Gordon

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has always been a special place for me and there aren't many NASCAR Winston Cup races I would rather win than the Brickyard 400. I've been trying to win the Indianapolis 500 there for years and have come very close. So, with that determination in mind, the No. 31 Cingular Wireless team went into Indy with two goals -- to win the big race and kneel down to kiss the bricks.

Indianapolis has a different schedule than any other track. We had one practice late Friday afternoon and qualified Saturday morning. We were good in practice Friday and thought we'd end up with a good starting spot. We took our lap Saturday and posted the fourth-best lap time. We had a shot at the pole last year and I overdrove the car. So, to come back this year and set a good, solid time, basically picking up six-tenths of a second over what we did in practice Friday, I was very happy with the effort.

In addition to staying as cool as possible in the 110-degree heat (heat index), we knew that track position was going to be the key at Indy. So, Kevin Hamlin planned to alternate fuel-only pit stops with two or four-tire stops throughout the race. He did something right because we never ran outside the top 10 for the entire 160 laps. I've always thought that when you have a good race car, you know it from the beginning. We were fast in practice Friday, so I thought we'd be good for the race, and we were. The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was good on the first lap. It got a little tighter a few laps later but we pitted under caution on lap 13 for chassis adjustments and fuel. The Cingular guys busted off a quick stop and we gained two spots back into fourth.

We ran between second and fifth for most of the race, using our heads and executing smart pit strategy. We didn't take tires unless we had to. It was hard to pass and once you got behind in traffic, it was very hard to catch up. We were still in the top five with 16 laps remaining, but we lost some track position when another car and the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet got together and knocked me out of the groove. We dropped to 10th with 10 laps to go. I couldn't believe that we had a car capable of probably finishing second and we were sitting in 10th. Nobody had anything for Bill Elliott and the No. 9 car but I think the Cingular car could have finished right behind him. We just couldn't get past a couple of cars when we needed to, although we were faster than they were.

But the field got bunched up again when the final caution came out on lap 154. The restart was given with four laps remaining and we cinched our belts for the big shootout. The Brickyard not only is a high-paying race where every position counts, but it's one of the races that we drivers really, really dream of winning. If you can't win, you definitely want to say you finished in the top five at Indy. We had to try to make up as many spots as possible in the closing laps and concentrated on passing one car at a time. I got around two of them and took home an eighth-place finish.

I was really proud of all my Cingular guys at Indy. That's the hottest weather we've had for a Winston Cup race in at least the past couple of years. The guys stuck out the heat and kept giving me great pit stops. That's another top-10 finish for this team. I'm extremely proud of everyone at RCR because we have turned this program around. It's too bad we weren't this strong at the beginning of the season because we'd be running for the top 10 in points easily.

As much as we hated not to win at Indy, we didn't let it get us down. We know we've probably got a good shot at Victory Lane this weekend at Watkins Glen. We were very close to winning last year -- we had the field absolutely covered -- when the telemetry box blew up inside the No. 31 car. What a nightmare that was for me. It just didn't seem fair when our car was that good. Why can't stuff like that happen when the car is running near the back?

At one point in the race last year, I let Jeff Gordon go by us just to see how good our car was and to see if he was stronger anywhere on the track than we were. I wanted to have that information so we could tune on the No. 31 car on the last pit stop if necessary to be the fastest at end of the race. But we drove right by Jeff and he went on to win the race, so I think that said something about the potential of our car. We were the fastest car on the track.

	Robby Gordon is hoping to avoid the bizarre bad luck at The Glen.

We had just pitted and I looked over in the car and saw smoke coming from the right side of the cockpit, up against the roll bar. At first, I thought we had knocked the fenders in on the pit stop and they were just rubbing against the tires. But then I started going around the track and realized we were on fire inside the car. The guys pushed the car behind the wall and the telemetry box kept blowing up and wouldn't quit burning up. It was absolutely unbelievable. I just couldn't grasp what was happening because it seemed so outrageous.

That was one of the most disappointing moments in my racing career. The only worse memory I've got is when I was leading the 1999 Indy 500 and ran out of fuel on the next-to-the last lap. They were both heartbreaking because I knew I had the field covered and then something crazy, unexpected and disastrous took us out of contention. I won't say that we were definitely going to win at The Glen but we definitely would have given Jeff a heck of a run for his money the last 30 laps.

I think I've written the book on how to successfully lose a race that you had in the bag at Watkins Glen. It's been very unfortunate because we've been strong at The Glen every year I've raced there and should have won about three or four times now. But we've just had some bad luck. In 2000, we were the fastest car there, too, but qualifying was rained out and I had to start dead-last. We still finished fourth. Everyone knows what happened to the No. 31 team last year. I just couldn't believe it when that telemetry box blew up -- it's like, 'what next?'

I'm really looking forward to going back to Watkins Glen with the Cingular Wireless team. I love racing at The Glen. Road courses have always been my favorite type of track and I guess that goes back to my days of road racing in IMSA and CART. We had such an awesome car last year and I've had a lot of success on the track. With the program we've got in place this year at RCR and all the preparation the guys have done, I think we'll go back and be even stronger this time. The most important thing is that we eliminate the chance of any problems occurring -- but that doesn't include explosive telemetry boxes with minds of their own.

I think my ankles will be OK by the time we get to Watkins Glen. The swelling is almost down. They didn't hurt me in the car at Pocono or Indianapolis. They just hurt to walk on. I've tried to stay off my feet as much as possible the past week or so, so I think I'll be okay by next week. It hurts more to walk than it does to use the throttle and the brake pedals, so I should be fine to wheel the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet around The Glen. Hopefully I can still walk around Victory Lane when the race is over.

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.