Cingular Wireless Racing
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: UAW-GM Quality 500/Oct. 11,
2003
Venue: Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston Cup Performance
History at Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Date
|
Start
|
Finish
|
Laps Completed/ Total Laps
|
Status
|
Money
|
05/25/03
|
38
|
17
|
275/276
|
Running
|
$104,087
|
10/13/02
|
19
|
38
|
227/334
|
Accident
|
65,136
|
05/26/02
|
38
|
16
|
399/400
|
Running
|
93,331
|
10/07/01
|
DNQ
|
|
|
|
|
10/08/00
|
25
|
41
|
184/334
|
Running
|
22,090
|
05/25/97
|
28
|
41
|
186/333
|
Accident
|
25,400
|
10/06/96
|
13
|
38
|
206/334
|
Accident
|
4,800
|
TOTALS Avg. Start: 26.8
Avg. Finish: 31.8 Laps: 1,477/2,011
Money: $314,844
NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position: 12th
NOTES:
- This Week’s Race Car (chassis No. 105)
was last run at Bristol Motor Speedway in the March 2003 race,
where Gordon finished 17th. He also raced the same chassis at
Rockingham in February and finished 29th.
- Gordon won the May 1997 IROC race at Charlotte
from the 12th starting spot
- The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet will carry
a special orange “reverse” paint scheme this weekend
- Last time Gordon competed at Lowe’s Motor
Speedway, he completed his fourth “Double,” running
both the Indianapolis
500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day finishing 22nd at Indy and
17th at Charlotte.
- The UAW-GM Quality 500 will be broadcast live
on NBC and PRN Saturday, Oct. 11, at 7:30
p.m. EDT. Qualifying is scheduled for Thursday, Oct.
9 at 7:05 p.m. EDT.
ROBBY GORDON QUOTES:
“I’m really looking forward to going
back to Charlotte because
we have something to finish up there. We had a top-five car by
about the halfway point in the May race but NASCAR called the race
and we were stuck with 17th after spending a little extra time in
the pits. I think we’ll be just as strong this time around
but hopefully it will show earlier in the race and we won’t
have to work on the car a lot to get it running well. None of the
Richard Childress Racing Winston Cup teams tested for this race
but we have a lot of good notes to fall back on.
“The May race at Charlotte was disappointing
for the Cingular team because we had gotten the car running well
but decided to pit right before the rain came, assuming there was
no way that NASCAR would call the race that early. We were wrong
and dropped all the way to 17th because not that many other teams
pitted at the time. We had to start from the rear of the field
because I missed the drivers’ meeting due to the Indy 500 and
had fought a tight-handling car for the first 100 or so laps. We
lost a lap as a result but knew we could make it up.
“Kevin Hamlin made a bunch of good calls
on pit road and the car started performing much better. We were
up to 10th by lap 200 and came down pit road under caution a couple
of laps later because we were out of fuel. NASCAR penalized us
for pitting too soon and sent us to the tail end of the longest
line, so we were 17th for the restart.
“The Cingular Wireless Chevy quickly responded
to those changes and was soon one of the fastest cars on the track.
We were 11th by lap 244 and elected to pit under caution about 20
laps later for fresh tires and fender work to repair a damaged area.
Those extra seconds we chose to spend in the pits were crucial as
we gave up a few spots on the track because we figured we’d
have the opportunity to make them back up again because the car
was so good. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out of the sky after
276 laps and NASCAR called the race. I was very shocked they ended
it that early. We were 17th and heartbroken because we knew we
had a top five car at that point in the race.”
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