Weekly
Racing Journal
Race/Date: Pontiac Excitement 400/May 3, 2003
(11th of 36 races)
Location: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway
Start Position: 32nd
Finish Position: Fourth
Points Position:
13th
Race Recap:
Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless
team were the talk of the evening Saturday at Richmond after coming
back from three laps down early in the race, resulting from a flat
tire, to bring home a fourth-place finish.
Although he qualified a disappointing 32nd, Gordon began
the Pontiac Excitement 400 with high hopes of a good finish after
running extremely well in Friday’s Happy Hour session. As soon
as the race began under the lights Saturday night, Gordon radioed
in that the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was terribly loose but managed
to steer it into the 28th position. However, crew chief Kevin Hamlin
called him into the pits under green-flag conditions on lap 21 after
Gordon said the car was too loose to drive. The team gave Gordon
four fresh tires and fuel and discovered the car had a cut tire
that caused the loose condition.
Gordon found himself three laps down in the 43rd position
but driving the best car on the race track. He immediately began
posting laps faster than any other car but could not move up in
the running order because first he had to regain those laps. Gordon
worked his way into the 37th position by lap 146 and
still had the strongest car, able to pull away from the competition
effortlessly and make up one of his laps under green-flag conditions
simply by passing the leader.
Team Cingular’s hard work paid off and its luck
began to change, though, when Gordon caught up to the leaders around
lap 224 and took advantage of a caution period to regain a second
lap. Still one lap down and running 33rd, Gordon raced
the leaders hard and again put himself in position to repeat the
remarkable feat once more on lap 262, putting the Cingular Wireless
Chevy on the lead lap. Finally, passing cars could actually gain
Team Cingular that precious track position. Gordon pitted on lap
263 for four tires and fuel and excellent work in the pits gained
him two spots to restart in the 27th position.
He didn’t stay there for long, though, as he
steered the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Chevy into the lead by
lap 301. Gordon immediately pulled away from the field and led until
lap 333 when a car with fresher tires passed him. The team’s strategy
turned to a fuel-conservation mode in hopes it could make it to
the end of the race without pitting again. So, Gordon drove his
line but held back a bit and didn’t overdrive the car. He was running
fourth when a series of cautions began waving on lap 364, allowing
Gordon to save fuel and ensuring he could make it to the end of
the race while a couple of the leaders still would have to pit for
a splash of fuel.
However, the rain that had plagued the race all
evening began to fall again on lap 391 and NASCAR was forced to
call the race after the completion of 393 laps. Gordon was credited
with a fourth-place finish, the team’s first top five of the
season. The Cingular team had a great points day as it picked up
three positions to the 13th ranking, a mere 41 points
out of 10th.
Robby Gordon Quotes:
“What an incredible day for the Cingular
team to come from three laps down to finish fourth. I couldn’t
even touch the gas in the opening laps because the car was so loose.
We pitted under green and lost three laps, and realized we had a
cut tire causing the loose condition. But the car was soon awesome
— the fastest car on the track by far. But we couldn’t go
anywhere because we were three laps down. But we were patient and
kept our nose clean and made up those laps one by one. We’ve
needed a good finish like this to boost our confidence and morale.
We always knew we had a good team but couldn’t seem to get
all the pieces to fall into place at the same time until now.”
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