CART: Team Gordon Qualifying Notes, Saturday
2 May 1999
Robby Gordon#22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-Reynard
Qualifying Notes/Quotes Saturday, May 1, 1999
BOSCH SPARK PLUG GRAND PRIX OF NAZARETH PRESENTED BY TOYOTA
Round 4 of 20 in the CART FedEx Championship Series
At Nazareth Speedway Nazareth, Pa..
Team Gordon continued to struggle this weekend, posting a time of 20.895 seconds (an average of 162.986 mph) around the 0.946 mile Nazareth Speedway oval and placing Robby Gordon 24th in the field for Sunday's Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix Presented by Toyota. Gordon's second lap of qualifying was significantly better than his first, garnering for the second time this season the Bud Accelerator Award, which rewards the driver with the best improvement from his first to second lap. It was little consolation, but a welcome $1,000, regardless. Reasons for the lack of speed have been consistent throughout practice, and now qualifying - no grip, which comes as no surprise to anyone with the advent of the new speedway wing package requirement. It's been a matter of finding a comfort zone in the car for Gordon, and that has been very elusive. Practice resumes Sunday morning at 9 a.m., with the green flag for the race dropping at 12:30 p.m. EDT. It will be broadcast live on ESPN.
ROBBY GORDON - "We're a little behind, aren't we? I actually felt like the car was pretty good this morning. We made gains from yesterday and I thought we might have something more for qualifying. We decided to make a few changes, but they just didn't pan out. The car ended up with a big push on the opening lap, so I took it a little more conservative than I would have liked to on the second. But hey, it was good for a thousand bucks! We just need to try and have a good race. I'm not going to hide anything. We're off - but you never know. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!
MIKE HELD (Co-Owner) "We're a day behind. Friday was a wash for us and that's tough to recover from in this sport. We look forward to race day, that's all. I still think we can manage some points here if Robby keeps his nose clean. We're down, but we're not dead."
KENNY ANDERSON (Race Engineer) "The car was better today than it was yesterday. Friday we were searching for chapters when we should have been thumbing through pages. We made a little mistake with the setup in qualifying. Robby said the car ended up with a push, but those things happen. We'll just prepare for the race and move forward."
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