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

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.”