Event Preveiw Fact Sheet
Event/Date: EA
Sports 500/Sept. 28, 2003
Venue: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston
Cup Performance History at Talladega Superspeedway
Date
|
Start
|
Finish
|
Laps Completed/
Total Laps
|
Status
|
Money
|
04/06/03
|
6
|
10
|
188/188
|
Running
|
$105,367
|
10/06/02
|
20
|
12
|
188/188
|
Running
|
80,121
|
04/21/02
|
2
|
33
|
176/188
|
Running
|
81,631
|
10/21/01
|
39
|
19
|
188/188
|
Running
|
77,949
|
04/16/00
|
34
|
37
|
136/188
|
Accident
|
34,015
|
07/25/93
|
14
|
42
|
55/188
|
Accident
|
17,665
|
TOTALS Avg.
Start: 19.16 Avg. Finish:
25.5 Laps: 931/1,128
Money: $396,748
NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position:
12th
NOTES:
- This Week’s Race Car (chassis No. 119) is a brand-new
race car
- Gordon
is scheduled to sign autographs at a Cingular Wireless store
in Greenville, S.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 23, from
4 to 6
p.m. The address is 1451 Woodruff Road, Greenville, S.C., 29607, 864-320-8000.
- Gordon
is scheduled to sign autographs at a Cingular Wireless store
in Cary, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 30 from
noon to 2
p.m. The address is 2344 Walnut St., Cary, N.C., 27511.
- Gordon
practiced and qualified for the April 1997 Winston Cup race
at Talladega but the event was postponed
until May 10 due to rain. He
was unable to compete May 10 due to his participation in the
Indianapolis 500.
- None
of the Richard Childress Racing cars plan to use the new roof
hatch this weekend at Talladega
- The
EA Sports 500 will be broadcast live on NBC and MRN Sunday,
Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. EST. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday, Sept.
26 at 4:05 p.m. EST.
ROBBY GORDON QUOTES:
On the new rules regarding
racing back to the caution flag:
"From
the safety stand point, I agree with it the new rule against racing
back to the caution flag. I would hate to be the guy stopped in
the middle of the race track and have someone go flying by me
through the smoke like Dale Jarrett experienced. But, on the competition side of it, if you get
more than two laps down, you might as well go ahead and just put
your car in the trailer, because you’re never going to get your
laps back. That is sad, because you could have races like the
Cingular team had at Richmond where either we spun out early or
got a flat tire, and got four laps down. I would have never been
able to make my laps up in the current situation. A lot of times,
the guy one lap down will cut a deal with the leader, saying,
‘I won’t race you too hard if you let me get my lap back.’ Now,
those guys one lap down are going to race the heck out of the
leader, and the leader is going to get wrecked more times than
not, because everyone has to do all they can to outrun him and
stay on the lead lap."
On
the new restrictor plate size:
“We
didn’t test because we didn’t have enough tests left to use a
restrictor plate test on the No. 31 Cingular
Wireless car, but I have a lot of confidence in Spenny Clendenen
and everybody over at the engine shop that they will adapt to
this restrictor plate change and get us the best fuel mileage
and horsepower they can."
On
the new roof hatch:
“I’m
not using the new roof hatch in the Cingular Wireless car and
I’m not sure it’s going to make a big difference.
But I applaud NASCAR for continuing to take steps to improve
the safety of the drivers and crews.”
On returning to Talladega:
"The
Cingular car handled great at Talladega in the spring and was pretty fast.
I had to step out of line to let the motor breathe because it
was running hot, but everything was okay until I got hit in the
incident that brought out the caution. Someone got into
the back of me, dented up the rear bumper and knocked a hole in
the left rear quarter panel. But we had a good car all day
and were strong enough to come back and finish 10th.
“You’ve got to have a partner
at Talladega to do
anything. While having
a buddy is important, it’s also very important to have a
fast race car. If you have a fast car, you will have buddies
all of a sudden. Everyone
wants to run with you if they think you’ve got a car to win
the race. Of course, the last couple of laps don’t
count because everyone will dump their partner if it will get
them into Victory
Lane. But I think that the Cingular team’s strong
runs at restrictor-plate tracks this year should only help us
at Talladega because everyone will anticipate that we will be
good again and will hopefully want to run with us this weekend.
“Talladega is a little bigger race track with
longer straightaways than Daytona so the corners aren’t quite
as tight as they are at Daytona.
The corners are so large at Talladega that it feels like a faster track
than Daytona because we’re not scrubbing off as much speed
going through the corners. A lot of the set-up information can be applied to both tracks. You have to lift off the throttle at Daytona
when the balance changes on the car.
You don’t have to lift at Talladega but if
your car is really good, you shouldn’t have to lift at Daytona,
either. Handling
is so much more important at Daytona than Talladega because of the size of the corners.
At Talladega, I just need to concentrate on getting
the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet to run as fast as possible as
safely as possibly. All
the Richard Childress Racing cars have qualified well at Daytona
and Talladega this year and we learned some things
this season that will hopefully help us be better when we roll
off the truck at Talladega.”