Texas II: Robby Gordon qualifying report

Robby Gordon to Start Ninth at Texas Motor Speedway

Ft. Worth, Texas (Nov. 3, 2006) -- Friday's qualifying lap at Texas Motor Speedway was further evidence of the progress that the Robby Gordon Motorsports team has made in its intermediate track program, typically a style of track that can give even the most experienced teams trouble.

Robby Gordon's lap of 193.126 mph (27.961 seconds) clocked in as the ninth fastest of the session, which included 50 cars attempting to qualify for the 43-car field. Gordon was one of only a few that actually ran faster on his second of two qualifying laps after getting loose and running a still-respectable lap of 28.080 seconds, which put him 17th at the time.

"We were real loose going through turns one and two on the first lap," Gordon said. "If I could have held my breath just a little bit longer on lap two maybe we could have gotten even a bit more out of it. In all seriousness, we are real happy with our efforts on the mile-and-a-half tracks, and it shows the hard work our team has been putting into this type of track. In our short two-year history we have always been somewhat respectable on these fast tracks, but with the competitiveness of the series it takes a lot of effort and engineering to move up the ladder.

"What we have gained on these types of tracks this year will apply to our mile-and-a-half and two-mile programs for next year. It seems that we always race good on these tracks, and if we can continue to qualify well here it will be a huge gain for the entire program."

Brian Vickers captured the pole for Sunday's Dickies 500 with a speed of 196.235. Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five. Denny Hamlin, David Gilliland and Tony Stewart qualified sixth through eighth, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will share the fifth row with Gordon by qualifying 10th.

-credit: team gordon