WELCOME, N.C. (May 6, 2003) — Robby Gordon posted the seventh-fastest lap Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in only his second day in an IndyCar Series car in the past year. Gordon drove the No. 27 Archipelago/Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone to a best speed of 227.735 mph (39.516 seconds) in race trim.

The team concentrated on the car’s race balance during its 70 laps on the 2.5-mile track. The team plans to continue working with its race balance today before switching over to qualifying set-up. Gordon is substituting for Andretti Green Racing driver Dario Franchitti, who was injured in an off-track incident in April. The 34-year-old will again attempt the Indianapolis/Charlotte Double, completing the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 25.

"We just did a few laps yesterday and got the Archipelago/Motorola car up to speed in just a few laps, so I think we are looking okay," Gordon said. "We are definitely learning a lot about our race set-up. We had some understeer earlier in the day but we made some changes and have the front end biting now. Our main goal is to get as good of a race balance as we can. In Happy Hour, we want to put in a good speed so we took some wing out of the car in our last run. We weren’t really in a set-up in which we would qualify, but it was more of my race set-up that we just trimmed out a little bit."

Practice continues today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the teams prepare for Pole Day qualifying on Saturday, May 10. Gordon will practice today, Thursday and Friday, sitting out Wednesday due to a previous obligation.