It was the celebrating — the burnouts, the fist-pumping, the victory declarations — and complete lack of contrition that got him suspended from Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway. He had made a perfect day all about Robby Gordon, and NASCAR wasn’t going to stand for it.

Now, consider Ambrose. He should have won for the first time in his NASCAR career. But when Gordon knocked him out of the way, he fell to seventh and was denied a chance to complete what had been a dominating finish.

Ambrose reacted with class. He refused to show any anger, simply ruing what might have been. It was professionalism, something Gordon sorely lacked.

And it overshadowed the second-place finish for Montreal’s Patrick Carpentier, who had driven his first Busch car only six days before. But Gordon was too shortsighted to see that, too wrapped in his own perceived injustices.

He may have had a valid argument with the initial ruling. But after all these years in NASCAR, Gordon has yet to learn how to properly convey that. That defiance is what makes Gordon special in a sport stuffed with corporate poster boys who don’t dare cross NASCAR.

Ordinarily, his behavior might have been chalked up as “Robby being Robby.” Under these circumstances, it was just an embarrassment.

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