Robby Gordon's his name. He'll triple-dip this week.

	Robby Gordon will be behind the wheel of three race cars this week. US Presswire

Robby Gordon both owns and drives for his Nextel Cup team for one simple reason: He's such a head case that he couldn't work for anybody else.

Don't you love him? Ernest Hemingway would have. Many have mixed emotions about the talented but high-strung Gordon. The same ego and passion that force him to feud with his fellow Cup drivers also have him off chasing bulls and running his own NASCAR team. Gordon is not faint-hearted.

While NASCAR debates the issue of Nextel Cup drivers competing at the Busch level -- the argument heated up after Tony Stewart's crash in last Saturday's Busch event, leading to more health concerns the next day during the Cup race -- double-dipping doesn't seem to faze Gordon.

In fact, he's triple-dipping this week. Gordon is driving in three different cars in two countries, spending more time in planes than in ground vehicles to make it possible.

And Gordon won't drive anything as wimpy as a Champ or IRL car. Robby plans to defend his title in the Baja 500, a cross-country race in the Mexican desert. Compared with American oval- or road-race events, the Baja 500 is not exactly a leisurely Sunday drive.

Gordon will travel 11,200 miles by air -- nearly halfway around the world -- to pull off his Dover-Baja triple.

After Charlotte and its 600-mile journey on Sunday, Gordon flew to Ensenada, Mexico, so that he could practice for three days with his Chevrolet 1500 Trophy Truck and Hummer 3. On Thursday evening Gordon will fly to Dover, Del., a trip that charts at 2,800 miles. There Robby will practice and qualify his No. 7 Chevy for the Sunday Cup event.

Then he'll fly back to Mexico. On Saturday morning he'll start the Baja 500 in the Trophy Truck. Robby's father, Bob, will start the race in the H3. Approximately halfway through the 424-mile course, Robby will switch cars, replacing his dad behind the wheel of the Hummer to finish the race. (Andy McMillin will step into the Trophy Truck.)