Cingular
Wireless Racing
Weekly Race Report
Race/Date:
Nov. 17, 2002/Ford 400 (36 of 36 races)
Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Start Position: 39th
Finish Position: 26th
Points Position: 20th (final)
Race Recap:
Robby Gordon and the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team closed out Gordon’s
first full NASCAR Winston Cup Series season at Richard Childress
Racing (RCR) Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while legendary
RCR gasman Danny "Chocolate" Myers said good-bye to a
long career on the pit crew.
The NASCAR Winston Cup competitors started Sunday’s
race on a totally green race track after torrential rain and thunderstorms
pounded the Homestead area Saturday evening, followed up with light
rain most of Sunday morning. Green race tracks often create slick,
hazardous driving conditions due to lack of tire rubber on the track.
Sunday was no different, as the 267-lap event opened with an accident
on the second lap.
The Cingular Wireless team made an early attempt
to set itself up for a fuel mileage race by pitting for fuel only
during that caution period, sending Gordon back onto the track in
the 41st position. Despite a tight-handling race car, he maneuvered
his way into the 33rd position by lap 20. Team Cingular opted for
some drastic chassis adjustments that took a little more time during
a yellow-flag pit stop on lap 63. Gordon returned to the track in
the 35th position but was soon posting lap times consistent with
the leader.
The RCR machine began to develop a loose condition
exiting the turns and crew chief Kevin Hamlin worked on improving
the handling during the next couple of pit stops. Gordon moved up
to the 29th position by lap 114, but the sun began to peek from
behind the clouds for the first time since Friday and presented
the team with new challenges concerning the set-up. The Cingular
team continued to adjust on the car throughout the race and Gordon
moved into the 28th spot by lap 201. He soon posted laps as fast
as the leader and radioed the crew that the car was the best it
had been all day. Gordon picked his way through a couple of late-race
accidents that brought out the final caution periods of the day.
During Chocolate Myers’ final pit stop of his
career, Team Cingular pitted on lap 230 for four tires, fuel and
air pressure adjustments. The 54-year-old followed that up with
a live interview during NBC’s race broadcast, after which the Cingular
team members doused him with a cooler full of water as a parting
gift. Racing resumed and Gordon crossed the finish line in the 26th
position. That finish secured his 20th position in the 2002 NASCAR
Winston Cup points championship.
Robby Gordon Quotes:
"The Cingular team struggled all weekend at Homestead. This
wasn’t how we wanted to end the season. We were hoping for a really
strong finish for the final race to gain some momentum heading into
Daytona next year. But all the RCR teams struggled today. We’ve
got a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo for next year and we’re working
hard on testing and tweaking it to make it just as competitive as
the Fords, Dodges and Pontiacs were this year. We think we’re going
to really have something for them next year on the race track. But
all in all, the Cingular team had a respectable season. No, we didn’t
meet all the goals we had set but we had some really good runs and
would have been even higher in the points if we hadn’t gotten involved
in someone else’s wrecks earlier in the year. The Cingular Wireless
team will take what we’ve learned this year and put it toward next
year so we’re strong out of the box at Daytona in February."
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