Gordon

Robby drove for the Lowe's team in four races earlier in the year while Mike recovered from surgery to repair his fractured left knee following his accident at Chicagoland Speedway. Robby did a great job during the summer so Richard Childress again selected him to help out the team in a jam.

NASCAR gave us an open date Thursday at Kansas because most of the teams had not had the opportunity to test there. We went into Kansas with our notes from Chicagoland because the two tracks are fairly similar and both are brand new and have a lot of grip. Robby drove the Rockwell Automation/Brant Motorsports Chevrolet in the Busch race so he and Gil Martin, crew chief of the No. 21 car, were jumping back and forth between the two garages. Driving the Busch car was a blessing for Robby because he got a lot of extra time on a new track and in the Lowe's car, which was great because he hasn't driven in more than one month. All that extra time in the two cars got him up to speed a little quicker.

We worked on our race set-up most of Thursday to find out what Robby wanted the Lowe's Chevy to feel like so we could get ahead on Saturday's practice and keep from going down the wrong road early in the week. We put the car in qualifying trim Friday and it was decent, but we needed to gain one-tenth of a second to be competitive with the top cars. That's something we see often between the Busch and the Winston Cup cars. The field in the Busch garage is so spread out that a team can be a half-second slower and still be competitive, but when that driver walks through the Winston Cup garage, the field gets tighter. In the Busch garage, there can be a half-second separating the field but in the Winston Cup garage, there are two-and-a-half tenths of a second separating first and 46th in practice speeds. A driver can hiccup just a bit on his lap and go from 10th to 35th in a qualifying run.

The Lowe's Chevy was still a little tight so we opted to free up the car just a bit, keeping in mind that every other time Robby had driven the Lowe's Chevy, it had gotten a little freer in qualifying. We again got a little too free in qualifying Friday -- he wasn't loose but just free -- and we qualified 34th. He said he had to hold onto the wheel a little bit and couldn't drive it as hard as he wanted.

We had to run Happy Hour on Saturday prior to the Busch race and it was pretty early in the morning. We probably didn't get to do as much to the car as we wanted to do because we like to pay attention to the Busch car during that race to learn more because you can see how the track changes and what conditions the teams are fighting during the race. Since we weren't able to do that, we threw a bunch of things at the Lowe's Chevy to give us a well-rounded pool of information to pull from. At least we knew what we tried and didn't try and could determine how to set up the car for Sunday. Plus, we stayed and watched the Busch race to see if the cars were tight or loose, whether two-tire stops worked and such.

The race started out pretty well for Lowe's Racing -- we came from 34th and moved through the field to 22nd when the first caution came out. Robby was doing good and made a bunch of gains. He said the car was a little tight and we thought it was more of an aero tight than a chassis tight condition. So, we worked on the front fenders a bit and worked on the air pressures, raised the track bar a bit and got Robby where he was a little too loose at the beginning of the runs but once it got going, the car tightened up enough to be better on the long runs. We made gains all day long and finished 14th. That run moved us up two spots in the owners' point standings so we had a pretty successful weekend at Kansas.

We're headed to Lowe's Motor Speedway with Robby this week for one of the most-hyped races of the season -- the UAW-GM Quality 500. Robby is again driving the Rockwell Automation Chevy in the Busch race, which will be great for him because he hasn't run at Charlotte many times. In fact, he's only got three starts under his belt at Lowe's Motor Speedway but we know he will step up to the plate and do a great job for us. The Busch race will give him ample track time with the same type of Goodyear tire that he will have on the Lowe's Chevy in the Winston Cup race. Robby should be able to get into the groove pretty quickly just like he did at Kansas and should be able to cross-reference the two cars pretty easily. We're taking the same car to Charlotte that Robby raced at Kansas -- it was a brand-new car. We thought it was a very good car that adjusted easily and responded well to everything we did with it at Kansas. So, we changed a few things with the car's set-up, re-painted and decaled it for a special tribute that Lowe's is doing for the race.

The Lowe's Chevy will carry a paint scheme promoting the Racing For Relief program "Power of Pride" at Charlotte. Lowe's will donate to the New York Firefighters' 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund $100 for every lap Robby completes and $1,000 for every lap he leads. RCR, Skinner and Kevin Harvick raised almost $24,000 two weeks ago at Dover, Del., with a similar program and donated their funds to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. As President Bush has encouraged all Americans, we must try as best we can to resume our normal lives after the Sept. 11 tragedy. But we will never forget what happened, those who lost their lives and those who were willing to risk their lives to help others. This weekend's paint scheme and fundraiser are just another way that Lowe's and RCR want to continue to help those who are hurting.