Jim Bean supports Robby Gordon

As I'm doing my daily crawl, I notice a banner that says click here to support Robby Gordon. By now, I'm sure most people know about Robby's situation. He was fined $100,000 and given a 100 points penatly at Daytona for an unapproved bumper cover. His crew chief Frank Kerr was also placed on a six week vacation. This kind of penalty has become standard when it comes to the COT (Car of Tomorrow/Car of Today) violations. But Gordon is calling the violation a mistake and saying the penalty is "life-threatening for his team." Due to his current state as the only owner/driver in Nascar's top Series, you understand that this kind of penalty hurts him a lot more than say Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s violation last season while he was at DEI. That's why I was curious about the banner. So I clicked on it and it turns out its a petition set up not by Robby Gordon Racing, but rather by his sponsor Jim Bean. Nascar is sport that is so dependent on its sponsors, rules seem to be based on pleasing both the teams and the corporations that keep Nascar running. Usually it's the teams bending over backwards for the sponsors, not the other way around. I get this is for publicity, it's still crazy to see. Click here to see what I'm talking about. (Warning you have to be 21 to enter the site.)
(Photo: Getty Images)

UPDATE: Looks like Insider Racing beat me to the punch. Click here for their opinion on the Robby Gordon penalty situation and the complete letter.

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate