Event
Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date:
Mountain Dew Southern 500/Aug. 31, 2003
Venue: Darlington (S.C.)
Raceway
Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston
Cup Performance History at Darlington Raceway
Date
|
Start
|
Finish
|
Laps Completed/
Total Laps
|
Status
|
Money
|
3/16/03
|
30
|
28
|
291/293
|
Running
|
$70,942
|
9/1/02
|
22
|
17
|
367/367
|
Running
|
90,556
|
3/17/02
|
28
|
34
|
249/293
|
Running
|
64,321
|
3/18/01
|
38
|
29
|
288/293
|
Running
|
33,140
|
3/19/00
|
40
|
28
|
289/293
|
Running
|
25,095
|
8/31/97
|
34
|
22
|
363/367
|
Running
|
25,305
|
3/23/97
|
38
|
34
|
232/293
|
Accident
|
17,185
|
TOTALS Avg. Start: 32.86 Avg. Finish: 27.4 Laps: 2,079/2,199 Money: $326,544
NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position:
10th
NOTES:
·
This Week’s
Race Car (chassis No. 82) finished seventh at Chicagoland
in July and ninth at Dover.
Gordon also drove it at Pocono in July.
·
The Mountain Dew Southern 500 will be broadcast live
on NBC and MRN Sunday, Aug, 31 at 1 p.m.
EST. Qualifying
is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. EST on Friday,
Aug. 29.
ROBBY
GORDON QUOTES:
“Darlington doesn’t have anything in common
with any other track except for maybe Rockingham due to the tire
wear at both tracks. It’s
the toughest track considering how far the tires fall off after
one or more laps. The new tires at Darlington have so much more grip than older
tires. Plus, we run an
entirely different line on the track at Darlington than we do anywhere else.
The best groove is right up against the wall, especially
in turns one and two — not the most comfortable place to be. It’s a very narrow track so it’s hard
to stay that close to the wall without brushing it.
We never make a point to go to any other track and run
right up against the wall like we do at Darlington.
“Last
year we had a really good race car but I got into the wall about
four times. I didn’t wreck but leaned on the wall too
hard too many times. So
this year, the Cingular team is making some modifications to the
race car like putting some wood in the right-side door so that
if I do get into the wall, it doesn’t knock the toe out of
the car. But who hasn’t come out of there without a ‘Darlington stripe?’ Just look at the wall
at the end of practice one day and you’ll see how difficult
it is to stay off the wall at Darlington.
“You
have to drive Darlington so reservedly. You can’t ‘hotrod’ around the
track all day — maybe just for the first lap. You really have
to finesse Darlington and roll the throttle nice and slow
to take care of your tires. It’s
been that way for years. I’m
still fairly new at that but I’m catching on and learning
to run Darlington more successfully.
“Running
well at Darlington takes a lot of patience. I really worked hard last season on learning
patience for places like Darlington. If you’re not
patient, you’ll end up with the right side of your car smashed
in or your tires bald in a couple of laps.
Darlington is murder on those Goodyear tires.
Rockingham is the only track close to Darlington in this department and both tracks
can kill a new set of tires in a couple of laps. We’ll try to conserve the tires all day
because they get gobbled up fast.
A lot of drivers talk about wanting to win Darlington because it’s such a storied,
historical race track. I’d
like to win at Darlington just to prove to everyone that I
do have the patience to survive there.
They don’t call it the ‘Lady in Black’ for
nothing. Darlington is a narrow, rough and old race track.
It’s pretty nerve-wracking to run 500 miles at Darlington.
One lap takes enough concentration, let alone 367 of them.”