CART: Team Gordon Digs In for the Long Haul at the U.S. 500 Endurance Test
21 July 1999
BROOKLYN, Mich. (July 21, 1999) – After a block of four road course
races that netted a pair of top-10 finishes, Robby Gordon and his
first-year Team Gordon are ready to stretch their legs and test their
endurance mettle in this weekend’s U.S. 500, presented by Toyota, at the
2-mile Michigan International Raceway high-banked oval.
Gordon and his #22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-powered
Swift have developed a penchant of late for being at their best on race
days. In recent weeks, they picked up 15 places from where they started
for ninth- and eighth-place finishes at Cleveland and Road America,
respectively. And they gained another nine spots Sunday afternoon in
Toronto, where they just missed their third-consecutive run in the
points.
Heady strategy, on top of the Team Gordon crew giving its
30-year-old owner-driver a reliable race car week in and week out, gets
a good deal of the credit for the developing steady stream of positive
results.
“One of the virtues that has really shown us the way here is
patience,” Gordon said. “The more we have, the better we seem to do.
One place patience really pays off is in calling races on Sunday. We’ve
gotten good at taking what the race gives us and making the most out of
it. It really sends you home on a high note. It gives you something to
build your next race on.”
The major calming influence in the Team Gordon camp, Gordon says, is
the presence of co-owner John Menard, who with Gordon and Mike Held
established Team Gordon this past offseason. Gordon learned a major
lesson in patience at the Indy 500 last May, when he and Menard first
worked together as driver and race caller and came within a gallon of
methanol of walking away with the Borg-Warner Trophy.
“That race was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been a part
of,” Gordon said. “We started out with a not-so-great race car, but
John kept us patient and focused. We worked and worked the car to where
we ended up being the fastest car on the track. Between John and Mike
and the crew from TRD in our pit tent, we do a good job of working the
race to our advantage.”
As is the case at every U.S. 500, patience will once again be the
key, only this one is an endurance test more than twice as long as the
typical CART FedEx Championship Series event. While this past Indy 500
was by far his best 500-mile race in his seven-plus seasons driving
open-wheel race cars, he’s fared well at Michigan – and at its sister
track in Fontana, Calif. – over the years, as well.
“It’s all about being there at the end,” said Gordon, who was ninth
in a Toyota at the California Speedway last fall, eighth the previous
year there, and eighth at Michigan in 1996. “You plan the race
backwards from there. You want to start well, and run up front, but it
all comes down to who’s running at the finish. There are a lot of
factors that will come into play, not the least of which is drafting and
playing the fuel windows. I enjoy these kinds of races.”
Practice for the U.S. 500, presented by Toyota, Round 12 of 20 on
this year’s CART FedEx Championship Series, begins Friday (July 23) with
qualifying set for Saturday (July 24). The green flag falls Sunday
(July 24) at 1:30 p.m. EDT with a live broadcast set for ABC-TV.
Editors Note: For hundreds of hot racing photos and racing art, be sure to visit The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.