From nascar.com: Gordon hopes Glen is a get-well option for team Owner/driver qualifies 15th for Sunday with fully-sponsored car By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM August 7, 2010 03:12 PM EDT WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Robby Gordon is spending less time at Cup Series venues these days -- and Saturday at Watkins Glen International he said to expect that to continue. But after posting the 15th-best lap in pole qualifying for Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, Gordon said he was ready to challenge for his second career victory on the 2.45-mile road course. "If we can qualify anywhere inside the top 15, we've got a shot at winning," Gordon said. "We feel like we've got a good plan, and I'm just conservative when it comes to qualifying because I know if I qualify inside the top 10 I know I've already put myself in a position to win the race." Gordon went out sixth in the qualifying order and was second, to Juan Montoya, for quite some time. In the end, he wasn't concerned to have fallen so far down the final lineup, nearly a second behind pole-winner Carl Edwards. Gordon's qualifying lap wasn't forecast in Friday's two practice sessions, where his No. 7 Toyota was 33rd and 29th, respectively. But there was a good reason, the owner/driver said Saturday afternoon. "We didn't work on any qualifying [Friday] at all," Gordon said. "We tried one [qualifying run] and I got blocked by [Elliott] Sadler -- not his fault. We just happened to cross paths and I got bottlenecked down, and that's why you saw us on the [slower] right side of the board. "We worked on the race setup and I know I can run [one-minute] 13.0s every single lap, and that's what's going to be important in the race." Robby Gordon Motorsports has used the same road course chassis the past two years, Gordon said. It qualified 22nd and finished 18th last year here and finished second from a 16th-place start earlier this season on the Infineon Raceway road course, a much different design than WGI. "It was new here [in 2009]," Gordon said. "It's lightweight and one of our nicer cars we own and I think we'll be fine. I'm not worried about where we qualify." Gordon has tried to diversify his operation this season but has struggled to find funding to complete all the races. He has personally skipped attending two events completely, including last weekend at Pocono Raceway. Gordon wasn't specific about where he was last weekend, when WGI teammate P.J. Jones -- who also ran a second RGM car at Infineon in June and locked the No. 07 into the WGI field in 39th -- ran his car for a limited number of laps before finishing 35th. "I was in the same place I'm gonna be on a lot of these other weekends," Gordon said. "Enjoying myself and making sure we're better-prepared for 2011. I can't tell you guys what I've got -- but I can tell you I've got something and it's gonna be a lot of fun." In June Gordon competed in an off-road event while Ted Musgrave tried to qualify the No. 7 at Pocono -- but Musgrave failed to qualify the car, which at the time was outside the locked-in top 35 in owners' points. Since then, Gordon's second-place at Sonoma put him back into the top 35, where he's remained ever since. He's currently 32nd. "We're not missing any funding for [Sunday]'s race," Gordon said with a smile. "The funding may fall off the car when we get to Michigan, but we're not missing it for [Sunday] by any means." Gordon has always made a big commitment to the road course events, which he swept in the 2003 season. The August 2003 WGI race was his most recent of three career Cup victories -- but the good news for him is he started 14th when he won that event.

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