Event Preview Fact Sheet

 

Event/Date:  Sylvania 300/Sept. 14, 2003
Venue:           New Hampshire International Speedway 

Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston Cup Performance History at New Hampshire International Speedway
                                                                                                Laps Completed/

Date                        Start                       Finish                    Total Laps                             Status                    Money

07/20/03                 15                            5                              300/300                                   Running            $101,912
09/15/02                 29                            17                            207/207                                   Running                76,731
07/21/02                 24                            7                              300/300                                   Running                 84,081
11/23/01                 31                            1                              300/300                                   Running              203,924
7/22/01                   36                            25                            299/300                                   Running                 76,999
9/14/97                   26                            24                            299/300                                   Running                 37,575
7/13/97                   42                            34                            296/300                                   Running                 26,225

 TOTALS      Avg. Start: 29     Avg. Finish: 16.1    Laps: 2,001/2,007                           Money: $607,447 

NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position:  13^th  

NOTES:

• This Week’s Race Car (chassis No. 100) will be driven by Gordon for the first time this weekend. The car was driven by Kevin Harvick as the No. 29 Chevrolet in four races last year during the second half of the 2002 season. The No. 29 team finished fourth with the car in the August Bristol race, and also ran it at Richmond, Dover and Martinsville.  The car has since been re-configured with a new body. 
• Gordon’s first NASCAR Winston Cup win was at New Hampshire in November 2001
• Gordon finished fifth at Loudon in 1993 in the PPG Indy car World Series and ninth in the Aug. 1995 CART race at Loudon
• Two Cingular Wireless crew members are from the New England area.  Front-tire carrier Mike Barry hails from Norwalk, Conn., and catch can man Rich Burgess is from Sharon, Conn.
• The Sylvania 300 will be broadcast live on TNT and MRN Sunday, Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. ET.  Qualifying is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 12 at 3:05 p.m. ET.

 ROBBY GORDON QUOTES:

“I’m really looking forward to going back to New Hampshire again this week.  The Cingular team was really good there at both races last season.  We won there in 2001 and we’ve still got a good set-up and baseline for that and many of the flatter tracks.  We finished in the top five back in July but didn’t have a top-five car all day.  We thought we’d be really strong, but the track has changed a lot since I won there in 2001, and for some reason, we just couldn’t get off the corners.  We had trouble getting into the corners and getting off them all day.   

“We also lost second gear and battled an ill-handling car all day long.  We knew pit strategy was going to decide who would finish up front, as it has much of this year, so we made our last pit stop under caution for two tires only.  That put us back out 11^th and we didn’t pit the remainder of the race and worked on saving gas, working our way up to fifth by the end of the race. 

“The key to running well at Loudon is making the car handle.  It’s got to roll through the corner well so you can get off the gas and be able to get back into the gas without the car going sideways on you.  Brakes are very important at Loudon, also, and we’ve got to make sure to conserve them as much as possible.  But I think the Cingular team is going to be able to put it all together.  Loudon suits my driving style and we’ve been competitive each time we’ve raced there.  Hopefully, we can go back and race for a victory again.”