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:  12^th

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 10^th.

“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.”