After finishing second at Watkins Glen in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series race, Robby Gordon was determined to visit victory lane during Sunday's Nextel Cup race, the AMD at the Glen.
Starting from the sixth position on Sunday, one better than his qualifying position for Saturday's race, Gordon was confident that was all he needed.
When the first caution flag flew on lap 5, Gordon was shown in the fifth position. Battling a loose car, Gordon continued to hold his place within the top five until the first round of green flag stops came on lap 20. Following an air pressure adjustment and one turn down on the track bar, Gordon was set to pick off the others one-by-one. The adjustment seemed to have corrected Gordon's woes as he posted the fastest lap of the race on lap 24.
By lap 32 Gordon was battling with Jeff Gordon for second position as the caution came out once again on lap 33. A flurry of cautions and restarts followed until Gordon once again headed to pit road on lap 55 in second place. With some cars taking two tyres or fuel only during their stops, Gordon had to fight his way back to the front from the 18th position.
As leader Kevin Harvick crossed the finish line to begin lap 78 of 90, Gordon was not far behind in fourth. With his brakes lacking the stopping power needed to make a final charge to the front, Gordon spent the final laps relentlessly harassing Jamie McMurray for third place, narrowly failing to take the place but still scoring his best result since last year's outing at the famous 2.45-mile road course.
“I thought we had a shot at this one,” said Gordon. “We had a great car during the race but just didn't have it there at the end to catch (Kevin) Harvick and the other guys.
“DEI have been doing us a good job on our engines,” he continued. “I know they went a little conservative with our motor, because they thought if they gave me something that ran all day, we could win the deal. It wasn't the case. We just got yarded on the straightaways.
“I had an opportunity to move Jamie (McMurray) out of the way and get a podium finish, but he raced me pretty clean yesterday and thought I would return the favour. It turned out to be a great points day for us though. We closed the gap between us and the 20th spot in points and hopefully continue to do that week-in-and-week-out.”
The result gained Gordon one place in the standings to 26th place less than 200 markers out of the top 20.
