Bristol II: Robby Gordon qualifying report

Robby Gordon Qualifies 42nd at the Glen BRISTOL, TENN. (August 25, 2006) -- Robby Gordon and the Jim Beam Chevrolet will have a battle on their hands Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after posting a disappointing lap of ...

Robby Gordon Qualifies 42nd at the Glen

BRISTOL, TENN. (August 25, 2006) -- Robby Gordon and the Jim Beam Chevrolet will have a battle on their hands Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after posting a disappointing lap of 15.807 seconds (121.389 mph). The time was only good enough for the 42nd starting position at the demanding .533-mile short track.

"Starting at the back is always tough at Bristol because if you get a quick caution and have a single-file restart the leader is right in your mirror," Gordon said. "Despite where we'll start, we have a good car but the challenge will be the traffic we have to deal with. We're going to have to go from the start and try to put as many cars between us and the leader as possible. If we go a lap down we won't panic and will work out way back onto the lead lap either the hard way (passing the leader under green-flag conditions) or through the lucky dog.

"We were tight in practice, but were still able to post a top-15 run. We made a slight adjustment to help free up the car and it's amazing that small change put us that far back. It's going to be tough tomorrow night fighting our way to the front, but we'll start from there and see what happens."