Weekly Racing Journal
Race/Date: Samsung/Radio Shack 500/March 30,
2003
(Seventh of 36 races)
Location: Texas Motor Speedway
Start Position: 21st
Finish Position: 18th
Points Position: 19th
Race Recap:
A sign of a strong NASCAR Winston Cup team is one that learns from
the past and improves each week. Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular
Wireless team have struggled recently at mile-and-a-half race tracks
similar to Texas Motor Speedway, but they finished up the weekend
Sunday with a better understanding of the new Chevrolet Monte Carlo
and an eye on the top 10 in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings.
The No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was strong
in the opening laps of the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 and Gordon steered
it into the 11th position by lap 18. But as was the case with several
other cars, it developed a tight-handling condition as the race
progressed.
The second caution flag of the event waved on
lap 43 and allowed Team Cingular the opportunity to work on the
car the following lap. Gordon pitted for four tires, fuel and chassis
adjustments, but some teams took only two fresh tires and Gordon
restarted the race in the 13th spot.
However, the tight condition continued to plague
Team Cingular despite a couple of additional pit stops and Gordon
fell as far as 30th by lap 123. Crew chief Kevin Hamlin’s hard work
and experience began to pay off as the Cingular Wireless machine
soon handled better and became one of the top-10 fastest cars on
the race track. Gordon placed it in the 17th position by lap 236,
although passing was at a premium Sunday on the virtually one-groove
track. Unfortunately, several consecutive caution periods wreaked
havoc on the Richard Childress Racing machine’s handling as it was
very loose in the initial laps of a run and the caution flags were
falling within five laps after a restart, disallowing the car to
show its true potential on a longer run.
The final caution waved on lap 281 and Gordon
came in for four tires and air pressure adjustments to tighten up
the handling. A few teams took two tires and Gordon fell into 20th
for the restart. The Cingular car was much better and Gordon ran
as high as 16th before crossing the finish line in the 18th position.
He gained ground in the NASCAR Winston Cup points
battle and moved into 19th, only 15 points out of 15th and 65 out
of the 10th spot.
Robby Gordon
Quotes:
"All the Richard Childress Racing teams have struggled on the
mile-and-a-half tracks like Texas the past year. But Kevin Harvick
tested here a couple of weeks ago and they figured out a lot of
stuff that we were able to put to use. We still have some work to
do on the Cingular Wireless car but we know what we’re missing and
how to fix it. We had a pretty good day today and are fairly pleased
with our finish. We really wanted a top-15 finish but we learned
something about our car today and gained in the points a bit. We
should be pretty good next time we run at one of these tracks."
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