Gordon abandons completion of double

Rain delays in Indianapolis forced him to leave before the race ended.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Robby Gordon will have to wait another year to complete a grueling racing double.
Gordon planned to race in the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 -- a combined 1,100 miles -- but managed to get in just 27 laps in Indy before rain derailed his bid to win both races Sunday.
Gordon was running 16th when heavy rain forced a delay in the 500 after 67.5 miles. He was credited with a 29th-place finish at the Indy 500 after Jaques Lazier replaced him before the restart.
Gordon then left Indianapolis around 3 p.m. and arrived at Lowe's Motor Speedway shortly after 4:30 for the Nextel Cup Series race, which began at 5:30 and wasn't completed in time for this edition.
He had to start at the rear of the field because he missed the prerace drivers' meeting.
David Hoots, Cup race director, started that meeting by saying, "We've got a bit of serious business. The driver of the 31 car? If he walks in, that helicopter's a lot faster than I thought."
Gordon was attempting to run in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day for the fourth time in five years.
No. 49's 49th
Ken Schrader celebrated his 49th birthday near the infield garages before the race.
The team marked the event with a birthday cake standing 10 feet tall and plenty of ice cream at the back of his team's transporter.
Schrader, the oldest active full-time driver in the Nextel Cup Series, now is the same age as his car number.
"Makes me glad I'm not driving the 99, I guess," Schrader said.
High-tech Newman
The tunes keep coming from the No. 12 team's spot on pit road, and George Whitley couldn't be happier.
The gasman for Ryan Newman was standing beside the team's high-tech pitbox that would rival any eye-popping home theater system. The box has nine TV monitors, a DVD player, a CD player, a VCR, a digital recorder and satellite receiver. The equipment was from Sony, a sponsor for Newman's Dodge.
The pitbox -- which cost about $100,000 -- can film pit stops and allow the team to review the footage.
It gets plenty of looks from passers-by. That includes crew members from the Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart teams, Whitley said.
"Everybody gets a kick out of it," he said.
Idols
Eight "American Idol" participants sang the National Anthem and got a quick tutorial on NASCAR race cars before Sunday's race.
The eight crooners from the Fox television show posed for pictures and signed autographs while changing tires, handling refueling canisters and sitting in a race car just behind pit road.
They weren't all NASCAR experts, though. Jasmine Trias, a Hawaii native who finished third in this season's competition, got a surprise when she prepared to get in the driver's seat.
"There's no door?" she asked.
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