Gordon

Anyone in NASCAR Winston Cup racing knows that all teams have an off-day at the track. But when that off-day occurs at on tracks that tend to have long, green-flag runs, that reality hits you even harder.

The No. 31 Cingular Wireless team suffered one of those off-days on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway because we struggled most of the day with an ill-handling race car. Weather conditions were a lot different when the green flag waved Sunday than they had been during Saturday's final practice session. We were forced to make a gamble on the setup -- a gamble that didn't pay off early in the race.

The Cingular Wireless Chevy was loose entering the corners and tight exiting the corners. As races at Michigan tend to do, the race went green for a long time, so we made a green-flag stop on lap 48 for air pressure adjustments, four tires and fuel. Unfortunately, those changes weren't enough to correct the problem and the car still gave me problems.

The race went green again for a long time and allowed the leader to put a bunch of cars one lap down before even the halfway mark. We were one of those cars. The Cingular car fell to the 32nd spot by lap 77 but my team continued to work on improving the car's handling. As our luck would have it, we pitted under green on lap 94 but the caution flag waved the following lap, putting us and others another lap down to the leader who hadn't yet pitted.

We moved into the 29th position by lap 141 and began making up ground on the other guys, but we soon discovered a major mechanical problem with the car. On lap 153, I realized something was wrong with the ignition box. I radioed the crew about the problem and started checking everything over as much as I could while driving. We lost about five spots on the track then because we didn't have full power, then I noticed the battery's voltage plummet and we knew the alternator was the culprit.

We tried to ride the problem out as long as possible and, luckily, the race was red-flagged with five laps remaining for an accident. When the one lap-to-go signal was given before the final laps, I brought the Richard Childress Racing machine down pit road for the team to replace the battery that the faulty alternator had drained. Our hope was to get full power back to the car and be able to gain a few spots back before the race ended. The team showed precision in changing the battery and four tires all without losing a lap. But we had already lost too much track position to the guys we were racing to catch up with them before the race ended and we finished 33rd.

That wasn't one of our better days but we learned a lot, despite the problems. The guys on the team learned some stuff about setups that I don't like and I find difficult to drive, and I learned something about Michigan and what you need to run well here. A lot of teams struggled today to stay on the lead lap. Our car didn't handle well early in the race and we lost that lap, and we just had trouble making it up. But we weren't bad at the end of the race and were gaining some spots until the alternator went out. But we're not going to let it get us down and we're going to go to Sears Point with the attitude that we're there to win the race.

As soon as the Michigan race was over, I jumped on a plane and headed for California. I usually try to go out there early the week of the Sears Point race. I plan on testing my Baja truck in the desert for a couple of days and seeing how it's running. Off-road racing is one of my passions but I'm also really excited about this weekend's race at Sears Point -- it's always one of my favorite and best races of the year.

Everyone seems to remember the battle between me and my now teammate Kevin Harvick last year at Sears Point. The reason I tried so hard to stay in front of him was that I thought it would be easier to have Kevin between Tony Stewart and me. I thought I'd be able to get back around Tony and win my first Winston Cup race. I probably could have gotten to him with the front bumper but I didn't think that was the right thing to do at that point in time. I knew that Richard Childress had told Kevin to kick back a little bit if the caution came out and I'd let him go by me. It's not like I thought Kevin was going to charge from one lap down to come back and win the race.

But that's all over with -- we're teammates now and we just swapped crews. We're part of the same team and both made sacrifices with our crews to try to improve Richard Childress Racing as a whole. I'll be able to help him on the road courses and he has helped me on the ovals. I think we make pretty good teammates.

The Cingular team tested a brand-new car at the road course at Carolina Motorsports Park last week and it was good enough that we're going to take it to Sears Point with us. We got a bunch of good notes about the car and how it handles and responds to certain chassis adjustments. I love racing road courses and am usually pretty competitive on them and I know that Kevin Hamlin knows how to set up a strong car for a road course. We're planning on going and winning the race. We won't be happy with anything else.

	Robby Gordon finished second last year at Sears Point.

Sears Point is a huge race for the Cingular team and me as a California native. I'm looking forward to going back to Sears Point and visiting California, even though it's about seven hours from my home. I've got some really good friends up in the Sonoma area and we always try to find some time relax and hang out.

There aren't many races I look forward to more each season than Sears Point Raceway. I grew up racing on the road courses and have had some success on those tracks. I didn't say that I always have the best luck at road courses but I do have a lot of experience and success at those types of tracks.

I think the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team has just as good of a shot, if not better, at winning at Sears Point Raceway than I did last year. Sears Point is one of my favorite tracks. Always has been, always will be. I think the track was more fun when it had the old carousel corner that went up over the rise and made the fast left-hand turn. But they changed the track a bit to create a better show for the fans. You can see more of the track now at one time than ever before.

Not only has my career as a road racer helped me in Winston Cup road course races like Sears Point, it's also helped me a lot on the short tracks. I have learned something at road courses that I also use at places like Martinsville. I treat Martinsville like a hairpin turn or a complete U-turn on the road courses. I brake in a straight line, get the car slowed down, get off the brakes and roll through the center of the corner. That's basically what I do in the hairpin turn (Turn 11) at Sears Point. True, I'm turning right at Sears and left on the short tracks, but I pack the corner the same way and that hairpin turn is one of my strongest areas at Sears Point -- I make up a lot of time on other cars there. I contribute that to my road racing experience.

Let me try to explain what one qualifying lap is like at Sears Point Raceway. I drive off pit road just past the start/finish line and grab fourth gear. Then I make a bending left turn up a hill into the first turn, being careful not to try to run that turn flat out. If we run that corner flat out in the gas, it will make the Cingular car push the nose up the track. After the first turn, the track gets tight and goes left again. When the road goes left again into what we now call Turn 1a, I try to make the arc a little early and brake in a straight line, get off the brakes as soon as possible and coast through the corner. I've got to slow down the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet to make a right-hand turn at the top of the hill into turn two. We have to be careful getting into the throttle in that area because the car wants to spin the tires. On Sunday, this is the spot on the track you can hurt your tires by spinning them too much and wearing them out or overheating them.

At the top of the hill in Turn 2, I go through the short little straightaway into Turn 3. As I exit Turn 3 at the top of the hill, there's another rise again heading into Turn 3a. When the car goes over that rise, it tries to get loose and lock up the right-front tire. So we give the car some brake on the straight area, roll over the top of the hill, compress the car hard into the bank on the left-hand turn going into Turn 3a and accelerate onto the next little hill into Turn 4. Turn 4 is a blind right-hander heading up over the top of the rise. That's another corner that we try to brake into and then coast through the corner, and accelerate after the car is straight. There is a lot of time to be gained in the corner if I do it right. I've got to get the car pointed right and stay full throttle over the top of the hill.

Then we go down The Chute into Turn 7. One of the keys to a good lap is to be able to run that corner pretty good. The officials at Sears Point Raceway made that corner where it is a passing zone now so it's a pretty tight section of race track. I downshift into second gear and try to keep it there and pull that gear all the way into the next corner. In Turn 7, we make a right-hander and it's an increasing-radius right-hand turn.

I come out of Turn 7, brake and get the car rotated and off the brakes as soon as possible to try to roll around that corner. Then it's through the "S's" over on the backside of the track, where it is so important not to overdrive the car. I more or less slow down in the first "S" to be able to accelerate into the next one. The car keeps going through the "S's" to a fast right-hand turn in Turn 10.

I try like heck not to overdrive that corner, brake early going into it, get on the gas exiting the corner and carry good speed behind the grandstands there down into the hairpin turn, which is Turn 11. When I get to that hairpin turn, I go to first gear and try to gas the car in a straight line as much as possible. It's important to try to hug the barriers and cones as tightly as possible and get the Cingular Wireless car pointed back straight and then stand hard on the gas. There is a lot of time to be made up in that hairpin turn and it's a pretty "gnarly" one. It's a very tight turn and I have to be cautious there because if I overbrake, I can lock up a tire, which will cost a lot of time. From there, I take the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet back to the start/finish line and try to run that perfect line 112 times in Sunday's race.

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.