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Tuesday, July 24
Team getting to know Gordon
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
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Once again this week, the big story at the Lowe's Chevrolet shop is that Robby Gordon will again fill in for Mike Skinner while Mike nurses a broken ankle. Robby agreed to drive the No. 31 Lowe's Chevy again this weekend at Pocono, Pa., after doing a great job for us last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway.
We finished 25th, but you have to look way beyond that number. New Hampshire is a track that is very difficult to pass on and we improved 11 spots on our 36th starting position. Robby had not raced at Loudon since 1997 and hasn't had much time on short tracks this season. You have to approach Loudon like a short track; it's just like a bigger version of Martinsville, Va.
We opted to keep the Lowe's Chevy tight for Robby on the first run. It was definitely tight because the new sealer that had been laid down on the track made the track much tighter than it normally is. We were very patient and kept working on improving the handling of the Lowe's Chevy. The better of a car we gave Robby, the more acclimated he became to the track.
Richard Childress, David Smith (team manager) and I saw some things from atop the Lowe's hauler that we were able to convey to Robby that he used to work on his laps. We offered suggestions in areas such as where on the track he needed to run, braking techniques and how to use the throttle in certain points on the track. We gave him little pointers, not necessarily telling him how to drive, but things we could see that upset the car and may have been causing some of the mechanical problems we were trying to overcome.
We were the 43rd-fastest team at the end of practice Friday, but we thought we'd made major gains. We set to preparing the Lowe's Chevy for qualifying and we changed our air pressures after talking to Kevin Hamlin and Kevin Harvick about the adjustments they'd made.
Robby went out and ran his fastest lap of the day when it counted -- in qualifying. He got a little loose in the first turn and said he may have overdriven the car a bit, but I told him that maybe I'd freed the car up too much. We were both wondering if we'd messed up a bit, but were somewhat relieved. We qualified in the 36th position -- not exactly a top-10 starting position to brag about, but we didn't complain. All in all, we accomplished a couple of goals we had for the first day: we didn't need a provisional starting position to get into the race and we didn't wreck our primary car. Robby didn't want to go in and tear up the Lowe's Chevy the first day (or any other day) and we didn't have any altercations on the track.
We met with Robby on Saturday morning about what changes we needed before the morning's first practice. We ran a practice early Saturday morning and then were scheduled to run Happy Hour late in the morning. We got pretty aggressive with our race set-up early in practice and began making excellent gains on the track. Little by little, you could see the team and Robby coming together and seeing eye-to-eye on the car. Robby's feedback about what the Lowe's Chevy was doing and what it needed was excellent.
After having what we considered a very good early practice, we made some more adjustments and were ready for Happy Hour. But we thought we lost some ground and were a bit off in the second practice. All the other teams made bigger gains than we did. So, we concentrated and changed five major things quickly. Richard was a bit nervous about the changes we decided on and he warned Robby to take it easy on the car the first few laps after those adjustments. But Robby is a pretty brave guy and he went out there and was faster within two laps.
At the end of practice, we were pretty satisfied with our day's progress, but we still needed to work on getting the Lowe's Chevy to run better through the center of the turns. Robby spent about two hours with us after Happy Hour talking about the race set-up, rating springs, talking about shocks and describing the feel he wanted the car to have. It really helped that Robby spent that important time with us and we were able to put our heads together for a while without the pressure of jumping in and out of the car during practice.
We went in Sunday morning and shared ideas with our teammate again. We made three unorthodox changes that a lot of teams wouldn't have made. Based on Robby's comments about what we were fighting with the car, we changed some stuff with the steering arms and steering geometry. Lowe's Racing was ready to race.
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Robby (Gordon) has vast experience in the IMSA GTO Series and in off-road racing -- he has driven in so many series. The funny thing is Robby talks a lot about his off-road racing and compares a lot of scenarios to his off-road cars. A lot of people don't understand those off-road trucks run 150 mph and maneuver around five-foot crevices. He's not scared of anything and has excellent car control ” |
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— McGee |
I think the level of each driver's experience at Loudon was evident when the race started. Some of the guys around Robby that have run Loudon and other short tracks numerous time shuffled Robby out of the groove when the race started and to the back. That situation and their experience helped put us a lap down early in the race.
But we worked hard on trying to make the changes Robby needed and we got the Lowe's Chevy to where it could post lap times comparable to the leaders. When we got up near the leaders, Robby was able to race in the groove he wanted to race and we were able to maintain our position. Even though we were a lap down, we could hang with the leaders once we got the Lowe's Chevy dialed in.
It was kind of interesting to see how the leader dealt with Robby on the restarts because they had to shuck-and-jive a bit. Dale Jarrett took Robby to school one time on the restart because Jarrett didn't want to have to fight him getting into Turn 1. We had a good enough car Robby could race the leader -- that gave us some confidence and optimism. If you looked at the lap times on the stopwatch, Lowe's Racing was as fast as the leader much of the race.
I think if we could have gotten back on the lead lap and kept our lap, we could have finished in the top-10 or 15. With 40 laps to go, Robby was still digging and determined to try to get the lap back. He never gave up.
Robby is going to be with the Lowe's team for the next three weeks while Mike heals. We're testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday this week in preparation for the Brickyard 400. While that helps us get ready for that race, it also gives us several hours of time with Robby to learn his driving style and what he needs in a car. Hopefully, by the time we get to Pocono, we'll all be pretty comfortable with each other and able to read each other.
If we can go to Pocono with Robby and be as competitive as we were with Mike last month there, I think we can be very good and finish in the top-10. Pocono is an interesting track -- a lot of drivers compare it to a road course because it's got three unique turns. The Tunnel Turn (Turn 2) is something all it own -- it's just weird. Then there's the big, sweeping corner (Turn 3) that leads into the Long Pond Straightaway. Robby has to come off that corner and the Tunnel Turn really well to set the Lowe's Chevrolet up for the long straightaway. The drivers actually shift going down the frontstretch, a task I think many drivers have mastered lately. Shifting is extremely important at Pocono. Hopefully Robby's road racing experience and accompanying ability to set his car up for three unique corners will come into play. A lot of oval racers are accustomed to only four turns and will sacrifice one of the turns at Pocono to make the other two better. I think Robby will be able to handle all three equally well.
Robby has vast experience in the IMSA GTO Series and in off-road racing -- he has driven in so many series. The funny thing is Robby talks a lot about his off-road racing and compares a lot of scenarios to his off-road cars. A lot of people don't understand those off-road trucks run 150 mph and maneuver around five-foot crevices. He's not scared of anything and has excellent car control. Robby has done very well in all the series he has competed in -- CART, IRL, Busch, road racing and off-road racing series. He has been extremely successful in all these series and we're hoping he makes the same mark in Winston Cup in the Lowe's Chevrolet the next three weeks.
Royce McGee is the crew chief for Mike Skinner and the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He is providing a weekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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