Gordon

All our waiting and suffering finally paid off last weekend in my home state for Cingular Wireless Racing. Things finally turned in favor of the No. 31 team last weekend at California Speedway and we came out of there with a pretty good finish.

I had been so excited about the trip to Fontana and thought we'd do pretty well there, although we got off to a rocky start. I'm from nearby Orange, Calif., so the trip to Fontana is one of my favorite weekends out of the season because I get the chance to see all my family and friends and hang out in my hometown for about 10 days.

Despite all the fun, the weekend in California was also a grueling one. I flew out to California early in the week to visit and to take care of some business. Then I started out the race weekend by signing autographs at the Cingular Wireless/Robby Gordon souvenir trailer Thursday evening at the track, which I really enjoyed because it gave me the chance to chat with a lot of my fans. It was pretty cool for me to see how many people showed up to support me. My fans are the best in the world without a doubt.

Despite all the fun I had Thursday evening at the track, Team Cingular started off the weekend on anything but a high note. Since I've competed in only one Winston Cup race at Fontana, we started out Friday morning's practice in race set-up to give me a few laps on the track to get acquainted with its quirks. Then the guys changed the set-up to qualifying trim and I headed back out of the garage and onto the track for practice. But in my first lap in qualifying set-up, the oil overheated and I had to cut the engine off to prevent a possible blown motor. I was headed back for the garage to remedy the situation when rain started falling and the remainder of practice was cancelled. The Cingular team had gotten in one whopping practice lap and knew we had our work cut out for us.

That lack of practice really hurt us in qualifying and we ended up taking our first provisional starting spot of the year for Sunday's NAPA Auto Parts 500. The first part of the 250-lap race wasn't much easier for our team. We had elected to change the motor Saturday afternoon following Happy Hour because it wasn't quite right and wasn't running as well as it needed to. As a result, we had to drop to the back of the field when the green flag waved Sunday and were the last of 43 teams to start the race with 42 other guys in front of us. To add insult to injury, the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet handled poorly from the beginning.

Since Fontana usually has many long, green-flag runs, it's really hard to not go down one lap to the leaders when your car isn't handling well. We lost one lap to the leader on lap 81, but didn't let it get us down. My crew chief, Gil Martin, and the crew worked hard on making the right adjustments to the car throughout the race and progressively got it better with each pit stop.

Everything started clicking about midway through the race and we were passing guys right and left. It was like I was driving a different car all of a sudden. We were 13th by lap 182 and then focused on trying to get our lap back. Fontana is a two-mile track, so you've got a lot of ground to cover to catch back up to the leader. We got close a couple of times but never could close the deal. When the final caution flag waved on lap 229, we pitted for four fresh tires and a splash of fuel to complete the race. The Cingular team ended up 12th -- the first car one-lap down.

Although I would have like to have gotten that lap back and thus had a shot at a top-10 finish, it was still a great run for the Cingular Wireless team. It was the first time in a while that we've brought back a car without out a scratch due to some crazy circumstances. The car wasn't very good when the race started, but the guys did a great job of listening to my feedback and making the necessary adjustments.

But the Cingular Wireless pit crew was awesome all day and consistently gained spots for me in the pits and made the car better. Coming out of there with a 12th-place finish isn't too bad. Hopefully that will give us some momentum going into Richmond this weekend and we can continue to have solid runs.

When Sunday's race was complete, I hung out at my motorhome with my family and friends and cooked out before heading back to my house in Orange. I spent all day Monday shooting a couple of commercials in Los Angeles for Cingular Wireless. They should begin airing right before the Indy/Charlotte double and you really don't want to miss them. A couple of them are pretty funny and entertaining, although at the expense of my pride. I'm spending a couple of more days out here in California before I leave for Richmond.

I've had good runs at Richmond, but it always seems like something bad happens to me there. I always end up getting run over by someone or something. I've qualified fourth at Richmond and know the Cingular Wireless team can do just as well this time around. We're really on top of our short-track program lately and have a good package at those tracks. We sat on the outside pole at Bristol this year and qualified well at Martinsville, not to mention we won at Loudon last year. I'd put Richmond in the same league as Martinsville, Bristol and Loudon except that Richmond is a smoother track -- it's kind of a mix of those tracks. The Cingular Wireless Chevy has handled well at those tracks lately and I think Richmond will be good to us.

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

Brakes are so important at Richmond and that's something Gil has been working with me on lately -- not using the brakes up. That strategy even worked for us at Fontana. Braking in Winston Cup racing is totally different than it is in CART. In CART, you can drive the car into the corner as hard as you want to until you see God, hit the brakes and then turn the thing. Winston Cup cars like to roll into the corner. We worked on rolling the car into the corner at Bristol and qualified on the front row. We also concentrated on rolling it into the corner at Martinsville and qualified 11th. I think we've got a good program and we'll hopefully qualify and race well.

We've got some momentum going with the Cingular team. Fontana was a good weekend for us because we didn't qualify well or start the race with a good car -- we just worked our guts out on making it better and ended up with a decent finish. We'll work just as hard this week at Richmond and hopefully roll off the truck with a better car, dial in on it all night and get into the position where we can be competitive and go for the win.

The Cingular Wireless team and all the Chevrolet teams have been hurting in the downforce department this season, so it will be nice to race at Richmond and not be at an automatic disadvantage. Downforce doesn't play as much of a role at the short tracks. It's all about handling and I think Gil has a good grasp on that.

We're improving on each part of our program each weekend. Unfortunately, our finishes don't even begin to tell the story of how we've run this year. We've had some extremely competitive cars and runs that have been destroyed by bad luck late in the race -- blown tires, big wrecks involving half the field -- you name it and it has happened to the Cingular team this season.

As much as I'm looking forward to racing at night at Richmond, I'm pretty pumped up about leaving Richmond for Indianapolis. The big Indy/Charlotte double begins for us when the checkered flag waves Saturday night. I'm flying out after the race for Indianapolis. Sunday is opening day for the Indy 500. We've already tested the No. 31 Menard/Childress/Cingular Wireless Chevrolet-powered Dallara and it went very well for my first time in an Indy car since last year's Indy 500.

One cool thing about Indy is that we have so much practice time before qualifying and it won't take us more than a day or so to get ready for qualifying. I'm confident that we're going to be strong and contend for the pole. Team Menard has shown they're strong lately in the Indy Racing League. With the knowledge they've gained over the past few years, my experience and Richard Childress's background, we should have a great time in Indy.

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.