Gordon axed from Kodak Chevy after five races

Kevin Lepage is expected to be his replacement beginning with Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

When Gordon originally agreed a five-year contract to replace Bobby Hamilton at the end of last season, it was met with tremendous scepticism. Partly because of a widely-acknowledged 'I know best' attitude, Gordon has never lasted with the same team for a significant period of time.

Although best known as a CART racer, with his best season coming in 1995 with Walker Racing, Gordon has had three spells of Winston Cup racing, including a high-profile move to Felix Sabates' Sabco team in 1996. In 1997, he also raced in the Indianapolis 500 with Sabco, but crashed and missed several Winston Cup races. On his return, relationships had deteriorated and he was released before the end of the year.

Gordon then jumped back to CART where he raced for Arciero-Wells Racing in 1998 and then raced for his own Team Gordon operation in 1999. He drove in the Indianapolis 500 for Team Menard that year and finished fourth.

At the end of 1999, Gordon again jumped from CART to NASCAR Winston Cup, where he started his own team. But with the lack of proper financing, Gordon raced in a limited schedule. Then, with a drive opening at Morgan-McClure Racing, Gordon struck a deal with the team for 2001.

Gordon was the fastest driver on the opening day of practice for the Daytona 500, but went on to finish only 37th in the Daytona 500, 26th at Rockingham, 34th at Las Vegas, 20th at Atlanta and 29th last Sunday at Darlington.

Rumors of his departure began to surface after Rockingham and the team released a statement Wednesday that said, "Morgan-McClure Motorsports/Kodak and driver Robby Gordon have agreed to terminate their contract. This change is effective immediately. A driver for the No. 4 Chevrolet for this weekend's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway will be announced on Thursday. Morgan-McClure will name a permanent driver at a later date."

Indy Racing League team owner John Menard said he would consider Gordon as a second driver for this year's Indianapolis 500, but is committed to a one-car team with Greg Ray for the full Indy Racing Northern Light Series season.

IRL and NASCAR Winston Cup team owner A.J. Foyt, for whom Gordon drove in the mid 1990s, said of his dismissal: "I like Robby even though we didn't get along very well that year we raced together. I think Robby Gordon could be a hell of a race driver if he had an operation and had his vocal cords removed."