Gordon Wrecks in Atlanta Race

Robby Gordon’s introduction to high-banked oval track stock car racing went well for most of Saturday--until he hit an oil slick at Atlanta International Raceway.

Gordon, 21, the driver from Orange who stepped up earlier this year from desert and stadium trucks to road racing, won the pole in a Ford Thunderbird for the Automobile Racing Club of America 500 with a lap of 175.396 m.p.h. He then raced 52-year-old Charlie Glotzbach, the race winner, for the lead for 139 laps.

Gordon, who led for 19 laps, slid into the wall in the fourth turn and broke an axle after he ran over oil dry laid down after another car had blown its engine a few laps earlier.

“I don’t want to make any excuses, I just screwed up,” Gordon said. “I was having a lot of fun out there, but I knew it was a matter of buying time. I didn’t really know what I was doing.”