Insider's View: Robby Gordon

Winning the Indianapolis 500 is a lifelong dream. I'm getting the chance to do it again and for that, I have to thank my Winston Cup car owner, Richard Childress and my sponsor, Cingular Wireless for supporting my decision.

	Robby Gordon

Of course, I also have to thank Michael Andretti for choosing me to drive his car. When you look at Michael Andretti and I getting together for this event, that seems awfully strange, given some of our history racing together in Indy cars, but stranger things have happened, too.

Two years ago, who would have thought I'd be driving for Richard Childress Racing and be 13th in Winston Cup points going into the Charlotte weekend? All the naysayers said, "Aw, he's never going to figure out the Winston Cup deal," or "He's never going to get a good opportunity."

Look at it now. I've positioned myself to be in the right place at the right time and we've won a race in Winston Cup -- on an oval, not just a road course.

It just proves again that you can't believe everything you see or hear, because everything changes.

Now, it's time to work on getting this double done.

We were concentrating real hard on getting our Cingular Chevy right for the race at Richmond, but the Indy/Charlotte double really started the minute the checkered flag fell at Richmond.

	Credit: Autostock

We always have a lot we have to keep juggling, but the schedule actually works out fairly well for me this year. I'm getting to run my Indy car on opening day, which I've never done before.

For me, opening day is a big deal because I haven't sat in an Indy car for a year. I want to go there and be competitive, and I see no reason why I wouldn't be competitive.

We had one of the fastest cars last year and I had not driven an Indy car in the year before that.

One cool thing about Indy is that we have so much practice time before qualifying and I feel like it won't take us more than a day or so to get ready for qualifying. I'm confident that we're going to be strong and contend for the pole.

Andretti Green Racing has shown it's a strong race team, so with its knowledge and my experience, we should be a contender in the Indy 500.

I am probably going to stay at Indy for most of the week before qualifying. Qualifying day at Indy is on Mother's Day weekend and that's a weekend off for our Cingular team, so that works out great.

	Richard Childress has been supportive of Gordon's efforts to pull of the Indy/Charlotte double. Credit: Autostock

Overall, the schedule is going to be something we have to stay on top of, but we've done it three times before. We know how airplanes have to work and we know how the schedule has to work to make it all happen.

It's a great exercise in managing time. From running the Indy car to getting to where I need to be for my NASCAR schedule, all the practice we need to do for three different events, the qualifying, the sponsor appearances, etc.

There's an awful lot that I need to do to keep everybody happy -- not only my current Winston Cup sponsor, Cingular Wireless, and their customers; but also my new sponsor for the Indy car, Motorola and their group of people.

I've got my hands full -- as does everyone who is working with me -- on managing my time.

We'll be able to juggle everything and I'm not too worried about it. But race day is the biggest drama. Everything else is always pretty simple -- even competing at Lowe's Motor Speedway on The Winston weekend.

I guess I'm counting on what I've done every other year at Indianapolis: Getting it qualified the first weekend and put away.

Concerns? Obviously, I think I'm in good enough shape, but still I really need to watch what I eat and what I do this next month.

Obviously, by experience there will be no alcoholic beverages and no real junk food.

	Gordon says he'll have no trouble staying focused on the job at hand. Credit: Autostock

I'll eat a lot of protein and just try to be smart about everything. For sure, I will have an IV on the plane from Indy to Charlotte, to help me with fluid replacement. I may do five of them coming in, since I did cramp up in the 600 last year after about 400 miles.

But, then again, since that occurred last year, we've also got some better stuff that I take for dehydration all the time. In fact, I haven't cramped since then. Basically I have a race-day fluid package that I take and I have been feeling great when I get out of the car.

I feel I'm in good enough shape on a daily basis. I do the Baja 1000, a 1,000-mile off-road event, by myself so I don't see any problem with that.

Still, right now, I still don't feel in quite as good a shape as I was last year when I did the double because that was prior to breaking my ankles. After I broke my ankles in that motorcycle accident in Pennsylvania last summer, I went through four months when I couldn't do anything in terms of physical activity or conditioning.

Yes, I got to drive my race car for RCR, but God, you don't know how bored I was, since I couldn't do anything else in terms of physical activity.

Man, I had to look at that lake out there in front of my house and I couldn't go swimming, couldn't go wakeboarding, couldn't do all the fun things I normally get to do during the summer.

I have accelerated my conditioning program and I need to do it even more. The biggest thing is to watch what I do by getting good nights of sleep and not wear myself too thin.

The other thing is having good people around you and I feel like I have that between the people that work with me at Richard Childress Racing and the people I have working within my own little group at Team Gordon.

We have good people making sure I'm where I need to be and that I'm not doing things that are going to completely wear me out.

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I'm not even going to get into thinking about what could happen -- but if something like an accident does happen we'll obviously deal with it.

On the other hand, I have to say that I drive for a great owner, Richard Childress, who loves to race and understands how much I love to race as well.

He's only been a supporter of mine -- he's never been a naysayer on anything I've tried to do provided that I didn't let my focus wander too far from what we're doing right here with our Cingular Wireless Winston Cup team.

He knows I've always wanted to go to Indy and to show how much he supports it, he's participated the last two years with me and once again he's letting his driver participate in the Indy 500 with Andretti Green Racing.

I know I keep saying this over and over but Richard is an ace -- one of the best team owners I've ever driven for.

The Cingular team understands. I've met with my Cingular guys and they're all good with it. They like watching me race so they weren't going to hold me back and I think I can give both sides a good effort.

I think it will be a lot of fun, all in all. With the rivalry Michael and I had in Indy cars it proves that all that matters is performance on the race track.

He recognizes when a guy can win a race and I tip my hat to Michael for that. As Tony Stewart has proven, if you can drive a race car and win races, then nothing else matters.