Gordon

Brakes can be a driver's best friend or his dire enemy at Martinsville Speedway. Unfortunately, they worked against the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team in Sunday's Virginia 500, overheating and causing a blown right-front tire that put us out of contention.

We were really good in Friday's practice but we wanted to be better, so my crew chief, the crew members and I sat down and decided on a few more chassis adjustments to make to the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet better. We raced the same car we sat on the outside pole with at Bristol last month, but just had some activities during the race that kept us from getting a great finish.

We did something right because we busted off the 11th-fastest lap of the qualifying session. The car got a little free coming out of the corner next to the wall and was a little loose in the exit of the corners.

We were the 15th car to go out to qualify, which I think put us at a bit of a disadvantage to the later cars. It got a little cooler as the session went on and some of the fastest laps of qualifying were run later in the afternoon. But we had set the goal of qualifying in the top-20 and we did that, so we were pretty happy with that effort.

Armed with a strong car and an 11th-place starting spot, we took the green flag and began working our way through the field. We quickly put the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet into the top-10 but the car was loose entering the corners. We pitted under caution on lap 76 for four tires and a lot of chassis adjustments that took additional time in the pits and dropped us to 28th on the track.

But the time spent in the pits was well worth it -- we began gaining track position and the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was handling much better than before. Things took a turn for the worse on lap 164 when our right-front tire ruptured and caused severe damage to the sway bar arm underneath the car. Repeated use had overheated the brakes, which in turn melted the tire bead that connects the rubber to the wheel. We spent several laps in the pits making repairs and preparing it to return to the race to make laps.

We were definitely out of contention by then so we just concentrated on making laps, staying out of trouble and gaining valuable points. Believe it or not, though, the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was posting laps as fast as the top-10 cars by lap 415! But we were so many laps down that we couldn't advance in the running order. We finished 34th.

We change gears this weekend from one of the circuit's shortest tracks to its largest. It's time for the nerve-wracking 500-mile race at Talladega. Talladega is a little bigger than Daytona, so the corners aren't quite as tight as they are at Daytona. The corners are so large at Talladega that it feels like a faster track than Daytona because we're not scrubbing off as much speed going through the corners. Handling is so much more important at Daytona than Talladega because of the size of the corners.

	Robby Gordon, left, is in his first full season driving for car owner Richard Childress, right.

At Talladega, I just need to concentrate on getting the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet to run as fast as possible as safely as possibly. All the Richard Childress Racing cars qualified well at Daytona and we learned some things from Daytona that will hopefully help the Cingular team to be better when we roll off the truck at Talladega.

I haven't won at Talladega so I don't really know what the real key is to winning. RCR has won at Talladega so many times and obviously has something figured out there. I need to use a lot of Richard's and the team's experience and notes and work with the current aerodynamics rules as much. The rules we'll race under this week at Talladega are different than the Talladega rules last year, but the same as the 2000 rules. NASCAR took away the wicker bill on the rear spoiler and on the roof, but we had those two changes at Daytona.

Talladega can be a turning point. We really need some good performances now and the morale boost would be huge if we could finish in the top five at Talladega. But before we can get that good finish, we've got to survive and score some points. Unfortunately, a lot of times, Talladega can come down to nothing but luck. You can have the best car, hands down, and then be left with nothing but a little scrap of shredded sheet metal if someone plows into you in the "Big One." One of the most important things at Talladega is surviving and being around for that last 10 laps and trying to avoid that big wreck. It can be a nerve-wracking race, to say the least.

It's also important to have a good car and at the same time, not abuse that car. We've got to drive in the Cingular rearview mirror a bit to keep the other guys behind us. There has been a lot of talk about blocking and blocking is scary for all of the drivers. Unfortunately, to be competitive, you've got to do it, but you've got to be smart about how you do it.

We're hoping the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet is good enough so that we don't have to block other cars and can just run out front by ourselves. Dale Jr. won at Talladega last year because he was able to run up front by himself. Maybe we'll have a good enough package that we'll be in great shape and be able to run alone and let them play "follow the leader."

The Chevrolets are at a disadvantage everywhere this year. We rolled out with really good cars at Daytona and qualified well but NASCAR freed up the rules for everyone else. I don't really know how we'll measure up to everyone else this weekend. But I think the Chevrolets are at an obvious disadvantage, but we're not crying about it or saying it's impossible for us to win.

Right now, all we can do is work hard to find ways to improve and refine our equipment to be a little better. Who knows what the answer is right now? Sure, common templates would make it a lot easier for everybody. The manufacturers probably would like to have their own templates but common templates would make the competition more even among all the makes out there. Everyone would be able to see in the tech line what everyone else was doing. But right now, the Chevy package is just so different than the other manufacturers that we're just trying to do the best job we can to survive with a Chevrolet.

The Cingular guys have built me awesome cars each weekend and we've qualified pretty well. But my luck during the races is really hurting us. If we can figure out how to control all the freak circumstances on race day, we'll be doing great -- and that's a tall order at Talladega.

Robby Gordon drives the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. He will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the Winston Cup season.