Auto racing notes: Robby Gordon stays behind wheel in Baja 1000

Most drivers in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series are looking forward to getting some rest now that the 2008 season is over. Robby Gordon isn’t among them.

After finishing 26th in the Cup season-finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Gordon headed straight for Ensenada, Mexico, to compete in the 41st annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 that begins on Friday.

Gordon has three victories in the off-road classic. He will drive the No. 77 Chevrolet CK 1500 trophy truck in this year’s race.

The Baja 1000 is the world’s longest nonstop desert race. This year its route across the northern Baja California Peninsula will cover 631.34 miles through rocky desert and mountain terrain, beginning and ending in Ensenada.

“This year’s course is very technical, very rough and very fast, which plays right into our team’s strengths,” said Gordon, who has also won races in Cup and open-wheel racing. “The team has done a good job building up the reliability in our truck.”

Gordon, whose one-car team ran the entire 36-race Cup schedule and finished 33rd in the points, took time during the past few weeks to fly out to Baja to “prerun” the course several times.

“Having covered the course twice, I feel very confident of our chances,” Gordon said. “With the assistance of both our off-road and NASCAR team personnel, we have a really good support staff in place. Everyone is well informed on our race strategy and goals for this week. If all goes according to plan, we should bring home our fourth overall Baja 1000 victory.”

BIG NUMBERS: NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series finale ended Friday night with a dramatic championship showdown and came up with big numbers on Speed’s telecast of the event from Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The race scored a Nielsen Household Rating of .96 (702,000 households), up 146 percent from last year’s .39 (286,000 households). The broadcast peaked at a 1.39 (1,021,000 households) and marked the highest year-to-year average rating increase of the season.

Those who tuned in were rewarded with a race-long duel between eventual champion Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday Jr., who lost the title by just seven points.

“What a way to finish,” said speed president Hunter Nickell. “The last lap of the last event and we still weren’t sure who the champion was going to be. Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday put on an awesome show for the fans.”

The 2008 truck series on Speed was the highest rated ever, averaging a .80 and 585,000 households. On the year, 19 of the 22 races on Speed increased over last year, 15 were in double digits.

The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions.

ANOTHER WIN: IndyCar Series star Tony Kanaan teamed with Formula One’s Rubens Barrichello and three other drivers last Saturday to win the Granja Viana 500 — a 500-mile kart race in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It is the eighth time in 12 years that Kanaan, a native of Brazil, has been part of the winning team.

Others on this year’s winning team included former IndyCar driver Felipe Giaffone, Renato Russian and Luciano Burti.

The event, held at the Giaffone family’s venue, featured 65 karts. IndyCar Series drivers Vitor Meira, Mario Moraes and Raphael Matos also competed. A second Kanaan kart included co-drivers Cristiano da Matta and Antonio Pizzonia.

“Each time I win, I feel a different emotion,” said Kanaan, who finished third in the 2008 IndyCar Series driving for Andretti Green Racing. “It was a really tough race physically in the beginning, when I was driving for three straight hours in the sun.”

AWARD WINNER: Richard Childress will receive the North Carolina Motorsports Association’s Tribute Award at the group’s annual awards banquet on Jan. 26 in Concord, N.C.

Childress celebrated his 40th year as a NASCAR team owner in 2008, putting all three of his Richard Childress Racing Sprint Cup drivers in the Chase for the championship and winning the Nationwide Series title — his 12th NASCAR championship — with driver Clint Bowyer.

“I am honored and humbled to win this award,” Childress said. “Growing up in North Carolina, I was just a kid with a dream to drive a race car and have been very fortunate to have surrounded myself over the years with people who allowed me to achieve my goals.”

His driving career lasted from 1969 to the middle of 1981, but Childress is far better known as the owner who helped Dale Earnhardt to six of his seven Cup championships.