Race No. 6
Motorola 300
Gateway International Raceway — Madison, Illinois
May 27-29, 1999
Thursday Quotes from Gateway: | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 3rd |
| GREG MOORE | |
| We hadn't done any prior testing on this track, so we had to work reallyhard. Themorning session wasn't the easiest. But the afternoon results show just howwell our Player's team responded to the challenge. Things are lookingbetter and better. We should be able to do well in qualifying tomorrow andget a good position on the grid - that's so important on a narrow tracksuch as this one. I wouldn't say anybody's in panic mode yet. We're only a quarter of the way into the season. Maybe three quarters of the way into the season, that's when everyone starts getting into panic mode. Right now, we just have to get a result under our belt, because we started off the season so strong. The last two or three races haven't been as good as we've wanted and expected. Be it problems that we had in handling in the car at Nazareth, to Long Beach not having the driveability that we needed there, and then Rio, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time when Jimmy (Vasser) blew his engine and I lost three spots that way. It's just one of those things where I think everyone in the team knows that we can do better. I think pretty much everyone else out here knows that we can do better. It's just a question of getting that result and kind of getting the confidence back, not only for me, but for everyone else on the team. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Practice Position: 10th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| HOW MUCH OF WHATYOU LEARNED IN YOUR LAST TEST HELPED YOU TODAY? We had a good test herebut we are still working on hitting the mark for this weekend. We stillhave a long way to go. We are working on setting up the car for the racerather than a fast lap. Right now the balance is good in turns three andfour but we still need to find a happy medium with the car. Starting upfront is important here but now a day with the competitiveness of the seriesyou have to be good in the pits as well. That's where we were passed forthe win at last years race. I think our pit guys are up to the challengethis year though. They have worked very hard over the winter. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Practice Position: 5th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| YOU WERE RIGHT AT THE TOP OFTHE LEADER BOARD UNTIL JUST A FEW MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF THE SESSION...Yes, I ran into some traffic at the end of the session that tripped me upa bit on a very fast lap. I am pretty happy with where we are right nowwith the car. We are going to start tomorrow off at the same place we endedup today which is a positive way to end today's session. Whenever you canlook back and see the improvements you made the prior day you know that youare at least going in the right direction. We did spend some timeexperimenting with different fuel map settings for the engine that proved tobe a bit helpful. WHAT AREAS OF THE CAR ARE YOU FOCUSING ON RIGHT NOW?Right now our most important goal is getting the balance of the car rightfor the race on Saturday. We walk a fine line and we have to make sure westart with a very neutral car because you don't want to be fighting itduring the race. If you go loose during the race you are basically done forthe day. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Practice Position: 23rd |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| YOU SEEM TO BEFIGHTING WITH GETTING THE SETUP RIGHT... Yes, we get better then we getworse but I think we are slowly going the right way. We made someimprovements this afternoon which is a positive way to end the day. I amlooking for a very solid qualifying run tomorrow. Although we struggled abit today I think tomorrow will be a bit different. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Practice Position: 7th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| WHAT WAS THE FOCUS OF THE TEAMTODAY? YOU HAD A VERY GOOD TEST HERE A FEW WEEKS AGO. HOW MUCH DID THATTEST HELP? We have a bit of work still to do on the race setup but rightnow we are pretty comfortable going into tomorrow. We are finding our way.The speed in the morning sessions is much better than what we seem to run inthe afternoon but I think that is the case for everyone. It is just socritical right now to work on making the car comfortable for the race onSaturday. If we set up the car with too much understeer and have to battlethat all day on Saturday it's going to be a long race. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Practice Position: 12th |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| We have a lot of work to still do.We spent some time today working on our race setup but we don't seem to havea very good handle on the car yet. The car is just not coming around forus. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Practice Position: 4th |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| That was a good practice session. We were very frustrated this morning because we had a few problems (brakes) to fix. I'm pretty happy with the car, but I'm not 100% happy. That's okay though because I'll sit down with the Team KOOL Green engineers tonight. I'm sure we'll come up with something for tomorrow. The track is pretty good. I think the biggest concern for the entire field is the bump in Turn 3, which upsets the car a little bit. You've just got to find a balance going into the corners… one's a tight-turning radius and the other one is quite wide open. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Practice Position: 2nd |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| The track was a little slippery at the start of the second session and we fought the car a little bit. The car was loose and we kind of back-peddled a bit, trying to improve the balance. However, I think we are now headed in the right direction with the setup of the Team KOOL Green car. Tomorrow's final qualifying session will obviously be very important. With what we learned today, I think we'll be able to do better lap times tomorrow. Honda power is really good and the Firestone tires are excellent as usual. | |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Practice Position: 1st |
| JUAN MONTOYA | |
| We did one day of testing here and (teammate) Jimmy (Vasser) did one day as well. The car was good today, but when you try to compensate for in (Turn) Three to make the car better over the bumps, once you do that, it throws you off everywhere else. We're on a roll for sure, and we're working really hard with the team to have a good car. I've been working closely with (engineer) Morris (Nunn) and we have a good relationship. Now, when I say something, it's easy to understand what I said and what I mean. | |
 | McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Practice Position: 17th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| We had a turbo problem with the primary car. We're 13th with thebackup and I think we could have improved if I would have had a littlebit more time in that car. We are back in the window though. I don'tthink it's a bad start, but we need to improve from there. Anothertenth and we would be eighth, but I want more than that. I want tomake the most points I can the next two races and then we are going tohave funon the road courses. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Practice Position: 13th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| The car is as comfortableas it was when we were here testing. We have not quite got it figured outyet but we only have one day left to get it right so we are under the gunright now. We had some brake problems today that hurt us a bit. The bottomline is that we need to figure out the car very quickly. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 11th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| I knew the car was much better than the times we had recorded in themorning. I figured I could give it a shot to get intothe top 10, so I went for it. Greg's testing in Milwaukee last week gave ussome precious information for this type of oval. I'm not always comfortablewith Greg's set-ups, but today they were of great help. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 19th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| The #17 Hollywood car was good in turns 1 and 2 in the morning, but we needed to work on getting over the bump in turn 3. That was the main issue. We knew that if we could get over the bump more quickly without upsetting the car, we would gain a lot of time. In the afternoon, we made mainly mechanical changes but we didn't really find a better way. We tried some alternate shocks which made the car ride the bump better, but the changes built a push into the car. We have to work on taking that out. There's still a lot of room for improvement. | |
 | Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Practice Position: 15th |
| P.J. JONES | |
| TODAY WAS A DAY OF UPS AND DOWNSFOR YOU GUYS. YOU WERE VERY QUICK EARLY ON THEN FELL A BIT BUT AT THE ENDOF THE DAY YOU WERE IMPROVING AGAIN... Today was not a good day and it wasnot a bad day. We are not getting quite what we want out of the car rightnow. The track is okay but there is not as much grip out there in theafternoon as there was in the morning. | |
 | Epson Bettonhausen Motorsports Reynard Mercedes Practice Position: 26th |
| SHIGEAKI HATTORI | |
| It's a lot hotter than when we were here testing last week so I'm happy that we are getting close to the same times. We are also running a different compound and construction tire this week so the car feels much different. We'll make a few more small changes tomorrow morning. The goal is to make small steps forward and to qualify in the top 20. The test helped me in many ways - maybe most important is that my communication with engineer Tom Brown is getting easier and better all the time. | |