Gordon

I know a good portion of the United States needs rain, but Mother Nature lately seems to take care of our drought problem at the track. Atlanta was the third of the last four races in which qualifying was cancelled due to rain. Not to mention the numerous rain delays or rain-shortened races we've endured lately. The No. 31 Cingular Wireless team has really missed the qualifying sessions because we've been strong in qualifying trim but have had to start based on owner points. Now we're headed to Rockingham, N.C., this weekend and I'll bet we'll see at least a little of the wet stuff there.

Last year, officials at Atlanta Motor Speedway re-scheduled Sunday's NAPA 500 from the final race of the season in hopes that the weather would be better in October, since October is supposed to be the driest month of the year in Atlanta. That solution didn't work too well. In fact, it rained all weekend and although we did get in an official race Sunday, each of the 248 of the scheduled 325 laps was run while raindrops fell.

The rain began as the race kicked off Sunday afternoon, but conditions were good enough for us to race. NASCAR kept in constant contact with the spotters and teams to make sure we were comfortable with the track conditions. Despite the rain, Team Cingular moved into 15th by lap 12, although the car was tight. We pitted on lap 21 for two tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to loosen up the car. A great pit stop by the Cingular crew gained me three spots and sent me back out in 12th. But soon the rain was pretty heavy and NASCAR threw the red flag after 26 completed laps.

There's nothing fun about rain delays because there's not much you can do. I sat on pit road with my Cingular guys for a while and then hung out with the America Online guys. Then I went to the hauler and we watched a little television. Almost two-and-a-half hours later, the rain had let up enough for us to go racing again. It was still sprinkling and it continued to sprinkle the rest of the race.

The Cingular Wireless Chevrolet soon moved into 10th, but the changing conditions wreaked havoc with the set-up and we fell to 18th by lap 85. Team Cingular made chassis adjustments during the next couple of pit stops but we really hit on something during a pit stop on lap 234. Our lap times were among the fastest on the track. But the rain got much heavier around lap 243 and NASCAR called the race after the completion of 248 laps. We crossed the finish line in 20th. Once again, the rain got us. I think we could have moved into the top-10 if we had gotten to run those last 75 laps. But you can't fight Mother Nature.

We've got three more chances to battle the weather and hope for the chance to qualify and finish the scheduled number of laps in the race. We're going to Rockingham this weekend with the same car I raced at Dover, Del., in September. At Rockingham in February, we had a top-10 run going with the Cingular car most of the day. We were going to finish about 15th at the end there but I got underneath Jimmie Johnson and got wrecked. I made some mistakes and I look forward to going back there and making up for them.

Rockingham is very hard on tires and that makes it a very rough track for the drivers. You can run only a few laps, maybe about 10, before the tires go away because they fall off so quickly. You can bet on everyone pitting every caution period to get new tires. It's up to us to figure out how to manage those tires by running on the top of the track instead of running on the bottom where tires get eaten up faster. The car slides all over the place when the tires go away. There is no grip left and you have to be smooth with the throttle and smooth getting into the corners to try to make up for it and keep from wrecking.

Running the top of the track keeps the tires more manageable. You've got to show a lot of patience at Rockingham and save the car and tires as much as possible. If we have the car to win at the end, we'll go for it when the time comes. If we don't, we'll do our best to keep the Cingular car in one piece.

I'm going to Mexico next Monday after the Rockingham race to pre-run the course for the Baja. I'm racing in the Trophy Truck class of the Baja the week after Homestead, Fla. The track is so long and it's not a normal track like Atlanta or Rockingham, where you can go out there, run a couple of laps and be familiar with the track. So, we pre-run the track before we even test our truck on it. The race is a grueling, 1,000 miles and every corner is different. We don't pre-run in our race truck, but in another vehicle. We'll go down there and do track reconnaissance and take pace notes. We go back the following week and check our paces notes. I'm driving the Baja solo, but I have Gregg Till for my navigator. Having those notes makes it a lot safer for me and all the drivers. We know where every corner is and what's coming up on the track next. It's a lot like the World Rally race you see on television where the co-driver reads off course notes to the driver.

There is a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean lurking around the area of the Baja race right now. Hurricanes or floods normally mess up the course a little because we're racing on dirt. Hurricanes or floods make cross-grain ruts that we have to be careful with. That's where the water runs across the road and makes a wash-out on the road. You have to be extremely careful in those situations. If we pre-run the course there and the hurricane hits the next week, it would make the course more challenging for us and we'd have to be on our toes. At that point, our notes aren't as good for us and we have to drive by the seat of our pants a little. Heavy rain from a hurricane would change the topography of the desert. If you understand the topography of the desert, your eye could see the ground and you can see where you're going to cross over or wash-out on the track. But you've also got to be careful about hitting big water holes, too. A hurricane would just make my job a lot harder for 18 or so hours.

I definitely have a full plate the next few weeks but I really wish there were a few more weeks on the Winston Cup schedule. Well, I don't mean I wish the schedule were longer -- I just wish that we weren't as far through it as we are. I'd like the opportunity to re-do a couple of the races that we've had lately. We were making some strides in the points for a while there but we've had some bad luck recently between other people's mistakes and bad weather. Hopefully we can turn that around this weekend at Rockingham and gain a couple of positions before the year is over.

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