Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date:                Pocono 500/June 8, 2002

Venue:    Pocono (Pa.) Raceway

Robby Gordon’s NASCAR Winston Cup Performance History at Pocono Raceway

                                                                                                      Laps Completed/

Date                        Start                        Finish                     Total Laps                       Status                     Money

7/28/02                   27                            25                            174/175                                   Running                 $67,171

6/9/02                     26                                  19                            199/200                                   Running                   68,371

7/29/01                   36                            28                            198/200                                   Running                  64,414

6/20/97                   30                            42                            0/200                                       Engine                    17,450

TOTALS      Avg. Start: 29.75      Avg. Finish: 28.5                  Laps: 571/775              Money: $217,406

NASCAR Winston Cup Points Position: 10^th

NOTES:

• This Week’s Race Car (chassis No. 99) was last run in the Coca-Cola 600 and The Winston.  Gordon also raced it to a fourth-place finish at Richmond after coming back from three laps down early in the event.   He also raced it at Darlington.
• This race was Gordon and crew chief Kevin Hamlin’s first race together in 2002
• The Pocono 500 will be broadcast live on FOX and MRN on Sunday, June 8, at 1 p.m. ET.  Qualifying is scheduled for Friday, June 6 at 3:05 p.m. ET.

ROBBY GORDON QUOTES:

“I like Pocono but unfortunately, we’ve not had good results there with the Cingular team. I’ve always thought Pocono is similar to a road course but we’ve always struggled there a bit late in the race.  I expected my road course experience to help me at Pocono but that just hasn’t materialized yet.  We get ourselves in the top 10 during the race but can’t pull it out in the end.  We’re going to work hard this week and see if we can learn from our past mistakes. 

“I think Pocono is going to be a good weekend for the Cingular Wireless team because we get stronger and more competitive each week.  We have battled back hard the past two months to break into the top 10 in points.  If we can build on these recent experiences, we’ll be there at the end of the season and hopefully get to pull this Cingular car into Victory Lane. We’ve got a saying that you’ve got to position yourself to run up front.  Lately we’ve been doing that. We’ve been finishing in the top 10 or really close to it.  If you do that enough times, the door will open and you’ll find yourself in Victory Lane.

“I like the style of driving at Pocono because we shift gears so much there.  I enjoy shifting because of all the road racing and off-road racing I’ve done.  Shifting is almost more normal for me than not shifting like we’re used to in Winston Cup.  Pocono has three unique corners and you have to get through all turns really well in order to be strong.  If you’re capable of being good in only one turn, you want it to be turn three because it’s the last one going onto the long, front straightaway.

 “Turn three is a very flat, long, increasing radius turn.  It’s not a standard, 180-degree turn like we’re used to.  It’s a lot different and quite tricky but you’ve got to be good there because it leads to the frontstretch.  The frontstretch is a great place to pass other cars before going into turn one.  There’s more opportunity to pass on the Pocono frontstretch than at most other tracks.”