from scratch.

What was Robby Gordon's Dakar Rally record?

Gordon competed in the Dakar Rally several times and won nine stages in total. His best overall finish was eighth in 2007, while he placed third in the 2009 event held in South America. In 2012 he was disqualified after a ruling on a tyre inflation system, and an appeal failed.

The 2007 race was his third Dakar. He drove a Hummer H3 sponsored by Monster Energy, and eighth overall remained his best placing in the event. In 2010 he finished eighth again, this time in South America.

The 2012 episode was the most dramatic. Running second after nine stages, he was disqualified when stewards ruled the tyre inflation system on his Hummer was illegal. He then won the following stage by more than fifteen minutes, and he was allowed to continue while the decision was appealed.

The appeal was denied two months later, and his results were struck from the race. Gordon had also crashed and rolled his Hummer in the dunes of Peru, then been set back on its wheels by spectators, so the rally that year was a difficult one.

What is the Stadium Super Trucks series?

Stadium Super Trucks is a stadium truck racing series that Robby Gordon announced in June 2012 and launched in 2013. It was based on a concept developed by Mickey Thompson, and it was renamed Speed Energy Formula Off-Road in 2014. Gordon has won its championship in 2013, 2014 and 2024.

Gordon won the first title by seven points after a year-long fight with Rob MacCachren, a former teammate at Mickey Thompson Off-Road. In 2014 he claimed the second title, winning six rounds and finishing 75 points clear of Sheldon Creed.

That season the series made its X Games debut at X Games Austin, where Gordon took third and a bronze medal. He added a silver medal in 2015. The series reached further afield in 2015, with a race at the Adelaide 500 in Australia, and Gordon later raced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

Many drivers connected with his closed NASCAR operation, including P. J. Jones, moved over to the new series.

Why did Robby Gordon's series clash with CAMS in Australia?

In June 2017 Gordon was fined $4,150 in Darwin after performing donuts outside a nightclub, and the Australian motorsport body CAMS revoked his competition visa. He later apologised and gave $10,000 to a road safety charity, which led to the ban being lifted. In 2018 CAMS banned the series for safety reasons.

The night after a Super Trucks race at Hidden Valley Raceway, he took a truck out to a nightclub and started doing donuts. He said he had asked security guards whether it was allowed and that they had agreed. The next day he was summoned to court for breaching the city's anti-hooning laws.

He pleaded guilty to four traffic charges. CAMS then took away his visa and kept him out of Australian events. Four months on, he apologised and made a $10,000 gift to the Australian Road Safety Foundation, and his visa ban was lifted.

The 2018 ban followed a wreck at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth, when a wheel from one truck reached an empty pedestrian bridge. Gordon took legal action, but the series lost the case. In 2019 CAMS ended the ban, and a three-year commercial agreement branded the Australian operation Boost Mobile Super Trucks, with the new championship starting in 2020.

How did Robby Gordon's open-wheel career unfold?

Gordon made his first CART start in 1992 and his first full season and Indianapolis 500 start in 1993. He won two CART races in 1995, at Phoenix and Detroit. In 1999 he came within one lap of victory at Indianapolis in his own team's car, before running out of fuel.

He made ten Indianapolis 500 starts between 1993 and 2004, three of them in cars run by his own outfit: 1999, 2000 and 2004. He is one of six drivers to have raced the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indianapolis 500 on the same day.

His early seasons included a stint with A. J. Foyt's team in 1993 and a longer association with Derrick Walker from 1994 to 1996. His first career pole came at Toronto in 1994, and he later struggled in 1999 when his own Toyota-powered team lacked performance.

The 1999 race was a near miss. Gordon, in a car backed by John Menard, was in front late and trying to save fuel for the finish. His tank ran dry as he left turn three on the penultimate lap, and he gave up the lead to Kenny Brack.

Gordon acquired a reputation as a tough and sometimes aggressive driver. The most talked-about moment came at the 1996 Cleveland Grand Prix, when he left his car after a mechanical failure and, while standing on top of it, kicked the Ford logo in front of a live national audience. Ford and Gordon did not patch things up until 2007.

How did Robby Gordon's NASCAR career develop?

Gordon made his stock car debut in November 1990, when he took pole for an ARCA finale at Atlanta and finished 21st. He ran his first full Cup season in 1997 with Team SABCO. His first Cup win came at New Hampshire in 2001, and he closed his NASCAR team in 2013.

His Winston Cup debut came in 1991, with two starts for Junie Donlavey, one of them the Daytona 500. In 1993 he drove a Ford for Robert Yates Racing at Talladega, which came shortly after Davey Allison died.

In 2003 he won at Infineon Raceway, his second career Cup win and his first on a road course. He then won at Watkins Glen later that year, his third Cup victory.

From 2005 he ran his own Cup team, the No. 7 Jim Beam car, after building up a Busch Series team he had started with John Menard in 2004. The team struggled. In 2005 he managed two top-ten finishes in 29 starts.

Manufacturer changes followed: Ford in 2007, Dodge in 2008 and Toyota in 2009. The team formed an alliance with BAM Racing in 2010, and that October Gordon founded Speed Energy to help fund the operation.

Sponsorship dried up after an attempt at the 2012 Daytona 500, and by 2013 Gordon had closed the NASCAR operation in Charlotte to focus on the Stadium Super Trucks series.

Which controversies shaped his racing reputation?

Gordon was involved in several high-profile disputes and penalties across both stock cars and off-road racing. The most significant included a 2001 bump that led to a black flag for Jeff Gordon, a 2005 helmet throw and a 2007 Montreal penalty that cost him a race result.

The 2001 New Hampshire race was postponed after the September 11 attacks. Gordon had bumped the rear of Jeff Gordon's car while slowing for lapped traffic, which gave him the lead. Jeff Gordon tried to retaliate under caution and was black-flagged, and Robby went on to take his first Cup win, donating his winnings to the victims.

The 2003 Sonoma race brought another exchange. Gordon passed his teammate Kevin Harvick under caution, a move that was legal but was criticised by some drivers. NASCAR issued warnings to both Gordon and Jeff Gordon afterwards.

After the 2005 Sylvania 300, Gordon threw his helmet at Michael Waltrip's car. NASCAR fined him $50,000 and docked fifty points. He auctioned the helmet for the Harrah's Employee Relief Fund, and it raised $51,100.

The 2007 NAPA 200 at Montreal ended with a penalty. Gordon was black-flagged after refusing to take the position he was given on the restart, and the result left him eighteenth. NASCAR suspended him for the following race at Pocono, and he argued that he had won.

In off-road racing, the 2009 Baja 500 result was reversed. Gordon was first across the line but was stripped of the win after two violations, one for fuelling and one for highway speed, and he was moved to seventh. A protest over a shortcut at the 2009 San Felipe 250 was denied.

What does Robby Gordon do now?

Gordon runs the Speed group of brands, and Speed Energy, the drink that has backed his racing since 2010, sits among them. The group also covers the Speed UTV vehicle brand, Speed RC Cars and Speed Tools. He still competes in desert off-road events, including BITD, NORRA and SCORE International.

Speed UTV was co-operated with Todd Romano, and its vehicles take inspiration from the Stadium Super Trucks and IndyCar. Speed RC Cars has sponsored drivers in the Super Trucks, including his son.

Gordon has never married, but he has a son named Max from an earlier relationship. In 2016 the eight-year-old co-drove a UTV with his father at the Bluewater Desert Challenge, and later that year Max became the youngest driver to finish the Baja 1000.

By twelve, Max was racing his father in Stadium Super Trucks at Road America, in 2020. Gordon has kept most of his private life out of the public eye throughout his career.

What are Robby Gordon's most significant titles and wins?

Gordon's career record includes seven SCORE International off-road championships, the Stadium Super Trucks titles from 2013, 2014 and 2024, nine Dakar Rally stage wins and three NASCAR Cup victories. The table lists these results by series for quick reference.