Gordon begins wild ride
Indianapolis 500 hopeful Robby Gordon was forced cut his recovery time short on Tuesday at Indy to travel to Charlotte for a NASCAR Nextel Cup test at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which leaves him just nine hours of practice time before Saturday's pole qualifying for the Indy 500
Gordon's wild travels are just beginning. His fourth attempt at the Indy/Charlotte double, which take place on the same day, are further complicated by this weekend's Busch/Cup doubleheader at Richmond International Raceway. After Wednesday's practice session at Indy, Gordon will travel to Richmond, where he will remain through Friday night's Busch race.
On Saturday, Gordon will be back in Indy, attempting to qualify the primary car that was damaged Monday in a crash. After qualifying, he'll fly back to Richmond for the Cup race that evening. If he doesn't get in the Indy 500 field Saturday, Gordon will return to Indy for Sunday's second day of qualifying.
On Tuesday, Gordon shook down the spare Robby Gordon Motorsports Chevrolet-powered Dallara, topping out at 214.149mph. His crew, led by veteran Indy engineer Thomas Knapp, is awaiting suspension parts to replace those damaged in the crash.
Since Gordon won't be able to attend practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, his return to the primary car will have to wait until a two-hour practice session Saturday morning.
"We're just getting started with this [spare] car," said Gordon before leaving Indianapolis. "We have more work to do in terms of chassis set-up. On the primary car, some left-side suspension pieces we want won't be here for a couple of days, but we'll have both cars ready to go on Saturday."
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