Gordon

The No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet normally runs well on flat tracks like Phoenix. However, last weekend was anything but typical for us. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was disappointed in the Cingular team's finish Sunday because we had qualified so well. We started ninth, but struggled with the set-up on the car from the time the green flag waved.

We fought loose conditions at the beginning of the race even though the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet was running well. Our times were right on the mark, but the corners were holding us back a bit. But we were able to make up for it on the straightaways. We pitted under caution on lap 29 and my crew chief Kevin Hamlin made a great call to take just two tires, fuel and make air pressure adjustments to tighten the car up a little bit. We came in 12th and went out second, thanks to great pit strategy and fast work by the Cingular crew.

We ended up with great track position, but the car didn't perform well on two tires. While the idea worked for some teams, it didn't for us. We ended up falling back to 26th by lap 93. I tried to drive the high and low line to see which would give us better lap times but I just couldn't find a groove where the Cingular car would be consistently competitive. At times we ran as quickly as the leaders, but at other times we were a couple tenths of a second off their pace.

The caution came out on lap 135 and Hamlin gave me four fresh tires, fuel and made some chassis adjustments that made the Cingular car handle much better. Finding the right groove was still difficult and while we battled the rest of the race to gain track position, we crossed the finish line 27th.

A top-10 would have been nice, especially on a track where we normally do very well, but we'll take our notes and learn from the experience.

I am very excited about the last race of the season at Homestead. I didn't get to compete at Homstead-Miami Speedway in last year's event because I was participating in the Tecate/SCORE Baja 1000 out in Baja California, Mexico. Although this will be my first Winston Cup race there, I have raced in CART at Homestead and finished third. It was a totally different track then -- kind of like a mini-Indianapolis. I have never raced at Homestead without it being a distinct four-turn track because it was re-configured since I last raced there.

I think Homestead is very similar to Phoenix. Like I said, though, we usually run really well on those flat tracks. Hopefully we just had an off-day last Sunday and things will turn around for the Cingular team this weekend.

These last few weeks have been very busy because I have been getting ready and testing for the Tecate/SCORE Baja 1000. My pre-run test last week went pretty well. I had a problem with a distributor the first day and had to have one brought out to Baja. After that, the pre-run went flawlessly.

We ran about 600 miles on the lower portion of the course, which was amazingly fast. I'm testing Monday and Tuesday of this week on the upper portion of the course. I think it will be a really exciting race and you can follow along with me on Nov. 21 by logging onto SCORE's web site at www.score-international.com.

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.