Robby Gordon 30th at Texas Motor Speedway
FORT WORTH, TX - Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway turned out to be one of the more frustrating days of the 2008 season for No. 7 Jim Beam Dodge driver Robby Gordon.
Gordon battled handling conditions throughout the 339-lap race. Those problems caused his Dodge to scrape against the walls of the 1.5-mile track several times before finishing 30th.
The finish moves Gordon to 28th in the 2008 driver points standings.
“We struggled today,” Gordon said. “We just couldn’t get the handling down on our Jim Beam Dodge. We have a lot of work to do. At times we weren’t too bad and at times we weren’t very good.”
Robby Gordon Motorsports started Sunday’s race with high hopes after qualifying 15th on Friday. But practice and qualifying in cooler temperatures were far different than the near 80-degree temperatures on Sunday.
Gordon backpedaled as soon as the green flag fell, brushing the wall for the first time just laps into the race. But, he started to find the handle about 50 laps in to the race.
Gordon’s lap times were equal to the leader, and he started passing cars climbing to about 21st.
But another brush with the wall slowed Gordon’s pace and he fell down a lap to leader Jimmie Johnson at lap 80.
“We are very, very tight,” Gordon told his crew over the team radio.
Adjustments made the problem worse and Gordon’s handling issues proved impossible to overcome as he scraped the wall several more times.
He fell down a second lap to the leaders on lap 163 and eventually ended the race five laps behind race winner Carl Edwards.
Gordon and the Sprint Cup Series return to action Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway.
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