IRL: Indy500: Robby Gordon; Back Home Again

Rain is falling in Indy at present, so Robby has decided to throw out a few words describing his first two days at Indy...

"I guess since the prospect of actually coming back to Indy didn't hit me until last weekend I didn't have much time to think about how it would effect me. All I've done is react the last couple of days and pull together the things I needed to get here. I grabbed my helmet from last season, my uniform from this season, a gas card and some clothes. Basically, John Menard's providing the rest. I'm just here to race.

It probably hit me the most when I drove up to the Speedway. That always gets me, it did last year and it probably will every year I come back. The goosebumps start to show up as the grandstands get closer. I showed up Sunday and spent most of the day on the sidelines watching. Tom Knapp had me scheduled to drive during happy hour for only a few minutes just to get comfortable again with an Indy car. I didn't really get up to speed, we weren't close to 200mph, but it was a good taste to get reacquainted with the car.

What are the differences? The first is the speed. Obviously we're going quite a bit faster than the Cup cars and with much different handling. Yesterday I ran 50 laps in the early part of the afternoon and it took every bit of 40 of them to get totally back in the groove. You have to adjust you're thinking and go back into Indy car setup. We're not taking wedge out here, the chassis isn't rolling like a Cup car, etc.

But I feel comfortable now. At the end of the day yesterday we went out and ran a qualifying setup which put up the 223mph lap. A lot of people have been asking me if that's as fast we'll see this week and I honestly can't say. We were dialed in, but you just might see more - who knows. As for qualifying, nobody can say until we know more about the weather and how hot or cold it will be.

I can say that I'm having fun though. John's put together a great car for me, hopefully we can keep getting faster and take a shot at the pole Saturday."