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."