Chevy Notes-B'Fast Club-R.Gordon

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
TROPICANA 400
CHICAGOLAND
JOLIET, ILL.
NO. 18 OF 36 EVENTS
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2002

HIGHLIGHTS OF WINSTON BREAKFAST CLUB PRESS CONFERENCE WITH ROBBY GORDON, NO.
31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO

ROBBY GORDON:  DRIVING FOR RCR, THINGS ARE BEGINNING TO GEL WITH THE 31 CAR?
"Things have been pretty good.  Our biggest thing seems to be our luck.
We¹ve put ourselves in a position to have good finishes, and either we make
a mistake, like at Sears Point last week, where I get into the dirt and lose
four positions... There¹s things that we have done as a team that has cost
us either a position to win or definitely some top-five positions.  And then
last weekend Kevin (Hamlin, crew chief) made a brilliant call in the pits
and because I was just a little bit tight we were just going to take fuel
and I pull out of my pit box and get run over.  We¹re just on the receiving
end of things right now and hopefully we can get beyond that and start
positioning ourselves where we can have some better luck."

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE SEASON?  "I think the team as a wholeŠthe
one-engine thing has caught us behind the 8-ball a little bit, and we
probably came out of the box a little too conservative.  Richard Childress
has been known in the past for reliability and we definitely have the
reliability.  I think ŒSpinny¹ (Clendenon) and those guys might have been
just a little bit conservative on the engine side Œcause they wanted to make
sure that it could run all of practice, run all of the simulated qualifying
runs and then make it for 500 mile races as well.  So, each week they¹ve
been bumping up a little more power.  Like this week we¹re starting to
qualify better and we¹re starting to run better every week.  So, I think
that the second half of the season is going to be a lot better for our team
because now we¹re going to start pushing the envelope just a little bit more
because we have had reliability and we just need that little extra."

YOU RACED AT INDY WITH NEW BARRIER UP, NEXT WEEK W.C. GOES TO NEW HAMPSHIRE,
WHICH IS WAITING TO PUT IN SOFT WALLS. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THAT BARRIER?
"As far as the barrierŠI have some very close experience with that because
of P.J. Jones. He was on our team at Team Menard at Indy and he got his car
turned around going into turn 1 and backed that thing into that barrier.
The speed he was going, the angle he hit that barrier at, it did flick him
back across the race track, but the g-load hit was not that big.  Another
thing to show how good it was (is) it didn¹t even break the gearbox on the
car.  And he backed it in.  It absorbed all that extra energy.  I think New
Hampshire is a place we need stuff like that.  I think that -- I hate to
step out of line and say this -- now they¹ve lowered the groove another
groove at New Hampshire which is only going to increase that angle at the
wall, because you¹re going to be lower on the race track and you¹re going to
head it at a steeper angle.  I like New Hampshire because obviously I got my
first Winston Cup win there.  I thought the race track was just fine."

AS A FORMER OWNER/DRIVER, IS IT PRACTICAL TO DO THAT?  "I think in some
situations it can be.  The key to the whole thing is having a sponsorship.
If you have sponsorship you can hire the correct personnel ­ team managers,
crew chiefs, engineers, etc.  And it¹s really those guys¹ job to run the
race team.  Because obviously they¹re a team manager or public relations or
whatever department they¹re in.  It¹s their job to make sure the whole thing
goes full circle.  Obviously someone has to sit on
top of it and make sure that everybody is going in their direction, but if
you hire the proper team managersŠ I¹m going to take Ty Norris for an
example.  He¹s the guy right now directing that (Dale Earnhardt Inc.), it
seems like.  We don¹t see Teresa (Earnhardt) around here every weekend.  So,
if you have the right people the team can perform and win races.  The whole
deal is obviously sponsorship and then people."

"If you look right now, Jeff Gordon supposedly owns part of the 48 car and
he¹s still able to drive the thing.  I think the key is having the right
people and obviously having sponsorship."

ON JOB DESCRIPTION:  "That¹s why I lost my crew chief.  He didn¹t want to
work under a job description."

RAY EVERNHAM¹S TEAM DID SOMETHING DIFFERENT.  THEY DON¹T HAVE A CREW CHIEF.
THEY HAVE A TEAM ENGINEER, ETC.  DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THAT?
"That¹s another reason I lost my crew chief.  I think I do understand where
Ray has taken his team, though.  And the direction with those people.  It
will be interesting to see if it works.  A couple of people have tried to do
that in the past.  I think originally Cal Wells came in and tried to do that
same thing and ended up hiring Mike Beam because he has the experience.  So,
there¹s a certain point of this deal where experience means a lot,
especially in this garage area.  These crew chiefs that have been doing it
for a long timeŠ I¹m standing on both sides of the fence here because I do
understand the Indy Car side and I understand the Winston Cup side now after
being around long enough.  In Winston Cup I gotta say that experience is
almost more important than book smarts. If you look at the team leading the
championship right now, I think it¹s pretty much run by a crew chief."

IF THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED ITSELF AND A SPONSOR CAME ALONG WOULD YOU
CONSIDER PUTTING TOGETHER A TEAM AGAIN?  "Why do you want to put me in these
positions?  I have a great sponsor, with a really good team owner.  I¹ve had
Indy Car teams; I don¹t think I want to own Indy Car teams.  We talked about
the fabrication expense.  For the amount of price we used to pay for some
parts on those Indy Cars and throw them away after one weekend it would
shock you guys.  You¹d throw $40,000 of transmission parts in the trashcan
every weekend.  I mean, done, you can¹t even use them again.  A-arms that my
Winston Cup guys could come pretty close to making in probably an afternoon
you¹d pay $5,000 for.  It was shocking, the cost of the parts on the Indy
Cars.  On the fabrication side, yes, we have to pay a lot of fabricators to
hang bodies.  It¹s very time consuming.  It¹s two weeks, three to four guys,
just working on bodies, if you want a nice one.  And then you¹re going to
take the thing to the wind tunnel, you¹re going to test the thing, you¹re
going to come back and cut some fenders off it and then say, OK, I think we
got it right now.  But the Indy Car side owning, that¹s not my gig.  John
Menard, he¹s a billionaire, he can own the Indy Cars.  I just look at
Winston Cup being a lot like off-road, because they¹re tube chassis and you
put tabs on them and mount stuff all over them and you make them go fast.
I¹m not going to rule out a Winston Cup deal, but it would have to be plenty
of money to have the right people in place, and I don¹t see that coming in
the near future.  I really enjoy working for Richard Childress Racing and we
have great sponsors, we have three great sponsors, where we all share
information, and the key to it is we have plenty of money to do that job."

ON COSTS:  "Things have changed obviously because of travel and we¹re going
to other markets which is on one side more expensive, on the other side more
opportunities to find sponsorship.  We come to places like Chicago, which is
a lot farther than driving to Rockingham or one of those other tracks that
are closer.  But on the other side of things that¹s good because we¹re
heading into new markets, into new places, where we¹re attracting new fans
and more fans which relates to more opportunity for sponsorship."