Robby Gordon wins at Watkins Glen

      WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) - Robby Gordon was doing everything he
could to preserve fuel, and his timing was perfect because those in
pursuit of him were in the same predicament.
      "I backed up 20 car-lengths for each corner," Gordon said
after stretching his fuel over the final 39 laps to complete a
sweep of this year's NASCAR road-course races with a victory Sunday
at Watkins Glen International.
      That was not only an effort to save gas. He wanted to be ready
in case he was forced to run harder over the final few laps.
      "I didn't want to use up the brakes or the tires in case Jeff
Gordon or one of those guys got to us at the end of the race," he
explained. "So we had plenty in reserve."
      It was his third career victory, but this time nobody
complained.
      It wasn't that way two months ago at the other road course in
Sonoma, Calif., when Gordon won after violating the so-called
gentlemen's agreement by passing teammate Kevin Harvick under
caution.
      Gordon's only other victory, two years ago at New Hampshire
International Speedway, also resulted in controversy. He took the
lead near the end of the race by spinning out Jeff Gordon.
      The key for Robby Gordon was pitting Sunday when Rusty Wallace
went off the course on the 51st of 90 laps.
      He was chasing down Wallace when the two-time Watkins Glen
winner left the pavement.
      "I saw Rusty lock up the right front tire, and I called and
said, `Rusty's in the sand,"' Gordon said.
      Crew chief Kevin Hamlin reacted quickly.
      "We heard the guy on the loudspeaker say, 'trouble,' so we
decided to dive in for gas," Hamlin said.
      He called Gordon and said, "Pit now, pit now."
      That move paid off when the field pitted under caution two laps
later. That put him ahead of them, and Gordon took the lead when
those still in front of him pitted on lap 61.
      "Track position is so important," he said. "I don't know if
we had the best car today, but we won. That's what teamwork is all
about."
      Jeff Gordon had the best car, but the worst luck. He started on
the pole and was last after one lap because Greg Biffle spun him
out on the first turn.
      Then the four-time series champion spent the rest of the day
trying to make it up. He reached third, but ran out of gas on the
final turn and was knocked into the wall by Harvick.
      "I was trying to get out of his way, but when you're out of gas
you don't have too many options," said Gordon, who wound up 33rd.
      Harvick was summoned to the NASCAR trailer for consultation,
just as Biffle had been after hitting Gordon in anger last month in
New Hampshire.
      "If he was out of gas he should have gotten out of the
groove," Harvick said of Gordon.
      Biffle, who said he didn't mean to spin out Gordon on Sunday,
also was called in, but for another infraction.
      "They must have been mad at me spinning out Jeff on the first
lap," Biffle said.
      The rare sweep was the first in NASCAR since Jeff Gordon won
both road-course events for the second year in a row, in 1999.
      Robby Gordon's Chevrolet beat the Dodge of road-course ace Scott
Pruett by 2.33 seconds to take the $4 million Sirius at The Glen.
The winner led only once, for the final 30 laps.
      It was the best career finish for Pruett, a former Winston Cup
driver who has spent most of his career in sports car racing and
the CART series. He also was trying to conserve fuel at the end, so
there was no dramatic charge at the winner over the final laps.
      "We had a strategy that we thought we could play," Pruett
said. "It all depended on how many yellows we got, and they all
worked out."
      Gordon agreed, saying his team had the fuel figured just right.
      "In Winston Cup, the key is not to make mistakes," Gordon
said.
      He made only one, spinning out Boris Said.
      "I felt terrible because he had a good run," Gordon said. "I
thought I could give him a little shove and we both could get by
those guys up the backstretch, but I must have shifted before he
did."
      Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third in a Chevy, followed by those
of Jimmie Johnson and Harvick, the winner of last week's Brickyard
400.
      Earnhardt looked like a winner for much of the race, but fell
back to 20th after the final pit stop before charging through the
field at the end.
      "We had a great car," he said. "But I had to drive real hard
to get up there and didn't have much left for the leaders."
      The winner's average speed was 90.420 mph in a race slowed for
14 laps by six caution flags. There were eight lead changes among
eight drivers.
      Ward Burton, Dale Jarrett, points leader Matt Kenseth, Ryan
Newman and Mark Martin completed the top 10. Defending race
champion Tony Stewart, forced to go start at the back of the field
because of an engine change, wound up 11th.
      Kenseth leads Earnhardt by 258 points after 22 of 36 races.
     
      (Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)