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Tina Gordon Notes, Quotes: Delaware 200
09-20-04
by Richard Williams, Tina Gordon Racing
DOVER, Del. -- This weekend Tina Gordon and the #39 Yahoo! Ford team head to the tough one-mile, high-banked Dover (Del.) International Speedway this week for Saturday’s Delaware 200 NASCAR Busch Series race.
Gordon, 33, is a native of Cedar Bluff, Ala., and driver of the Yahoo!-sponsored Ford fielded by Jay Robinson Racing of Charlotte, N.C. Robinson is the first car owner in major league motorsports to have fielded full-time rides for different female drivers, the other being Tammy Jo Kirk the second half of last season. Gordon comes to the Yahoo! Ford team from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but also brings strong experience credentials from the weekly short tracks of Alabama, the same tracks that spawned racing legends such as Davey Allison, and helped build legends such as Bobby and Donnie Allison, Red Farmer and Neil Bonnett.
Microtel Inn and Suites, which has received the J.D. Power & Associates award for highest guest satisfaction the past two years, and, Vasarette, a top of the line lingerie manufacturer, have joined Jay Robinson Racing as associate sponsors on the #39 Yahoo! Ford.
Jay Robinson Racing, in its fourth season of operation, is one of the fastest-growing teams in NASCAR. Robinson, a Charlotte, N.C., native who is a successful businessman, founded the team as a high-value endeavor that offers high-end equipment and efforts, while proving to be one of the most cost-efficient teams in the sport. Robinson fields two sponsored cars fulltime on the Busch Series: the #39 Yahoo! Ford and the #49 Advil Ford, and runs a third car in many Busch Series events.
The thoughts of Yahoo! Ford driver Tina Gordon heading into Dover:
“Getting through the turns . . . getting through the turns . . . that’s all you are thinking about when it comes to getting around Dover. Those high banks and those sweeping turns make most of that track feel like one big turn. It feels closer to a circle than an oval inside the car, and you feel like you are constantly turning left.
“A great handling car is what you have to have. A good-handling car is passable but, since so much of that race track is turning left, you really have to be handling great to run well there.
“Obviously, a good engine package is important too. You need some horsepower to shoot down the straightaways and, even though the front and backstraights are banked, you have to be strong going down them. Because the banking is so steep in the corners, you go into (turn) one and (turn) three differently than you do at a lot of places. If I had to describe it, I’d say you slam into the first and third turns, but you do it with some finesse. That might sound ridiculous but you almost have to be in the car to fully understand it.
“You are in the turns so long at Dover that you are constantly trying to get through them. Like most tracks, the cars that spend the least amount of time in the turns, and the drivers who are able to get back on the gas the quickest, are the ones who do well there. That makes your chassis and handling vital. You slam in, go low, and then drive up out of the hole (at the bottom of the second and fourth turns) and practically go uphill to get to the straightaways.
“It’s almost like a road course for beginners, the type of thing you would build to get somebody used to the aggressive finesse and the uphill-downhill driving.
“Handling is going to be our major focus from the time we unload until after we qualify, through Happy Hour and on through the race Saturday. With good horsepower, we have to have a chassis that really works in the turns. How well I communicate with the race team and how well I’m able to let them know what the car needs will determine a lot of how well we are able to run throughout the weekend.
“We’ve had a weekend off and, while it was nice for just our family to spend a little time together, I’m ready to get going again. We think it could be a good Dover weekend for this Yahoo! Ford team.”
