Race No. 6
Motorola 300
Gateway International Raceway — Madison, Illinois
May 27-29, 1999
Friday Quotes from Gateway: | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 6th |
| GREG MOORE | |
| Being in the top 10 is a good result, but there's a little disappointment in not getting the pole. Still, I think we're getting back in form again. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Qualified: 11th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| We just have not had any luck in setting up the car for qualifying this year. We do a good job for the race but not qualifying strong makes our job come race day much harder. That's what happened to us in Nazareth. I think we had the strongest car on race day but starting 13th there killed us. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Qualified: 8th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| We had a good run today and I am pretty happy with where we ended up. We are definitely going to keep it up and I am sure we are going to be in the hunt for the championship. Tomorrow for the race I am confident that we will be racing up front. The team has improved a lot and that is one area that you need to be working to have success. As for me, in '97 I had the accident (in Australia) with my leg and in '98 it was a bunch of little things that kept us out of it for a while. But you could see towards the end of the year the team was coming on. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Qualified: 22nd |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| We had a little problem with the setup today but we need to keep working on it. I think it is going to be a good race for us tomorrow. We have to stay patient and come up with a good strategy for the race and we can improve tomorrow. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified: 13th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| We went to cure the understeer that the car had but we went a bit too far. We were expecting a lot more but in racing you are going to have some days like this. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified: 17th |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| The car was not very good. We have struggled a bit this weekend with the understeer and the car really pushed on us during the qualifying run and I just couldn't get any more speed out of it. We still have some work to do and we plan on trying some things out tonight. It's going to be really difficult. You have to set up the car so if a guy makes a mistake or goes off a little you can (pass there), but it's going to be tough among the competitive cars to make passes. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 5th |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| My qualifying lap was really solid and then I went for it on the second one a little bit too much. I'm reasonably satisfied with my position though. It's a strong effort. We've been very consistent, but we're out here to win poles and to win races. Winning is what it's all about for me and the guys at Team KOOL Green. I think if we're going to win the championship this year, we're going to have to pick it up and win some races. If you look at our position now in the championship compared to where we were last year, I'd say we are much better off. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 2nd |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| It's a good run for Team KOOL Green, but I'm not surprised with Montoya's time. I felt it was going to take a 24-second lap to take the pole. We made a change to the front roll bar before our hot lap and it made the car push real bad. I'm disappointed because it kind of dialed it out a little bit and I had a little wiggle on my last warm-up lap. I think we left a fair amount of what this car could do on the table. I'm still very happy to be on the front row. It's been some time since I've started on the front row. Consistency is the key. At Team KOOL Green, we've been getting more and more consistent. Dario has been very competitive, and on my side of the team, we're getting there. It's a long season, with 15 races to go, and there are plenty of chances to make progress or for others to have problems. Working with (engineers) Tony Cicale and Tino Belli, our short oval package has really started coming together. We came here and tested right after Nazareth, and the car was good right off the truck. We came back with a good setup, we just refined it a little bit. I'm really happy with how we qualified second, although you're always disappointed to be second. We made a change right before we went out because of the heat, and just put a little bit too much understeer in the car. There was some more to have, we just didn't get it today. | |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Qualified: 1st |
| JUAN MONTOYA | |
| Everyone has just about the same equipment and the same speed, so it comes down to fine-tuning the car. You need a full package to be competitive. At Nazareth, Helio was quicker than we were. We just put it all together and that was it. I never thought about filling big shoes. The only pressure came from myself. I was maybe expecting to get a podium at the beginning of the year and to have a chance to start winning on the road courses. But obviously it's great to be winning and we just want to keep on going. When we came to qualifying, it was a bit of a lottery with the setup. We had a good car, but a lot of push. I was surprised, because I thought we had too much push or something. When I went around, I had so much push that it was a bit of a surprise (to get the pole). After I saw the times yesterday, I thought the pole would be in the high 24's. But this morning, we had a problem with the rear shocks, so qualifying was a bit of a lottery as far as set-up goes. When it came to qualifying, the car had so much push, it was a bit of a surprize to win the pole. To learn an oval is fairly simple. There are only two corners. The biggest thing is to get a good car, and we've worked very hard at that. Everyone wants to win, our team is just putting it together right now. | |
 | McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Qualified: 14th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| We are where we should be for tomorrow. It's been a challenging weekend but we were able to improve our lap times and I think we are getting there. I have to say thanks to Steve (Horne). I would say that 50 percent of the time, he was the one who was out there yesterday helping me with my braking points and other things. One more time, he's the boss. For tomorrow, I think we have a decent race car and maybe a top-six car. Top 14 is okay for us to start the race. If we can come out of the next two ovals with some good points, I think we're going to be okay for the championship. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Qualified: 7th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| That was my fastest lap of the weekend here at Gateway. The team was guessing with the setup, but we did the best with what we had. | |
 | Hogan Racing Lola Mercedes Qualified: 3rd |
| HELIO CASTRO-NEVES | |
| Thank God my guys did a fantastic job this morning. We've been working very hard. Yesterday we had to fix some stuff on the car. The car was leaking some oil in braking. This morning, when we had a chance to setup the car, it was looking very strong. Unfortunately, in my two (qualifying) laps, the first one I was very, very good, very, very fast, so then (team owner) Carl (Hogan) told me, 'if I don't get the pole, I'm not going to race Milwaukee,' so I had to push a little bit harder. No, just kidding. I just tried a little bit more. I believe I came in too fast in Turn 3, and there's a big bump there. When I hit the front of the car, my car just lost a little control and I went straight away. I was able to just bring it back and no major problems. I'm still very happy. Of course, the St. Louis fans aren't going to be as I believe the Colombian guys, but tomorrow is the important day. I'm sure they'll be glad to cheer for the car number nine. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 4th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| A fantastic run! The entire Player's team, and especially my engineers Lee Dykstra and Michael Cannon did a great job on the 33 car. I pushed the car very hard in qualifying. It went sideways bigtime over the bump in Turn 3 on my first lap, but I never had to lift. I'm encouraged going into the race tomorrow. I think we should do really well. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 21st |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| We struggled a bit in the morning, as we have for the past couple of days. The changes we made didn't have the effeect we were hoping for. We put Moreno's set-up on the #17 Hollywood car for qualifying and that helped a little. It's not a balance problem -- we lack mechanical grip. With low downforce wings, we rely much more on mechanical grip and we're just not where we need to be. We're also having a tough time negotiating the bump in Turn 3. | |
 | Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Qualified: 16th |
| P.J. JONES | |
| I could have done a lot better. The car was a bit pushy going into turn three. We seem to have a good race car but we need to work a bit on our qualifying setup. | |
 | Epson Bettenhausen Motorsports Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 26th |
| SHIGEAKI HATTORI | |
| I tried my best but the car had a pretty big push during my qualifying run.I am much more comfortable in the car now after completing two days oftesting here at Gateway last week. Of course, more testing is always goodbut the extra 'seat time' has helped us a lot. | |
 | Team Gordon Swift Toyota Qualified: 9th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| It's awful nice to back in the top ten! Lee White told me after the morning practice he'd only be happy if I shaved two tenths off in qualifying. I saw him shortly after the run with a smile on his face! This weekend has been very satisfying so far, there have been a lot of people asking me about both races; fatigue, time - you name it. All I can say is when you run well, sleep and time don't matter - you just can't wait to get in the car again and get it on! The guys at Toyota have definitely done some work, and I know my guys have too. Starting this high brings a whole new race strategy for us now. I think we can run with the leaders here like we did in Japan and give them some fits. The car feels really good, even in race trim with full tanks. I'm just damn happy right now, write that! Everybody has been working very hard, and we're learning how to work with the Swift. It's nice to go into a race knowing that we're capable of running near the front. | |