Race 2 Win: Pennsylvania 500 - Robby Gordon Notes

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Pennsylvania 500 - Robby Gordon Notes

Jim Beam Racing/Robby Gordon Motorsports
No. 7 Jim Beam Chevrolet
Pre-Race Report

Pennsylvania 500
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Race 20/36

Huntersville, NC (July 20, 2005) – Despite being one of NASCAR’s most demanding and competitive tracks, Robby Gordon’s successful finishes at Pocono Raceway in the past bring promise for the No. 7 Jim Beam Chevrolet this weekend. Gordon has consistently improved his time in the Pennsylvania 500 over the past several years, moving from 25th in 2002 to 7th in 2004. He was one of only four drivers to score top-10 finishes in both races at Pocono in 2004.

Pit Stops…

The Magic Triangle – Strategically positioned 90 miles from both New York and Philadelphia in what’s known as the “Magic Triangle,” Pocono Raceway is within 200 miles of 60 million people, giving it the highest population density of any NEXTEL Cup track. Visually, the track represents this triangle in its configuration featuring three turns, each with a different degree of banking and three straights, each with a different length. The track also has the longest straightaway and the longest and widest Pit Road of any track in the NASCAR circuit.

New Leaders – With Greg Erwin and Frank Kerr as crew chief and team manager/car chief, the No. 7 team has shown strong signs of improvement. Since Erwin’s arrival only six weeks ago, the team has qualified top-12 in four of the last five races.

Good $ for a Good Cause – As part of the drink smart® campaign, Robby Gordon Motorsports will donate $10,000 from a $100,000 fund provided by Jim Beam bourbon – the “Official Spirit of Racing” to officials from Temple University at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Franklin Institute’s Racecar Day. The donation will fund the University’s implementation of The Century Council’s Alcohol 101 PlusTM education program and related alcohol-education activities.

Motorsports History Races to Philadelphia – On Thursday, July 21st at 3 p.m., Gordon will take part in a “Tribute to Pennsylvania Motorsports” at The Franklin Institute. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts seeks to stimulate interest in, to promote public understanding of and to strengthen science education. In addition to the new exhibit on motorsports, the Institute’s exhibitions range in subject matter from science and industry to physics, astronomy and history. During the ceremony, Gordon will present the donation to Temple University.

Lights, camera, action – Jim Beam has unveiled a public service announcement, featuring Robby Gordon and Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon about making sensible decisions relating to alcohol consumption. The PSA was produced to raise awareness of Jim Beam’s social responsibility platform, drink smart®.

TV and Radio – The race will be broadcast on TNT, beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 24, 2005. Listeners can also find the race live on MRN radio.

Just more than a month ago at Pocono Raceway, Robby Gordon’s run in the Pocono 500 was looking to be the strongest of the first-year team’s season. The No. 7 Chevrolet was as strong as it had been at any point in the season, and a top-10 finish was easily attainable until lap 124.

One of only a few cars able to pass with relative ease, Gordon’s day came to an early end due to a cam shaft failure. The parts failure was later traced to a batch of five faulty cam shafts provided to Menard Engine Group and therefore an unforeseen and somewhat unavoidable problem.

Despite a 39th-place finish, the driver of the Jim Beam Chevrolet is confident heading back to Pocono for the track’s second race of the season.

“We pretty much could pass any car on the track at any time we wanted,” Gordon said. “We’ve got a real good feeling going back to Pocono, and we think we have a strategy and a plan that will allow us to be just as good as the last race up there. I shifted during the last race and a lot of fans and even some other drivers thought that’s what broke the motor, which was not the case. Menards gave us a great engine. It was unfortunate they got a part from a supplier that was faulty even before it was installed, but it’s good that we were able to identify the problem with the manufacturer and prevent it from happening to us again on a later race.”

With the start of the season’s second half, crew chief Greg Erwin believes that going to race tracks for a second time will significantly benefit the team’s efforts.

“Going back to Pocono for a second time, and then a lot of other tracks later in the season also, I’m fairly optimistic that we’ll be much better the second time around,” said Erwin. “It’s not that we were completely in the dark the first time we visited these tracks, but in reality we’ve been racing against teams that have been to these places together for multiple season, and we haven’t had much of anything in the way of notes. Now at least we know what worked and didn’t work the last time we raced at places like Pocono, and we’ll be much more prepared the second time around.

“What really excites me is that despite the fact that we had to do a fair amount of guess work the first time we visited most of these tracks, we’ve one of the top-15 or 20 fastest cars for the last nine or 10 weeks. If we can get better from that, we’re going to have a great second half of the season.”

Behind the wheel with Robby Gordon…

Things seem to be picking up for the No. 7 team, particularly since the arrival of crew chief Greg Erwin and car chief Frank Kerr. Do you feel you’re finally hitting stride?
“Having Greg and Frank on board has really helped us work out some of the problems we had in the beginning of the season. Because of our improvement over the first part of the year, the overall feeling among the team is very positive. We are concentrating on staying focused and having a great car going into every race. The No. 7 Jim Beam Chevy is getting more competitive, and we need to start having some luck on our side and everything will be fine. The job at hand now is to get ourselves into the top 35 and stay there at season’s end.”

You have had a rash of unrelated problems. What have you been doing to address these issues?
“Some of the problems have been self-induced, and others have been unavoidable. At Sonoma, for instance, we went with a new top-loading gear box despite the fact that we knew going in that it probably wasn’t the best thing for us. Even though that was an “unavoidable” mechanical failure I still say that was our fault since we introduced something new that was somewhat unproven. Other issues, like having a tire go down last week at Loudon were seemingly unavoidable, but it too could have been avoided if we hadn’t gotten together with Sterling Marlin on pit road. We can only look at ourselves for having the tire fail since I’m pretty sure it was a puncture from something rubbing on the tire. Most of the other troubles have been “racing luck,” and we have spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to predict all of the things that can happen to us and address them before they occur. No team can prevent all problems, but every week, as our team gets older and wiser, we’re closer to preventing most of these issues.”

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