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Event
Preview Fact Sheet Event/Date: UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400/March 2, 2003 Venue: Las Vegas Motor Speedway Robby Gordon’s NASCAR
Winston Cup Performance History at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
TOTALS Avg. Start: 21.3 Avg. Finish: 28 Laps: 724/740 Money: $191,056 NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position: 17th NOTES:
“The
Cingular Wireless team was expecting a better showing at Rockingham
than we had. I think a lot of the Chevrolet teams were in
the same boat. We only
had one hour of practice at The Rock with this new Monte Carlo
and we were loose for the first time in a long time.
We thought that when we pulled off the tape, we’d
tighten up and maybe be pretty good. But with the limited practice we’d had
with the new car, we were sunk when the race started. Our car was so tight at the beginning and no matter what we did,
it was still tight. Then
later in the race it was too loose.
We never found that happy balance on the Cingular Chevrolet
and I don’t think many Chevy teams did, either.
Heck, only two Chevys finished in the top 15.
I don’t think anyone can say we had an advantage at
Rockingham. “Downforce
is obviously important at Rockingham but it’s more important
at Las Vegas. We’re still playing with a new Monte Carlo
that we’re still testing the waters with.
Hopefully, we’ll have more practice time at Las Vegas
than we did at Rockingham and maybe we can put it to good use
and see what the car needs. “We
were really excited about this car going into Rockingham and we
know it will be good once we’ve figured it all out.
We just need a little time.
But time isn’t something you’ve got at Vegas.
Because Vegas lends itself to long, green-flag runs, if
your car isn’t running well, you’ll be a lap down pretty
early in the race. We’ve
got to try to get the Cingular car dialed in early and get to
the front of the pack quickly.” “I’ve
got a big day planned on Thursday in the Vegas area.
Greg Biffle and I are planning on racing dune buggies out
in the desert area. It’ll be nothing but hard driving, sliding
and jumping sand dunes. We
both have roots in that type of racing and I really miss it. I get to go to Glamis for New Year’s each year and race across
the sand dunes. That’s
basically what we’ve got going for Thursday about two hours
from Las Vegas. It will be a good time for us just to relax,
play and race. “My
teammate Jeff Green tested at Las Vegas in January.
The America Online team learned a lot that they’ve
shared with Kevin Harvick and my team.
We’re working well together as a team and hopefully
we can continue to build a database and be competitive as the
season goes on. Las Vegas
will be our first track like Kentucky, where we had a good test
in December. “I
like Las Vegas because it’s a pretty flat track and flat
tracks have always seemed to be my favorite and best type of track.
I think that’s a throw-back to my Indy car days when
we ran on the flatter tracks. The Cingular Wireless team was competitive
last year at Vegas and ran as high as sixth through the first
few rounds of pit stops. But
as we went to make a green-flag pit stop, the caution flag came
out and I kept going down pit road so I wouldn’t lose a lap.
I didn’t lose a lap but did lose about 20 spots.
Then a few laps later on the restart, I bumped into the
rear bumper of the car in front of me and we knocked a hole in
the left-front fender. The guys did a great job of repairing the damage
but we lost a lap to the leaders when it was all said and done. “I’m
going to hang out on the West Coast after the Las Vegas race and
visit with my family and friends and take care of some business
matters. I just opened
Robby Gordon Off-Road Center and Four Wheel Parts in Anaheim,
Calif. I turned my race
shop into this new store. We
put wheels, tires and suspension and lift kits on street-legal
cars. I’ve got one
on my Chevy Suburban now. I’m
going to spend some time working on that new business now. I’ve still got my race shop with my dad
where we build our off-road trucks but I’ve turned another
shop into this new business.”
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