Gordon Has the Horsepower

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —  Robby Gordon, whose racing career has taken more turns and bumps than any Baja off-road course he has driven, is back on top again, for a day at least.

The new driver of Larry McClure’s yellow No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet, Gordon had a lap of 182.282 mph around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile tri-oval to lead all Winston Cup drivers during Friday’s final day of practice for today’s Daytona 500 front-row qualifying.

“One thing we missed last year running our own team was horsepower, and Larry knows horsepower,” said the 33-year-old driver from Orange who has bounced around driving CART, IMSA GT, Trans Am as well as several forays into Winston Cup. “He knows how to win here, he’s won three times at this place with two different drivers [Ernie Irvan in 1991 and Sterling Marlin in 1994 and 1995].

“If we put together what we had last year, and combine it with his horsepower, we ought to have a solid combination.”

Gordon left open-wheel racing after the 1999 season--in which he suffered a disappointing loss at the Indianapolis 500 when his car ran out of fuel while leading near the end of the race--to return to NASCAR for the third time.

Gordon, along with Mike Held and John Menard, started their own team last year and took chase after the big-bucks operations of Joe Gibbs, Robert Yates, Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress.

It was too much to ask. Gordon made the field in only 17 races, with his best finish a fourth on the road course at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

“All it took for me to change was to have a look at Larry’s engine shop,” Gordon said. “To see the effort his team put in their program was enough for me to make up my mind right there that I wanted to race his cars.

“We were really short on horsepower last year. I learned one thing. If you’re going to race Winston Cup, you’d better not be leasing engines from anybody. It’s all about cubic dollars. But if I had a race program and I was going to lease an engine to a competitor, do you think he’s going to get the same engine I’ve got? I can guarantee you that if I was Robert Yates, I would not give Robby Gordon the same thing I race.”

Gordon was quick to point out that Friday’s lap times would have little bearing on what the Winston Cup cars will turn today.

“We had a clean lap, with no drafting help, but you know some of those guys have a lot left. We came here with our qualifying engine in the car, and that’s what we’ve been running. Some of those teams, especially the Fords, will put new engines in their car before qualifying.

“If we can make the top five, we’ll be happy. Anything better than that will be a bonus.”

The two fastest qualifiers are automatically assured a front-row berth in the Feb. 18 race. The rest of the entries will be split into two sections and each will run a 125-mile qualifying heat Thursday to determine their starting positions.

Dodge, which is returning to Winston Cup racing after 17 years, surprisingly had rookie Stacy Compton and the veteran Marlin, now driving for Chip Ganassi’s new team, in the top 10. Compton was fourth quickest at 181.998 mph, and Marlin came home at 181.521.

Fords, which dominated preseason testing and posted such high speeds as 187.719 by Rusty Wallace, 187.496 by Las Vegas rookie Kurt Busch and 187.332 by defending 500 winner Dale Jarrett two weeks ago, were paced Friday by Brett Bodine’s 182.057.

Another rookie, Ron Hornaday, was the fastest Pontiac at 181.032, and although that was only 13th fastest he said he feels he has a shot at the pole today in A.J. Foyt’s Conseco Pontiac.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Daytona 500

All events take place at the Daytona International Speedway:

* Today: Qualifying, 10 a.m.

* Sunday: Bud Shootout, 11 a.m.

* Feb. 17: Busch Series, 9:30 a.m.

* Feb. 18: Daytona 500, 10 a.m.

* TV: Channel 11 will broadcast all four events.