Golden Corral 500 - Robby Gordon Notes

Robby Gordon
Team Cingular
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Golden Corral 500/March 14, 2004
Venue: Atlanta Motor Speedway

NOTES:

This Week’s Race Car at Atlanta Motor Speedway (chassis No. 105) was driven by Gordon in October 2003 to a top-15 qualifying position at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and posted top-20 finishes in March 2003 at Bristol Motor Speedway and in November at Rockingham.
Gordon announced Monday his plans to race the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double May 30. Gordon will be competing in his 10th Indianapolis 500 and will be competing as an owner and a driver of a Chevrolet-powered Dallara chassis. Currently, Gordon is the only driver planning to attempt the double this year.
Gordon won his first Cup pole position for the March 1997 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He finished 14th.
Gordon won the pole position in his career-first stock car event in the 1990 ARCA race at Atlanta for car owner Junie Donlavey The Golden Corral 500 will be broadcast live 1 p.m. EDT on FOX, PRN and XM Radio Sunday, March 14. Qualifying for the Golden Corral 500 will broadcast live Friday, March 12, starting at 3 p.m. EDT on SPEED and 2:45 p.m. on PRN and XM Radio.

ROBBY GORDON QUOTES:

On the season so far:
“Enough is enough. I almost feel like someone is playing a cruel joke on the entire Cingular Wireless team. I know everyone is going to say I sound like a broken record, but the results we are posting are not showcasing the group of guys behind the No. 31 Chevrolet and if you notice we were having strong runs in Daytona and Rockingham but our luck simply ran out. As for last weekend, we were just off all day. We lost the car we were planning to take to Las Vegas, because it was wrecked in Rockingham, so that definitely didn’t help us last Sunday.

On Atlanta:
“One good thing about this weekend is I like Atlanta. It’s a really fast track and it is where I won my first Cup pole back in 1997. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but I would say I am a little overdue to win another one so maybe I will be able to claim number two this weekend.

“Team Cingular didn’t test at Atlanta, but Johnny [Sauter] and his guys tested there earlier this month with their race setup and were pleased with the results. Hopefully, that means good news for all three RCR teams when the green flag waves Sunday.

Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 Double plans:
“We only go to Indianapolis to win and hopefully we will do just that. Penske has won it the last couple of years. I went there last year with Andretti-Green. I hadn’t driven the car in a year, but still managed to qualify on the front row and ran real well all day long, but unfortunately lost a gear box late in the race.

“Thomas Knapp is going to be the engineer because he is very experienced and I believe he has had a car on the front row there four or five times the last seven or eight years. I needed to hire the guy with the most experience to lead up this effort for us and Thomas is that man. I have a lot of respect for Tom and we have worked well together in the past. He is the guy who back in the 1999 Indy 500 helped me claim a career-best fourth-place finish and almost a victory.

“I also will be doing a ‘double double’ because qualifying for the Indy 500 is the same day as the Richmond Cup race in May. It does throw a little kink in the plans. Once we are done in Richmond Friday, I will fly to Indy, then return to Virginia in plenty of time to race Saturday night. It’s all going to be about communication between the team of people that supports me at RCR and Thomas Knapp and his group at our shop. We shouldn’t have a problem since we will have our Cingular Wireless phones with us. We’ll get it done. We always do.”