Robby Gordon would be a great Winston Cup car driver if only he:

A) had better equipment.

B) drove for a better owner.

C) had better sponsorship and funding.

D) didn't have to worry about anything other than driving (instead of working on his car, trying to solicit sponsorship, pay his team's bills, etc.), letting his outstanding natural piloting ability behind the wheel come to the surface and speak for itself.

E) _____________ (fill in the blank with any number of other excuses).

Since competing in his first Winston Cup race in 1991, how many times over the years did Gordon hear the above-listed knocks about all the coulda, woulda and shoulda reasons why potential Winston Cup greatness had eluded him?

If it wasn't second-rate equipment, it was battles with team owners such as Felix Sabates or Larry McClure. If it wasn't all the responsibility that came with owning and operating his own team, it was the woeful lack of well-funded sponsorship backing. Or, it may have had something to do with Gordon's perceived hotheaded personality.

If only he could get past all that past baggage, Gordon might just be able to show just how good of a driver he really was.

Fast-forward to 2003 and the man they call "the other Gordon" has been making some of the most significant and positive noise since he came to Winston Cup. For the first time in his Cup career, Robby Gordon is really riding high and living large.

Gordon not only is coming off his second win of the season, this past Sunday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.), but he's managed to crack into the top-10 as a result, sitting in 10th position. It's the highest he's ever been in the standings at this stage of the season, with nearly two-thirds of the campaign complete.

And while he may be a very distant 667 points behind series leader Matt Kenseth, the driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet is just 150 points out of the top-five -- teammate Kevin Harvick currently holds the No. 5 position -- and only 271 points behind No. 3 Jeff Gordon.

The secret behind Gordon's success really isn't any secret at all. He finally was able to put together all the puzzle pieces that had previously eluded him in his Cup career. Since replacing Mike Skinner at Richard Childress Racing late in the 2001 season, Gordon has been presented with everything he needed to earn the kind of achievements which had been so long expected of him: a highly-successful team owner, top-rate equipment and support personnel and a multimillion dollar sponsorship.

But perhaps the most important aspect of all: Gordon has had to worry about virtually nothing other than what he does behind the wheel. It is there that his natural talent and ability have shined through, not having to concern himself with anything else. Gordon has been able to do what he does best: put four wheels on the racetrack and get the car around that track as fast as possible.

While there have been countless fans and observers who've been surprised by Gordon's run thus far in 2003, I'm not. He's been like a ticking time-bomb in the sense that he just needed the right materials and ingredients to go off and show what he could really do.

During his first full season at RCR in 2002, Gordon admittedly had some struggles. There was also the highly-publicized shaky transition with new teammates and old rivals Harvick and Jeff Green (who was fired earlier this season and replaced by Steve Park). Childress had to sit down with his three drivers more than once last season and order them to play nice with each other. While Gordon finished a so-so 20th in the final season standings, that showing was his best-ever in yearly Cup competition.

Even when Gordon earned his second career Winston Cup win at Infineon Raceway in June, he was roundly criticized for what would prove to be the winning pass by Harvick. But less than two months later, it was Gordon who happily served as a blocker to hold off any late challenges from other drivers, allowing Harvick to streak to victory two weeks ago at the Brickyard 400. After the same race, Harvick was all smiles and crediting his teammate for helping him find Victory Lane at the Brickyard.

It's sure funny how times change so quickly in Winston Cup.

With such a clouded past, it's refreshing to see Gordon finally achieve the level of success that has been predicted for him for so long. Given the various levels of motorsports experience on Gordon's racing resume -- open-wheel competition in both CART and IRL, open- and closed-wheel racing in both Trans-Am and the now-defunct IMSA series, off-road racing in cars and trucks including numerous Baja 500 and Baja 1000 competitions, go-kart competition and even some two-wheeled racing experience -- he's shown he has an inherent knowledge and talent to drive just about anything and do well in the process, provided he has the right tools and backup.

Gordon finally has those right tools -- and then some -- and backup in the RCR stable. He's not only following in the sacred footsteps laid down by Dale Earnhardt, he's also etching his own imprints in the racing sand.

Barring any unforeseen or unfortunate circumstances, Gordon has the potential to reach the top-five in the final standings. Why, with a few twists and turns of fate here and there, he could still potentially overtake Jeff Gordon by season's end. And maybe then he'll no longer have to endure being called "the other Gordon."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com