Weekly Racing Journal

Race/Date:                             Food City 500/March 23, 2003

                                                (Sixth of 36 races)

Location:                                Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

Start Position:                        36^th

Finish Position:                      17^th 

Points Position:                      20^th

Race Recap:

As the saying goes, “rubbing is racing” and Sunday’s 500-lap race at Bristol Motor Speedway lived up to that reputation from the green flag to the checkered flag.  Between a flat tire, an injured crew member and numerous on-track skirmishes, Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team bumped and battled hard at Thunder Valley.

The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was pretty good at the beginning of the day, allowing Gordon to move into the 28^th position by lap 56.  He radioed in that the car was a little tight in the middle of the corner and lacked grip to the race track.  Gordon pitted under caution on lap 57 for two tires and air pressure adjustments to correct the handling condition.  Quick work by the Team Cingular pit crew picked up five spots for Gordon and returned him to racing in the 23^rd spot.

Those adjustments were just what Gordon needed as he began posting laps with the leader and moved into the 20^th position seven laps later. Unfortunately, a flat left-rear tire halted his charge to the front, forcing Team Cingular to pit for new tires on lap 69.  Gordon fell to 31^st after that exchange but set his sights on repeating his move through the field.

During the next few rounds of pit stops, crew chief Kevin Hamlin worked on fine-tuning the Cingular car and Gordon climbed into the 13^th position by lap 194.  He moved into the fifth spot by lap 205 but slight contact with the outside wall on lap 212 damaged the right-rear fender and upset the handling of the car.  The team called Gordon down pit road a few times to repair the damage but lost several spots because no other drivers pitted at that time. 

During those repairs, Jason Fowler, rear-tire carrier for Team Cingular, suffered a severe laceration to his left index finger while working on the car’s damaged sheet metal.  He was treated at the infield care center and transported to a local hospital for further treatment. It was later determined that Fowler sustained a torn nerve, torn tendon and chipped bone in his finger but he is expected to fully recover and perform his pit crew duties next weekend at Texas.

In the meantime, Gordon lost a lap to the leader as NASCAR forced him to make an additional pit stop to repair fender damage before returning to the race track.  Although one lap down, the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was still competitive and Gordon claimed the 19^th spot with about 100 laps remaining in the event.  He continued to battle hard and finished in the 17^th position, his career-best finish at Bristol.  The team gained one position in the NASCAR Winston Cup points to take the 20^th spot — a mere 40 points out of 15^th and 66 out of 10^th.

Robby Gordon Quotes:

“What a day.  We had a pretty good car all day at Bristol but it seemed like we kept having little hiccups when we began to get good track position.  Just when we had moved up, we got a flat tire and when we worked our way back up to the top-five, I bumped the wall and damaged the car.  Then we kept having to pit to repair the damage and ended up getting stuck one lap down during that deal.  But we had a good car throughout the day and the guys gave me great pit stops.  We were really hoping to bring back a top-10 finish for the Cingular car but we were able to get a decent finish and pick up some ground in the points race.  We’ll take that to Texas and race them from there. I also want to say ‘get well’ to Jason Fowler, our rear-tire carrier.”

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