Robby Gordon 7th, Ryan Newman wins.
07/14/2003
Not a bad day when he started from the back of the pack. I watched part of qualifying on Friday Evening, and Robby’s car was way off. He ends the weekend 15th in points.
It was an exciting race, the were a bunch of cautions so fuel should not have played into the strategy but Kevin Harvick ran out of fuel, three laps to go. Kevin was looking to win for the 3rd straight time at the Chicagoland track. No luck for him. Lap 208Dale Earnhardt’s car got real loose and he ended up backed into the wall. Out of the race. Lap 215 and Bobby Labonte was in a hard fire filled crash. He managed to get out of the car but it seemed delayed from the safety equipment and radio line.
My thoughts: Why don’t they have break away cables on the radio cords. It seems like this was a factor in Dale Jarrett’s fire crash a few weeks ago. The drivers end up tethered to the cars. Not a good thing in a fire. Mike Helton made mention of roof hatches last week and I think we need to get those through R&D quicker.
Finishing order:
1. Ryan Newman
2. Tony Stewart
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Jeff Gordon
5. Michael Waltrip
6 Jeff Burton
7. ROBBY GORDON
8. Jamie McMurray
9. Elliot Sadler
10. Jeremy Mayfield
11. Bill Elliott
12. Matt Kenseth
13. Ricky Rudd
14. MARK MAERTIN
