Robby gordon Charlotte qualifying

With the close of qualifying Thursday in Charlotte, Robby Gordon locked in a starting position for this weekend's second half of his two-race Sunday, May 28th schedule. Gordon will start 42nd in the Coca Cola 600 field, taking a provisional starting spot after posting a time of 999999 which was the 40th best time of the 48 cars entered.

Gordon's path the last 24 hours has included a full day of practice at the Charlotte Motor Speedway; a late night private flight to Indianapolis; practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; another private flight; more practice today in his Turtle Wax/Burger King Ford Taurus; and finally, an opportunity to rest.

ROBBY GORDON:
"I have this insane schedule on my wall. You have to know Richard Buck I guess, but this schedule is down to the minute. Be here, be there, drive this, fly that, you name it. I'm not known for being the most on-time person in the world, but I have to be this week! Anyway, there's this brief little period in the middle where I get to rest. It's Friday! One line, one color and it's blank. Mostly blank that is. We're going to be down at John Boy & Billy's show tomorrow, but that's in the afternoon and that'll be a fun time. Tomorrow morning though, I promise all of you - I will not get out of bed until I want to! It's been all out the last two weeks, so tonight and tomorrow will be exactly what I need to gear up for the weekend."

"We knew this race would be tough for us, especially when it came to qualifying. This track is tough. We didn't get a chance to test here and we weren't able to run the Winston, so coming in we were behind the eight ball. But the important thing is we're in and we'll be ready to race on Sunday.

"Our lap last night seemed pretty good to me in the car. Why it wasn't faster than it was, I'm not exactly sure. Going into turn one I kept my foot into it deeper than any lap all day. Three and four? Seriously, I sucked it up through the bumps and thought the lap was decent. What I'm hoping is that maybe we have a little bit too much downforce and maybe that's a situation that can help us in the race."

BRYAN REFFNER:
"What I first noticed was the power, there's a lot more power than I have in the Truck Series. But more than that, this car turns. We plow through the air in the truck where as the Cup car gets in the corner and wants to turn. I had a good time though today. Getting the laps in and working with their crew was very worthwhile."

ROBBY GORDON on Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -
"Last night was a late night getting back to Indy. We arrived around midnight and woke up fairly early to shakedown the Indy car. Carb day is really nothing short of a systems check. All systems were a go for us. We had one minor glitch, which actually could have been a major glitch had we not taken the time to find out it was there. The o-ring on the fuel buckeye had a leak. It's a 10 cent problem that can ruin a very important day. Trust me, it ruined my day in 1997. But the team fixed it, brought the car out for pit stop practice, did some re-fueling runs and we're in great shape now. Other than that we ran through a few downforce setups and made sure the car was ready to go.

"I'm just looking forward to being in position the last 50 laps. In fact, you put me anywhere on the lead lap with 50 to go and I'll be happy and ready to race. That's what was so heart-breaking about last year. There are a million things that can work against you in the 500 that aren't necessarily even in your control. Your preparation and your luck have to be spot-on. Then that last pit stop you pull the wickers and "get it on" to see who can hold on and who wants it the most."