NASCAR WCUP: Daytona Wednesday Practice Notes, Robby Gordon
16 February 2000
Robby Gordon #13 Duracell Ultra/Turtle Wax/Woody Woodpecker Ford Taurus Team Gordon Practice Notes/Quotes Wednesday, February 16, 2000 DAYTONA 500 - Round 1 of 34 in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Daytona International Speedway - Daytona Beach, FL For the third consecutive day, Robby Gordon's #13 Ford Taurus improved its time and position as it readies itself for Thursday's 125 qualifying races. Monday, Gordon was 18th; Tuesday, 10th; and today, Gordon ran seventh-fastest in what turned out to be a wild session. It ended with an altercation involving Tony Stewart in which Gordon's Taurus was tapped from behind and spun around on the backstraight. Gordon's car spun repeatedly on the grass, hopping the infield road course turn-in, before finally straightening itself inside of Turn Three. The car's damage was determined to be fixable and limited only to the rear quarter panel. Quotes ROBBY GORDON "We've got a pretty good race car here. In the draft, we're hooked up. I'm really impressed with how far we've come since this car rolled off the truck. I know a lot can happen in a race, but I'm comfortable with the Taurus in just about any spot on the track. We ran high, low, in traffic, side-by-side, and by ourselves. I guess I'm most pleased with the way the car is pulling as we run alone. And, in traffic, my race car right now is very good. My guys have prepared a great race car." On the incident with Tony Stewart - "People want to make a big deal out this, but it was really nothing more than two guys working hard to make their cars better for the 125s. I passed Tony on the outside and my spotter said I was clear. I may have made a mistake in waiting a bit too long to move down. The way the draft works here, the instant you pass someone and they get into your air, they get tugged along. I certainly didn't run Tony into the grass. Hey, regardless, I paid for it. In this sport, the person who's tapped goes for a ride. I'm here to tell you - I went for a ride! After the incident, I went over to talk to Tony and he was obviously hot about it. I guess I was a little bit hot, too. But I just wanted to talk about it. Maybe it was too soon after the fact to have a discussion for him. Right now, though, Tony and I are fine. We (Tony and I) had a discussion during Busch qualifying and ironed everything out. Fortunately for both of us, neither of our cars was injured beyond repair. Just one of those racing incidents, I guess." MIKE HELD (Co-owner) "Quite a day I might say. We have been working all week to get our car in order for the twin 125s. We have progressed each day with Robby and the guys feeling very comfortable with the race car. I don't want to say much about the Tony Stewart incident other than it was unfortunate for both teams. Right now, the only thing I'm happy about is the fact that our car isn't in bad shape. According to Fred and the guys, we can fix the rear quarter panel damage, and nothing else was hurt."