A busy weekend for Robby Gordon.
05/17/2004
The results: 19th in Busch, 18th for Indy and 24th 3 laps down for Cup.
Rain rain go away! Robby had to hurry up and get the Indy car qualified on Saturday afternoon and then head back to Richmond for the drivers Cup meeting. The Indy qualifying was delayed a few hours by rain, he had to take a not so good qualifying lap. He didn’t have time to waive off the lap and re-qualify. Robby was in a time crunch, he had to get on the helicopter and the plane back to Richmond VA for the Cup drivers meeting. If he missed the Cup meeting he would have been starting from the back instead of from 6th.
Well, the best laid plans got shot to hell on the opening laps of the Cup race. I don’t know how, but he had a tire blow out at the start and ended up in the back after the pit stops to fix the fender and the tires. I just put my head down on the bar table, I knew it was going to be a long race. A few more laps into the race and a second tire went down. It was a rough day at Richmond for Robby, he had to fight his way back through the pack. He did get on lucky dog lap back but there was no way he was going to make it back into the top 10. He took a big hit in the points race, he was 420 back going into to the race and now it stands at 519 back. The magic number for the shoot out is 400 points back from the leaders. Robby has a couple of days off, no Indy or Cup activity. The next Cup race is the All Star Challenge, no points involved in that one. We have to wait until Memorial Day weekend for the Coca-Cola 600 to see if we can get back into the points race.
I was watching the race at the Warehouse on Saturday night. Cranky and I headed over there because it was on FX and I no longer have cable. We got settled in after a bit of confusion about what screen they were showing the race on. We watched it on the big screen, it was just the two of us watching the race until this guy head over. He was a bit drunk, he was a bit full of himself and thank goodness Cranky was there or I would have taken his head off. It just happens, I try to ignore it but, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I patiently ignored all his pitter patter about racing. He thought he was the expert. He was trying to tell me how racing works. He went to his first race this spring at TMS thanks to his employer. He had on his racing t-shirt, a racing cap and he just though he was the man. One line I recall: “It’s like watching the stock market, betting on racing.” He headed over to the bar and Cranky calmly said: How do you put up with that crap? I reminded her it happens often. I don’t want to get into a silly bar spat over racing. It is funny, when I sit at the bar, the beer tender knows I am a huge race fan and runs interference. I just didn’t want to go there Saturday night…… but please, if you don’t know what you’re talking about Hush Up!
Jr. won the race so I am sure D. was happy yesterday, he got to see his driver get a win. JW was at the track also, I don’t think he is a Jr. fan. It was a good race even if my driver didn’t have a shot. The new pavement was quick, there were two grooves for the race and the lead kept changing. I was a typical short track race, the cars were showing doughnuts from contact early in the race and kept getting more as the night progressed. Tony Stewart is in hot water again, he bumped into Jeff Gordon and Jeff was pissed.
Sunday, with no racing I took a slacker day. I went to church in the morning but that was about it for the day. Had a friend T. stop by the house later in the evening but just watched a video and read a book most of the day.
