Race No. 2
1999 Firestone Firehawk 500
Twin Ring Motegi — Motegi, Japan
April 8-10, 1999
Saturday Quotes from Motegi: | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished: 5th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| First gear broke on us on that last pit stop and it cost ussecond. As it ended up we could have won if the race would have goneall green at the end. It's not often that you break a gearbox. Atleast this time it was not my fault. | |
 | MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 25th |
| CHRISTIANO DA MATTA | |
| The car was fine at the beginning of the race. I started having problems with the gears, so I came in for an early pit stop. We thought we might have been able to fix it, and I went back out for a few laps. I came in again, and it was broken. I'm disappointed, because we made a lot of progress this morning. The guys on the team worked really hard to get the car ready for the race, and I feel bad that we didn't have a better day. | |
 | Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 21st |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| The car took off, and fuel went everywhere. There was something wrong with the clutch, because it didn't respond right. I'm glad everyone in the pit is okay. The car was running pretty good up to then, and it's unfortunate that our day had to end this way. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Finished: 24th |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| The rear roll bar wasn't staying in place. It was moving around as I was driving. It nearlyput me in the wall twice in Turn 2. I just had to park it. I couldn't drive the car like that. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished: 3rd |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| We had apretty good day. Our first pit stop was not very good and I think itdropped me from fourth to seventh or eighth. At one stage when I cameout of the pits there was a strange noise in my engine and I thoughtthere was a very big problem and everyone started shouting. But, itturned out that everything was okay. Behind traffic it was exciting,nothing special, I was just hanging in there. The last yellow came atthe right time for me. I came in with Michael (Andretti), we actuallymanaged to stay out, the other cars were having very poor fuel mileageand we managed to stay out an extra few laps and then the last yellowcame out and again I came in with Michael. The last fifteen laps werequite a rush. We were really going for everything. I tried to make mycar as neutral as possible and moved a lot of weight to the frontwheels. Gil (de Ferran) was really pushing me. He was pretty strongdown the straights. I think Honda must have given him a special enginefor this race. We managed to be very good in turn three and four andright at the very end I had problems with Tarso (Marques) coming rightout on to the pits and I had to pass him right on the outside and Gilhad a good run on me and managed to pass me. But apart from that I amvery happy. I am more happy for the points and there are still 18 moreraces to go and I think we are going to be very strong the rest of theseason. [on Castro-Neves being very quick at times during the race]He was pretty quick. But it was like a racingsituation where you used too much fuel all the time you had to pit liketwo of three laps before all the other cars. We also ran very leanthat's why during our stops we were the last ones to come in. On theother hand you don't go quite as quick in a lean situation as some ofthe other cars. You loose at lease 40 to 50 horsepower and you aretrying to save fuel in order to finish very well. At the same timeHelio was very strong in the turns. He could tun close to anyone andlike in Homestead he was strong. That new car seems to be pretty good.Now we are off to s street course so we will see how he does there. I amvery happy with today's outcome. We ran pretty strong all day and theteam did a great job. The car worked pretty good but there are still afew areas that we have to improve and I am really looking forward toLong Beach and the rest of the season right now. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Finished: 18th |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| We ran out of fuel once. In traffic the car was very good. Attimes the car was as fast as anyone else out there. This could havebeen a much better result if a few other things would have gone our way. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 16th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| We had aright tire blow as we were leaving the pits on our last stop. I triedto make it back to the pits but the car spun as I entered pit lane. Iwas trying to get back to the pits quickly but the tire was flat. Ithink that happened to a couple of cars today. We also had bad timingon our third stop. Right when I pitted the yellow flag came out. I wasin fifth place then fell back to eighth. The car had a littleundersteer but we fixed it early. I think we may have run a little toomuch down force on the car because we were not as fast on thestraightaways as the leaders. But we are still learning, both myselfand the team. We will have some learning pains. But we were still inthe top-five at the end of the race and that's our goal - to race withthe leaders. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 23rd |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| Wehad some electrical problems that we chased all day. Since the start ofthe race the car kept cutting out. We finally came in and changed theECU and the coil but that didn't seem to help. The lower the fuel gotthe worse the problem got. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 22nd |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| At the start the car was very difficult to drive and very nervous in traffic.If I tried to get out of the turbulence I'd hit the bumps hard in Turn 1 and2 and the car would oversteer. So you really couldn't win. Eventually thecar settled down but we were struggling down the straights to passanybody. On my first stop we had a problem with the clutch. I had myfoot on the clutch and selected first gear, but the car just pulled away. Ihad my foot hard against the bulkhead. But the car felt pretty good on thesecond set of tires and we were making up some of the ground and tryingto get my lap back. But I got stuck behind a couple of guys and couldnot pass them on the straights. I'd sneak up on them in the corners but Icouldn't get by on the straights. I was starting to use the traffic to myadvantage, but that's what caught me out. I tried to go too high into Turns3 and 4, got up in the grey and hit the wall. It was a very bad day and along way to come for no points. The good news is Team KOOL Greenran really strong at Long Beach last year (2nd) and we'll try to make upsome of the gap to the leaders next week. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 11th |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| Obviously, I'm disappointed with how the race turned out for us. TeamKOOL Green took it on the chin pretty good today. We drove a reallyclean race and didn't get the result we deserved. The guys gave me greatpit stops, but we could not make up positions on the track. We struggleddown the staightaways. It was also pretty loose on cold tires when thepressure was low, especially on re-starts. We went straight to the backat the beginning of the race. The car started to come around, gettingbetter and better. On the stop where the rubber came off the tire, I didn't even know thatit had happened. Barry (team owner Barry Green) came on the radio andtold me to come in. Our race was pretty much over when we had tomake the tire change. We should have had more points, but we'll taketwo points from here and add to it at the next race in Long Beach. | |
 | McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Finished: 6th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| I believe we did what we had to do today. We had a great pit stopstrategy, but we got caught out by the yellow flag about seven lapsbefore the end. Otherwise, I think we would have finished fourth ormaybe third because everyone else still had to pit. We started way backbut my guys -- the Drive-Thru Crew -- did a great job in the pits. Wehad a rough start to the season at Homestead but if you look back tolast year, it is exactly the same. We didn't finish at Homestead andfinished sixth here. The car was consistent. It was just really hard topass. We gambled on the pit stop strategy and it worked the first time,but we got caught out a little bit the second time. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finished: 1st |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| It was so close at the end. During the last two laps I was halfthrottle on the straights and I just saw the number (fuel meter) gettingcloser to the end. I didn't think we were going to make it to the end.You know, we were so strong all day and all week and I am just so happyfor my team. [on having any close calls during the race] Not really.(Juan) Montoya was really strong at one stage but we were saving so muchfuel that I knew I had the car but because I was saving fuel I told theguys that if you want me to keep him behind you have to give me somehelp here. In general the track was great, the conditions were greatand everything just worked out for us. All day we were saving fuel. I wanted to be at the front early and notspend much time(in the back). I was really trying to push had in thebeginning. Gil's (de Ferran) spin really got my attention but afterthat Papis got a little loose going into turns one and two and I managedto make the pass on him and stay there in third place for quite a while. As the race went on, Gil was getting loose and I knew that it was justa matter of time until he got even looser. After that I was basicallysaving fuel and stretching my window for the first pit stop. My guysdid a tremendous job on the pit stops. We were not very good inHomestead but we came back for this race. After that I think thestrongest challenge I had all day was from (Juan) Montoya and I think itwas clearly because he was not saving fuel because my Ford engine wasextremely strong all day. I don't think anyone could challenge me. Thereason (Montoya) was so strong was because I was extremely lean tryingto stretch my pit window again. I told my team that if they wanted meto stay here you have to give me a little break on the fuel. I managedto stay ahead of him and after that he ran out of fuel. The mostdifficult part of the race was at the end trying to decide whether ornot we should stay out. It was John Ward and Steve Newey's call at theend and they made the right call. I didn't want to see my (fuel)numbers at the end. It was terrible. It was just bad. I didn't thinkthere was any way we were going to make it. Eventually with three lapsto go they told me to back off and I was running at half throttle andjust coasting through the corners and when I saw the yellows I thoughtthat was it, we are going to make it. I think that regardless we weregoing to make it, barely, but we were going to make it. [on the original pit strategy] I needed to stretch my fuel window because Ihad to get to a certain number of laps that's why I was running lean allday, extremely lean. Especially the second run. We needed to stretchis very far so we wouldn't have to make the extra pit stop everyone elsehad to do. We only had to make three pit stops today and we managed tomake it and it was good for us. [on Montoya possibly catching him] I didn't think he was goingto get by me, but he was close. I didn't see any of the debris (thatbrought out the yellow) I didn't know what was happening. The car wasso well balanced all day. The only thing I had to do all day was turnup my front wing at the last pit stop. Apart from that my Firestonetires were so consistent. If you look at my lap times I could notbelieve it, they were exactly the same as the laps before. A few timesI was a little bit loose behind traffic. The lap time I was runningtoday with the amount of fuel I was using was incredible. I coulddefend Montoya at any time if I could use more fuel. He was full fueland you could see that. I could see that because if the consistency inmy laps and suddenly he was charging. You could see he was using morefuel. In the corners I could defend him. When you are leading the mostdifficult part of it is coming out of the corners strong with thepower.[about his repeat win and if there is something special about Motegi] As a driver I want to say my style should be goodat any track I go to. But there is something here that makes me quickhere. I am very happy because the Japanese people have been very warmwith us. I came out here a bit early and managed to see come of theculture of Japan and spend some time with the fans of Japan." | |
 | Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 2nd |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| Everybody was on the same page going into the race. We wererunning as lean as we could to extend the window as much as we could. The carwas good until Lap 25, when we started to go loose. I had a massive momentcoming out of Turn 4 and I started to go backwards in a hurry. I was extremelyunlucky after one of the stops when it went yellow and I had to go on the back ofthe field. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Finished: 7th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| It's unfortunate that we had a problem with the rear brakes, because we had a great car all weekend. Every time I touched them, they would lock, I even tried to be careful on the track - itwas a tough race. It's too bad, because we had the car to have a better result today. The whole Hollywood PacWest team did a great job. We had an excellentrace car and I'm looking forward to Long Beach next week. | |
 | Patrick Racing Visteon Reynard Ford Finished: 15th |
| P.J. JONES | |
| We justcouldn't find the setup. We had the same car as Adrian but it just wasnot as good during the race. In practice we ran well and we qualifieddecent. I thought we could have done a lot better but it just didn'thappen. [on de Ferran's first lap spin] I was right there. Iwent down low and missed everybody. I was lucky. | |
 | Team Gordon Reynard Toyota Finished: 8th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| What a day! I'm sitting here elated to finish eighth,mad that I didn't finish third, and confused as to what actuallyhappened. I lost the gearbox midway through the race, radioed to theguys that we were done, and then like magic I found fifth gear and ranit the rest of the day. Solid. We turned the rev limiter off, heldonto our pants and the engine came through. Nobody pulled me outthere. I had power all day long. The Toyota was definitely on it! Onthe last stop, I was in fourth place leaving the pits when I passedChristian -- I guess for third place. I shifted into second, trying toskip to third quickly because I had trouble with that gear all day, andthe whole gearbox blew. Nothing. I radioed to the guys again - 'it'sall over boys, the gearbox is dead.' But as I said that, Kenny(Anderson) told me to find a gear and stay out. So I did. It was firstgear. Next thing I know, there's a yellow and we're cruising around toa points finish. It was a great job by everyone here at Team Gordon. Nobody quit today and I'm proud of that. | |
 | Team Kool Green Team manager |
| BARRY GREEN | |
| Paul ran a real strong race and he never put a foot wrong all day. Whatmade me most happy was seeing Paul and Tony Cicale working so welltogether on the radio. We also had excellent pit stops, but the ball justdidn't bounce our way today. It was a taxing race on Paul, but he hung inthere fighting all the way. We were very happy up until the second pitstop when we got caught in the pits when the yellow came out. Thatseparated us from the lead pack. We were right there. The car wasgood, but we just had an unlucky yellow. That's what it's all about onthese ovals. Sometimes you're lucky and sometimes you're not. | |