Cingular Wireless Racing
Event
Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Gatorade
Twin 125s/Feb. 13, 2003
Venue: Daytona (Fla.) International
Speedway
Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston Cup Performance History
in the Gatorade Twin 125s
Date
|
|
Start
|
Finish
|
Laps
Completed/
Total Laps
|
Status
|
Money
|
|
2/14/02
|
|
3
|
6
|
50/50
|
Running
|
$23,484
|
|
2/15/01
|
|
10
|
23
|
47/50
|
Engine
|
20,959
|
|
2/17/00
|
|
16
|
9
|
50/50
|
Running
|
15,396
|
|
2/13/97
|
|
6
|
9
|
50/50
|
Running
|
8,889
|
|
2/14/91
|
|
17
|
16
|
50/50
|
Running
|
3,150
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTALS
|
Avg. Start:
|
10.4
|
Avg. Finish:
|
12.6
|
Laps: 247/250
|
Money:
|
$71,878
|
NOTES:
- This Week’s Race Car (chassis No. 94) was last run in the
July 2002 race at Daytona. Gordon qualified fourth and was running
in the top 10 when Kurt Busch hit the No. 31 car in its pit stall
and severely damaged it. Gordon finished 29th. The
Cingular team has since re-built the car to comply with the 2003
Monte Carlo body regulations.
- The Cingular Wireless Racing team tested
this car at Daytona last month
- Gordon will present the trophy in the Moto
X Big Air competition at the X Games, scheduled to air on ESPN
on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. ET
- Gordon got his first NASCAR Winston Cup start
in the 1991 Daytona 500
- The 2003 Daytona 500 will mark Gordon’s
99th NASCAR Winston Cup start
- Gordon earned
four consecutive IMSA GTS/GTO class wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona
from 1990-1993
- Gordon will sign autographs at the Cingular
Wireless retail store at Volusia Mall (across from Daytona International
Speedway) on Friday, Feb. 14th from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
- The Gatorade Twin 125s will be broadcast live
on F/X and MRN on Thursday, Feb. 13th at 1 p.m. EST.
ROBBY
GORDON QUOTES:
“I think the Gatorade Twin 125 races can
be good practice sessions for the Daytona 500 but that all depends
on how your car is running at the time. The Cingular Wireless team
has to approach the Gatorade Twin 125s in two different ways. Obviously,
we’ve got to make sure we do well in the race so we have a
good starting spot for the Daytona 500. But we also have to concentrate
on not hurting the race car because it’s the same car we’re
running in the 500. We don’t get to take it back to the shop
and tune on it before we come back and race the next week. We’ve
got to focus on keeping a whole, unscathed car in the Gatorade 125
race. So, you really can’t race as hard as you want unless
you’re already locked into the top first or second starting
spot, or you might find yourself racing back to the house after
failing to qualify for the big race.
“The Gatorade race is going to be a different
race this year because of the smaller fuel cells. We’ll have
to pit during the 50-lap race for the first time ever because the
fuel cells won’t make it far enough. The smaller fuel cells
will change up the game a bit like they did at Talladega last October.
It should be very interesting and different than the other 125s
before.”
“As a team, everything is starting to gel
for us. I’ve got some new guys on my crew and my pit crew
now is comprised of guys who only come to the track on Sundays.
They don’t work on the car all weekend long and then pit the
car. They just work in the shop, work out in the gym and have pit
stop practices during the week before they head to the track. Furthermore,
I think that Kevin Harvick, Jeff Green and I are getting to know
each other better as people and as drivers. We should work together
better, just like our teams are working better together. Richard
has made a lot of changes with our teams that I think are going
to be better for the whole group.
“Engine horsepower is huge at Daytona.
Richard Childress Racing is legendary for its engine program and
I’ve had some pretty stout engines at Daytona and Talladega
with the Cingular team. You have to have a great engine because
every little ounce of horsepower is important. Just a bit of horsepower
can make a big difference in how well your car performs.
“But you can have the best engine and fastest
car on the track at Daytona but if you don’t have some good
luck, you’ve got nothing. You can pick the best line and go
with those cars and draft well, but if somebody screws up, you’ve
all got problems. With as close as the 43 cars run at Daytona,
if you make a mistake, you make that mistake for about 20 other
cars. You’ve got to be really strong at Daytona, but it’s
nothing without some luck.
“The three RCR teams as a whole are going
to have to improve in 2003. As Richard says, we don’t have
a choice — we have to win. We finished 18th, 20th
and 22nd in the championship points last year — that’s
not exactly where Richard Childress is used to ending a season.
Richard is a very competitive team owner and that’s one of
the reasons I really enjoy racing for him. He’s willing to
make the changes that are necessary to keep us competitive and up-to-date
with modern-day technology. I think the mindset at RCR is a lot
different this year than last. Last year, we had just added the
No. 30 America Online team and moved all three teams into one new
shop. We had to make several transitions last season. With each
team having more than 10 race cars, that’s a lot of work for
the guys. But we plan on going from a top-20 team to a top-10 team
this season.
“There is a big difference between the 2002
and 2003 Monte Carlos. The Cingular Wireless team had to re-learn
the Monte Carlo at the Daytona test last month. We have to find
the ‘sweet spot’ on the car again and I’ve got a
lot of confidence in everyone at RCR that we’ll find that ‘sweet
spot’ and perfect set-up for the 2003 car. From what we’ve
seen so far on the downforce tracks and what our information has
told us, the 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo has more front downforce
than the 2002 car. There’s more improvement or gain that gets
the car closer to a 50-50 balance on the front. With the new car,
I think we’ll be able to experiment more with different shocks,
springs and swaybars in all four corners than we were able to use
before. That combination should make us a lot more competitive
right out of the box, especially after we get away from the superspeedway
tracks and on to the downforce tracks.”
Kevin Hamlin Quotes:
“A lot of how well you benefit from the
Gatorade race depends on where you qualified for the 500. If your
team is one of the first two cars locked into the race, then you
can use the 125 to do a little bit more experimenting because you’re
in a good spot and can be a little risky. So, the speed we post
that first Sunday is going to dictate what we do during the 125
and how much we use it as a true practice race. We need to finish
in the top 15 or so spots so we don’t have to worry about using
a provisional to get into the 500. We’ll make sure during
the week that the car drafts well and pulls up well to the other
cars. It’s going to be very hard to pass anyway, because all
the manufacturer makes are so similar now, and we’re going
to have to have somebody else to help us out and go with us. There’s
going to be a lot of patience needed from the drivers.
“We’ve made a lot of positive changes
over the winter on the Cingular Wireless team and at Richard Childress
Racing as a whole. We’ve got a new Monte Carlo, so we’re
starting out with a bigger advantage than we had last season. We’ve
made several personnel changes during the off-season and lined up
ourselves to be stronger in the shop, at the track and on pit road
on Sundays. We’ve gone from an over-the-wall pit crew that
works on the car Friday through Sunday to a pit crew that shows
up Sunday morning only. So, they should be rested up because they
don’t work on the car all weekend. They will now have the
time to have one more pit stop practice Friday at the shop before
they leave for the track, and hopefully they’ll be great on
race day.
“I think we’ve set ourselves up to
run well this year and to win some races. We have to win a race
this year. There really isn’t a reason why we can’t,
either. Last year was just a big adjustment period and we think
we’ve worked out a bunch of the wrinkles from the new shop
and adding an additional team. As Richard Childress told us, he
and Dale Earnhardt had a bad year and then came back and won the
championship the next season. Everyone had counted them out and
said they were a ‘has-been,’ but that was far from the
truth. We expect RCR to come back strong this season.”
“At the Daytona test last month, we were
really pleased with how well the Cingular car drafted. The drafting
sessions were definitely the best part of the test for us. The
car seemed to pull up to the other cars easily and handled well
in our drafting runs. We tried some different front-end settings
that I think are going to be beneficial for us in the race.
“I think the new Monte Carlo is going to
be a good race car. I don’t have a good handle on it yet at
the superspeedways to the point that I know exactly what to tweak
on it to get speed out of the car. That was part of what we worked
out at the test — if we move a fender, how does it change the car?
If we move the A-Post or the C-Post a bit, how does it affect the
car? The new Monte Carlo is going to be good on the downforce tracks
and it will be good at the superspeedways, also. We just have to
figure out exactly what we need for the superspeedways.”
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