Race/Date: Pennsylvania 500/July 27, 2003
(20th of 36 races)
Location: Pocono Raceway (Pocono, Pa.)
Start Position: 37th
Finish Position: 18th
Points Position: 12th (from 14th last week)

Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team started Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 from the 37th position but ended the day with a well-earned 18th-place finish. It was Gordon’s best finish at Pocono Raceway and moved the team up two spots to 12th in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings, only 68 points out of the top 10.

Shortly after the green flag dropped, Gordon steadily moved into 16th before the No. 31 team decided to make their first pit a green-flag stop around lap 34 to take four tires, fuel and make a slight air pressure adjustment to try to loosen up the race car. Gordon returned to the field 25th, reporting the adjustments made the car too loose and that a bad set of tires was on the car, causing major vibration.

The first caution of the day on lap 46 gave the Cingular Wireless team the chance it needed to pit again to take on four new tires, more fuel and try to tighten up the car. Gordon returned to the field 27th.

On lap 69, the No. 19 Dodge and No. 31 Chevrolet brought out the second caution of the day when the two cars made brief contact as Jeremy Mayfield was working to pass Gordon on the inside. Minor damage was made to the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet. Gordon pitted a third time to have his team repair the right-front fender of the car, take right-side tires and fuel. The Richard Childress Racing (RCR) team got the Cingular Wireless Chevy back out 17th.

Gordon continued racing with a very loose race car, working to keep the car from going sideways in the corners. He drove the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet up to 14th place and as far back as 29th.

During the final caution of the day on lap 183, the Cingular Wireless crew made their final pit stop, taking four more tires and making track bar and air pressure adjustments. Gordon returned to the field in 21st place. Green-flag racing resumed on lap 189 and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet moved up to the 18th position by lap 199 of the 200-lap race.

Gordon Quotes:
"All in all not too bad of day for the Cingular Wireless team. We were not as bad as I thought we were going to be, but not as good as I hoped. It just wasn’t a good weekend. We didn’t qualify well and could have raced better today. It was pretty much the same problem the whole time – lack of bite. I don’t know why. We tested a car like this at Indianapolis. We thought that would help us this weekend, because Indy is a little like Pocono because of the long straight-aways here. We just couldn’t make it work."