Cingular
Wireless Racing
Weekly Racing Journal
Race/Date:
Sylvania 300
(27th of 36 races)
Location: New Hampshire International Speedway/Loudon, N.H.
Start Position: 17th
Finish Position: 21st
Points Position: 12th (picked up one spot; 74 points out of 10th)
Race Recap:
Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team went for broke
but came up four laps short in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire
International Speedway.
Gordon had run in the top 20 for most of the
race but was finding it difficult to continue to move up to the
leaders. The car had been loose all day and not responsive to the
many adjustments the team made. But Loudon tends to have long stretches
of green-flag racing so a new gameplan was made.
The team came in for fuel on lap 197 and hoped
to go the final 102 laps without stopping. Gordon moved toward the
front as the leaders began to come in for fuel with approximately
25 laps remaining. The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet moved into the
lead with 10 laps to go and the plan looked like it was going to
work. Then, with five laps to go, Gordon called over the team radio
that the car had run out of gas coming off turn four. He made it
back around for the splash of fuel that took him to the finish and
a
21st-place showing.
The team did move up one spot in the NASCAR Winston
Cup point standings to 12th, only 26 out of 11th and 74 out of 10th.
Robby Gordon Quotes:
"I probably could have saved the fuel to do it (get to the
finish without stopping for fuel), too. If I run 50 laps and drive
50 feet less in each straightaway, we win the race. Hat’s off to
Kevin Hamlin and Chris Andrews and everybody at RCR. We do make
good gas mileage. That’s not a problem. The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
went 105 laps there, or something. If we get lucky and catch a caution
there at the end, we win."
ARE YOU GETTING
TIRED OF FUEL MILEAGE RACING?
"Not really. It’s not fuel-mileage racing. It’s smartest-guy-wins
racing. Unfortunately, we were about four or five laps short of
being the smartest guy."
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