Gordon

Every driver and crew that attempts to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 wants to win the pole. It's really a race all by itself. It's nothing like winning the actual race and getting to drink the bottle of milk and getting your face on the trophy but winning the pole is a very prestigious honor in itself.

I think we got messed up a little bit last week in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. We changed engines and a lot of other stuff. I think we thought we were going to come out in the 31 backup car and run 230 mph. We knew we were going to have some more engine power.

We played around with the engine a little bit and had a hard time getting it idling. That didn't bother us much on the race track but it was more of a mental thing and I think it messed me up a little bit. We finally just said, "The heck with it," and switched back to the primary car.

I climbed into the other car, the 31, and right out of the box we were at 228 mph so we picked up 3½ mph. I was pleased with that but obviously a little disappointed because I thought we would have a legitimate shot at the pole. But you never know, so we went back to the garage, looked at all of our data, made some adjustments and looked into the crystal ball to find the magic setup we were looking for.

	Robby Gordon reacts after seeing his Indy qualfiying speed.

But Team Menard has always had a car that has been capable of getting the pole position at Indy and I knew we weren't that far out of it. I knew I could suck it up a little more, hold my breath a little longer. My teammate Raul Boesel was 10th or 11th quick in practice so I was very, very happy for those guys there.

The weatherman called for showers later in the day on Saturday. We had chosen the 20th spot to qualify from so we kept our fingers crossed that we could get through before the rain came. There was only one other car in front of us in the tech line when the first sprinkles came. But it was quick and the safety crew got the track dried out quickly, too. When it was my turn, I rolled away and clicked off two 229-mph laps before sprinkles forced the flagman to bring out the yellow and wave off our run.

When I got back to pit lane, the officials had told the crew that all we could do to the car was refuel and change tires. The track barely got wet and another car actually went ahead of us in line before we got done getting the tires changed. Getting waved off like that didn't really bother me because that's sometimes just part of the deal. The way I look at it, I just got Cingular Wireless and Menards two more laps of exposure than they would have if I had gotten all four laps in the first time. So when I did get back in line and roll back onto the speedway, my concentration was still focused on doing the best job I could.

I was wide open all four laps and that's all there was. We had a good car and the team worked real well. We have a lot of work ahead of us before the race, for sure, but we gave it our best shot.

We probably didn't spend enough time focusing on our qualifying effort. We did a couple of laps Sunday night after the Cup race and then got rained out Monday and again on Wednesday. John Menard just kinda said, "Hey, let's just stop until I get down there and we'll work it out." So we missed a couple of days that might have made the difference between 11th place and the pole. But I did the best job I could, held it wide open and all the guys did a great job. So we'll just go work on race setups next week.

Obviously, I'm a little disappointed with 11th because it's the furthest back in the field that I have even started from. I'm very happy for Boesel and the Menard guys for starting on the outside of the front row. Both Menard's cars qualified ahead of the Penske cars and there are some other strong cars out there that are struggling a little bit. All qualifying 11th means is that there will be that many more cars I have to pass on the outside as I head into Turn 1 on the first lap.

We flew back home Saturday night. I thought a little bit about staying until Sunday morning before flying out but decided I needed to get a full day at home to do some things and just get away. I had been in a race car every day for the past nine days. Don't get me wrong, I love to be in a race car any chance I can get but there's still two more weeks left in this journey so I wanted a day or two to unwind a little bit.

This is how the schedule for this week looks so far. I was in North Carolina Monday and Tuesday and then flew back to Indy Tuesday night. We test the Indy Car on Wednesday and Thursday, then fly back Thursday night. Practice and qualifying for starting position for The Winston (we're already in the race from the win last year at New Hampshire) is Friday and the race is Saturday night. Then, we will probably fly back to Indy on Sunday morning for some more practice there.

	“	I was wide open all four laps and that's all there was. We had a good car and the team worked real well. We have a lot of work ahead of us before the race, for sure, but we gave it our best shot. ”
		— Gordon on Indy qualifying

It's no secret that the No. 31 team struggled at Charlotte last year. Heck, it was devastating when we missed the last October race. But the Cingular team spent a lot of time on the track testing at Charlotte last week and I am much more confident now than I was before we got there. We tested at Charlotte Monday and Tuesday evening and used every minute of each six-hour session. We had a long way to go and a lot of different setups to try out to get to where we needed to be. But I think we're a lot closer now and have a really good baseline.

We really learned a lot about the Cingular car that we can put to use for The Winston and the Coca-Cola 600. My crew chief Gil Martin and the guys tried a few different things as far as suspension, setup and shock packages are concerned. We made two 30-lap runs Tuesday in preparation for The Winston, which is hard to do when you test. But we were really happy with what we saw. People will tell you that testing speeds aren't a true indicator of how you'll perform when the race rolls around and that's partially true. But we posted the third-fastest lap of the day Tuesday. We weren't so much concerned with how fast we went as how well the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet handled, and we got it where we wanted it by the end of the evening.

Running The Winston is also sort of a practice for the Coca-Cola 600, at least for the driver. It will give me more laps on the track and that's what I really need. With the new format change this year, I'll to be somewhat aggressive to stay in the race but I also can't get too caught up in everything and end up in a wild wreck. You can't wait for 10 to go in The Winston anymore because you won't be in the final segment and all the waiting would have been for nothing. Drivers used to lay back a bit and strategize about how to get to the front when it counted, but now the new rules keep us from doing that. The Cingular team has to go for it and go for it early. Drivers can't sandbag anymore. I think it will be an absolutely awesome race that the fans will remember for a long time.

I think we're about two-tenths of a second off in qualifying trim but I know that Spenny Clendenen, the RCR engine shop manager, and all his guys will give me a kicking motor and horsepower won't even be a concern when we get to the track. We made about three or four qualifying runs at the beginning of Tuesday's session and then concentrated more on those 30-lap runs for The Winston.

The Cingular team was the only RCR team that tested at Charlotte but Gil and the guys took great notes that we'll share with Jeff Green and Kevin Harvick's teams. That's the beautiful thing about being a multi-car team. Only one team really has to go to a test to gather all the information for the other teams so they concentrate on improving the program elsewhere. All the Richard Childress Racing teams should be able to benefit from our Charlotte test and hopefully all run up front during the next two weeks.

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.