Weekly Racing Journal
Race/Date: Bass
Pro Shops MBNA 500/March 9, 2003
(Fourth of 36 races)
Location: Atlanta
Motor Speedway
Start Position: 18th
Finish Position: 17th
Points Position: 17th
Race Recap:
Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular
Wireless team battled a finicky race car but time became their biggest
foe Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Having run well under overcast skies
Saturday in Happy Hour, Team Cingular anticipated a strong run in
the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, but the sun came out and changed the
car’s handling. Gordon radioed in that the Cingular Wireless
Chevrolet was tight and would not grip the race track. Due
to a caution-free run early in the race, the field became spread
out behind the leader. Without the chance to pit to work on the
car, Gordon fell to the 30th spot by lap 46 and made
a green-flag pit stop on lap 57 for four tires, fuel and chassis
adjustments. Good work on pit road moved him up three spots to 27th
and Gordon steered the Cingular machine into 25th by lap 76 but
lost a lap to the leader in the process.
Team Cingular continued to struggle
with the car’s handling as it shifted back and forth between tight
and loose conditions. Crew chief Kevin Hamlin adjusted the car accordingly
during the next several rounds of pit stops and Gordon began posting
much faster lap times to claim the 15th spot by lap 192. Gordon
came down pit road for service on lap 211 but air pressure adjustments
made on that pit stop caused the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet to
become too tight and Gordon dropped into the 23rd spot.
The team pitted on lap 268 to correct the air pressures that had
caused Gordon so much trouble. He soon radioed in that the Richard
Childress Racing Chevrolet was running very well and immediately
began posting quick lap times and passing cars. Although he had
a strong race car, Gordon was unable to position himself on the
track to make up his lap and move into the top 15. The leader had
such a lead on the strung-out field that only nine cars were running
on the lead lap at the end. Team Cingular ran out of time just
as the car was hitting its peak and finished in the 17th position.
Gordon holds the 17th
position in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings, just six points
out of 15th and 42 out of 10th.
Robby Gordon Quotes:
"We had an up-and-down day all day today. The Cingular Wireless
Chevrolet was really tight when we started and then would get loose.
The guys worked hard on making adjustments each time we pitted and
we made up some ground and got up to 15th. We really had probably
a 12th-place car there at the end but we couldn’t get our lap back
and could only move up so far as a result. If I could have just
restarted next to the leader that last time, we could have gotten
our lap back and it would have been a different ball game. We had
a car to run with them there in the end.”
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