Mears: Thank you.

Unser: Thank you.

McHale: "Our guests today own a combined 5 PPG CART Word Series Championships between them; Rick winning championships in 1979, 1981 and 1982, and Al claiming titles in 1990 and 1994. Rick and Bobby Rahal, winner or PPG cup titles in 1986 and 1987, remain the only two drivers to win consecutive PPG CART World Series crowns. Rick is the all-time series leader in pole positions with 39, is second in career laps led with 3286, ranks third in career PPG CART World Series victories with 26, is sixth with career series starts with 180. He retired at the end of the 1992 season with $11,050,807 in career earnings - sixth all-time.

"Al Jr. leads the career earnings list having entered this season with $17,735,906. He ranks second to Michael Andretti with 31 career PPG CART World Series victories, and is tied with Michael for most wins in a single season - eight - during his PPG Cup title run in 1994. He also holds the series record for most consecutive race victories with four, set during his previous PPG Cup championship season in 1990. He enters Saturday's Motorola 300 at the brand new Gateway Intl. Raceway outside St. Louis, ranks 7th in the PPG Cup standings with 32 points.

"With that we open it up for questions:"

Unser: "Well, for myself, I miss it pretty much, and I think it's great that Johnny Unser, who is the son of Jerry Unser, was qualified in the top 33 - and then to have them kind of sidestep the rules to let him in - I think is great. We didn't really like the 25-8 to begin with and it's great that the Speedway is letting the fastest 33 start this year's race."

Tim: "But Al, did it make a mockery a little bit of what you went through there in 1995 when suddenly at the end of the day, the other day [this year], they let the other guys in?"

Unser: "No, I wouldn't say that. I did talk to Johnny and I called him a 'Lucky Dog'. I just told him I wished they would have expanded the field in '95."

Gordon Kirby - Racer Magazine: "Rick have you seen the track?"

Mears: "yes"

Mears: "I think it's gonna be a good racetrack. I have only been able to make a couple of laps on it so far and of what I have seen I think it's gonna be a fun racetrack. The banking it has is gonna allow for some good side-by-side running, and then being a little bit different on both ends - it's gonna bring in the technical aspect of it, where you might have to give up a little on one end to get a little more at the other. We don't know that for a fact until we get on the track and run, but with the radiuses being different at opposite ends it might have a few other things you have to look at to combine the two, which is always challenging to a driver and which is part of the fun of it."

Kirby: "Any track you could compare it to, Rick, roughly?"

Mears: "Not off-hand. I mean in that it is different at opposite ends it's similar to Phoenix, but the banking is not as different as Phoenix is from one end to the other. It's a little more consistent in that respect. That's probably one of the closest you can compare it to. And again - it's hard to say until we really get out there and start running a little bit and see what comes up."

Kirby: "Have you seen the track, Al?"

Unser: "I have not, Gordon."

Mears: "It's a good looking facility. They've done a nice job around here, I think everybody is gonna be very pleased with [it]."

Unser: "I still think it's gonna come down to the cars and the rules with the racecars. Relaxing the 25-8 rule is definitely a step in the right direction. I think it's a sign from the Speedway they might need Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. and Bobby Rahal and the stars of the CART series to come and join them, but I still think they are pretty far apart - between IRL and CART - and it's gonna come down to the rules of the cars."

Carl Morris - ESPNet SportZone: "For Little Al - the package that you are running this year seems to have improved greatly since last year. I was just wondering if you could comment on how you like the Ilmor [sic.] and how it's working with the new Penske chassis?"

Unser: "Well, the Marlboro car is definitely a good short oval car. We've been very competitive with them on the short ovals, with Paul Tracy, my teammate winning the last two races. I really am very happy with Goodyear - they've done a great job by coming out with a better tire than Firestone, which a year ago was kind of the other way around. I am especially happy with Mercedes giving us the power to outrun that Honda. The package a year ago was Honda and Firestone and this year so far it's Goodyear and Mercedes that's standing out - that's great."

Unser: "We don't know. We definitely have some work to do on the road courses. We didn't qualify all that well down in Australia or in Long Beach. We need to work on the car a little bit there. We do have some testing scheduled and we are gonna find out."

Mark Amelio: "Al, based on what your conversations with Roger, can you see him building a team just for Indy next year?"

Unser: "To put it in a nutshell - I really feel that Roger Penske loves the Indy 500 as much as the Unsers do, and he wants to get back there as bad as we do. But the way the rules are - the way they came out, my understanding is that if you do build a car, you have to make it available to whoever wants to buy it, and then there is a price cap on that. In Roger's case, for instance, there is also a time period: if someone walks up and says: 'Roger, I want to buy your car,' Roger has to deliver that car at this certain price in three months time. There is no way Roger can build cars if four or five, or even one customer comes up and asks him. He can't build a car and still build cars for his team. Roger is not a car manufacturer and he is not in the car manufacturing business. And so he's not set up for that at all. He is set up to build his own cars to try and accomplish a mechanical advantage over his competitors, which is one of the key reasons I drive for him - because he builds great race cars.

"The rule they are applying on engine builders and car manufacturers would make it impossible for Roger to be there, even if he wanted to do it."

Amelio: "Al, even though this is the second year that you are missing - I guess the third, really - does it get any easier to live with, not being there?"

Unser: "The answer is no."

Amelio: "How badly?"

Unser: "Well - I said 'Johnny Unser is a lucky dog'..."

Amelio: "Will you be there on Sunday?"

Unser: "I doubt it - no."

Unser: "I don't think we have to 'solidify ourselves' anywhere - I think we are the best racing series in the world and it's definitely the cars I want to be driving, no doubt about it. They are the best performance, and they are the safest. I think what we are doing is going to a new market place to try show the people of St. Louis and the surrounding areas that come out to our race, the highest technically advanced cars in America, to watch us go fast and have a great time at the race track. I think that's what we want to sow the people in St. Louis."

Unser: "I was kinda asked that a little bit earlier. What had happened during the split with the IRL when they formed their series and started the 25-8, and used the Indy 500 as a bargaining chip to get their series going - what happened in the CART series is that everybody united with each other: the drivers united together, the mechanics united together, the sponsors united together and the car owners united. So, personally I don't see it broken up in any way. The series is stronger today than it ever has been. It is way stronger now than it even was two years ago - without the Indy 500. I really see everybody staying together, pulling together. Hopefully we'll go back to the Speedway, and race the Indy 500 as a group - united. I wouldn't do it with out Michael [Andretti] and so on... hopefully it can be done that way."

Jerry Boone - The Oregonean: "Al, you've got two more ovals to run on and then, all of the sudden, you are going to be in a series of road courses. I know that you said that you weren't quite as pleased with the car around road courses as you are on the ovals. Have you got the opportunity to do some more testing, more development before you get to Detroit and then Portland? I know, Paul was here [in Portland] last week. It looked like he was running real, real strong. Have you talked to him since he tested last week and learned what they learned?"

Unser: "I haven't actually talked to Paul, but I have talked to the team and they have made the car better for the road courses. You know, Paul's driving style is different from mine. With the improvement that they made it sounded like they definitely helped the car for both, Paul and I, and but I am not gonna be able to know anything before I get to Detroit and run it on Belle Isle."

Boone: "Will you have the opportunity to do some road course testing before Detroit?"

Unser: "No."

George Webster - National Speed Sport News: "Sorry to belabor this, Al - do I understand that you don't expect to go back to the Indy 500 except as a member of team Penske?"

Unser: "For sure."

Webster: "... and would it be unlikely that Team Penske would go back without their own car/engine package?"

Unser: "Ahh - that would be pretty much [it] - yup."

Unser: "It's very good. Paul and I are working together now better than we ever have. He's doing a great job - I mean, the chips have fallen in his direction. Personally it would be great if they went into mine, but the outcome is that the team is winning. That's what the most important thing is - that we put a #1 on either one of these Marlboro cars. If we can do that, then I've won. If Paul keeps winning and does win the championship, then it's my team that has won the championship. That's all good stuff."

Mears: "I think it has, you know - from time to time when we've had an opportunity, I've tried to watch a little bit of what's taking place there, and after having myself been there since 1977 and knowing what Indy means to race car drivers all over the world, really - it's kind of sad to me. At times when watching, I've almost been embarrassed. In that respect, I do think it diminishes it - it takes away. It doesn't take away from what we've done. I think it takes away from what Indy is today compared to what it used to be. And I think that's the sad part. And again, hopefully down the road things will come back together and we can kind of - you know - everybody get back on track and get back to where we should be."

Unser: "My thoughts are pretty much what Rick said. When I won Indy - in the two years that I won Indy - it was the greatest show on earth and the hardest one to win. Now, it is sad and we don't miss anything about what's going on there now. I think Tony Bettenhausen said it the best: we do miss what used to be there."

Mike Beemish - Vancouver Sun: "Al, we had talked last week with Tony Bettenhausen and Bobby Rahal, and the suggestion was made that there will be a compromise one day between the IRL and CART to allow to run at the Speedway, and that would be in the form of some kind of a Super Bowl like the NFL and the AFL had in the 60s when the two leagues came together. But of course, Tony and Bobby said that there would be absolutely no way that they could do it financially - to have separate cars for the CART series and then build a specific car just for that one race each year. They said they couldn't do it. They were mentioning that Roger is capable of doing that. You just mentioned earlier in this interview that the CART teams would be united in this - that there wouldn't be some that would just break away and run at Indy and others that for some reason couldn't afford to do it. Do you still see that being the case, or do you think Roger would ever get to the point of running you in the CART series and for this one race a year spend the month of May in Indy running their IRL cars. Do you ever see that evolving as a way of a compromise?"

Unser: "Gosh - I mean that's a question for Roger, really. [laughing]. I don't know. I am very proud of Marlboro Team Penske and to be their driver and I wouldn't do anything to risk losing that position. If Roger decides to do something like that, that would be great - if he doesn't, that would be great, too."

Janet Braunstein - Irace: "Al, I am a little bit confused by some of the things you said. At one point you said you wouldn't wanna go back to Indy without Michael and somebody else - I couldn't hear who you said. First, could you tell me who you said, and can you clarify: at some point you're saying that you'll do whatever Roger wants, but that your expectation overall is that CART will hang together."

"If I wasn't racing against the best in the world, winning Indy wouldn't mean anything. And that's what's going on there today - that's why Rick said what he said earlier: that it has hurt and it is sad. For me to watch, on TV, qualifying, and during the practice days [seeing] nobody running on the track at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon for second weekend of qualifying. You've got Robby Gordon out there doing just demonstration pit stops... that's not the way it was when I was there. There was guys out there - lots of guys - searching for speed, because they needed to get speed in order to make the show. Whereas now, the guys aren't running because their engines aren't lasting long enough, and then they really don't have to run because they are part of these 25 guaranteed spots. It's sad to see - to take a traditional place like this and have it being done the way it's being done [now]."

Unser: "I would hope so. I would hope that they would go back to doing it the way they used to - taking our cars and putting them into their rule book. Because they are the safest cars, the highest technically advanced cars - all of that... With the speeds that we are running, you need safety, and the technology behind it. In my opinion, the IRL car is a step backwards in all of the above: the safety, the technology, all of it."

Mears: "I would add a little to that if I could. The 25-8 rule to me really, by relaxing on that is maybe a show of wanting to get together and maybe wanting to work [at it], but it didn't really mean anything. To me the 25-8 rule was established for the first year when a lot of the CART teams still had a lot of the same equipment the IRL teams had; and that's hat that rule was for. Once they changed the cars, the rule didn't really mean anything as far as I am concerned. By relaxing on that, I don't see it as that much of a change. I think it could possibly be, hopefully is a show that they want to work with us and try to get things together."

Mears: "Well, I would hope they are sincere. Gut feeling, to me it was kind of getting the ball out of their court and into ours, and I think they knocked it out of bounds."

Doug Church - Bakersfield Californian: "Rick, to step away from Indy for just a moment, I wanted to ask you about Casey and Clint who are running in the Indy Lights Tour. I noticed they did pretty well at Savannah last week. Casey moving up eleven spots from where he started to 13th, and Clint doing pretty well too. Can you tell me about their development and what you've been able to ad to their careers?"

Mears: "They are probably doing better development on their own than with my help. On the road courses we haven't been able to put a good horse under them. Our oval setup has been pretty decent and they've been much more competitive on the ovals. This is only our second road course - Long Beach and then Savannah. We don't have an engineer in place yet, which we are working on. But they are coming along pretty well. As far as the little testing we have done, every time they get in the car you see the improvement, just from seat time, and that;s what it's all about. And then we are learning also - as a team. It's a very competitive series; it's very close, and we knew that going in. We've got kind of a long-range plan, take our time, small steps, and build a base. You don't jump into somebody's back yard and beat them overnight. It's gonna take a lot of time. all that said - it's coming together, and the kids are doing a great job with the cars, and hopefully with the next few races we can do a little bit better job in the engineering department, so we can give them a better horse to run on."

Ray Sprouse - Audionet/SpeedCenter: "A question for Rick, that's also related to your sons: with the division of the IRL and CART - I think I know the answer, but 'assume' is one of those big words - where do your sons aspire to grow into - CART, or... any definite plans for the future?"

Mears: "Well, you probably do know the answer. [laughing] Right now we are working on the Lights program, and we've got a long ways to go there, as far as building. We are taking it kind of a day at a time here, and [are] building. Obviously, they would like to work their way into the CART series, but we haven't really looked that far ahead, yet. This being the first year and getting a little bit of a late start we are fully focused on the Lights program right now with the Penske Auto Center cars, trying to get them up to speed."

Sprouse: "Is there any recruiting going on from the other side [IRL]?"

Mears: "Not of lately. I believe there was some early on, but there hasn't been lately. I think they know the answer."

Ron Martin - Focus on Racing Radio: "Rick, when you come to a new track like St. Louis, and you take a few laps around, are you looking from a technical viewpoint, or are you trying to get almost like an 'inner feel' of what that track feels like?"

Mears: "It's really a little of both. I think a very first thing you look for is the shape of the track, the condition of the track, the transitions of the banking leading into the corner and leading out of the corner, to see if they are abrupt or if they fall away slowly; that's kind of the first thing you should look for - the smoothness of it. And then you do start thinking about the setup of the car - what kind of setup it may take because of the configuration of the track, [for] the different ends. And again, we haven't made many laps around it yet. I am gonna out today and in the morning and make some more laps and take a closer look at it - that's probably the main thing."

Mears: "I would say it's pretty close to the same, as far as how all three of us would drive it - as far as the pattern of the track, the shape of the track, your entries, where your apexes are. As far as thinking about the setup of the car: today, these guys are so advanced in technology - you can almost put a setup on the car by going through the numbers, all the data - the length of the track, the shape of the track, the radius of the corners, the degree of banking. These guys are so good now, they can sit down, pull up all the numbers on the computer, go through the data, and get a very close setup on the car out of the trailer to start with. It's always difficult to tell the adhesion of the surface - that's kind of hard to equate - but these guys can get them very close today to start with. And then, you start tuning from there."

Martin: "Al, when you come to a new track, do you tend to lean a bit more towards Rick and his technical advice, than you would in a normal situation?"

Unser: "For sure. Rick is there to bounce questions off of, and it's great to have him there to do that. He definitely is right about the technology, and the setup coming off of the truck. The engineers today are hitting it so close, it's unbelievable, and then we do fine-tuning from there."

Unser: "It's frustrating, because we are not there, and that's all. We definitely have a race coming up - we've got several races coming up that are every bit the caliber of the old Indy 500 and each one of these events are world events. The championship is everything to us nowadays."

Mears: "Believe me. I am working very hard on that. I don't agree with that, I never have. It doesn't take ability, it doesn't take talent, anybody can do that. That's not racing. That's called blocking. and we aren't here to block, we are here to race. I even worked [on that] when the boys ran the Russel series. I worked for them, telling them 'guys, we have to start it here, at this level' - right from the word 'go' that stops it, because it's dangerous, first of - that's the main reason, but it also kills the show. If you have guys passing each other, that's the fun of the show. And as far as I am concerned, if somebody pulls over, they should black-flag him. If somebody makes a move to block, they should black-flag him and bring him in. If he allows the guy to pass him, then he gets the opportunity to pass the guy back, and that's what racing is all about. We are working on that. It's not fair to the ones who don't block. It acts like a cancer - it just keeps growing, it happens. I never did agree with it, but I tell you, if somebody blocked me more than I wanted them to, I'd mark them on the dash, and if need be, sometimes I'd use it. That's what it causes, and that's why it can't be done, because it just continues on.

"I think they are working hard on it, and eventually we will get it straightened out."

Mears: "It helped a lot. The main thing is the momentum. The guys they work their tail of anyway - winning or not - but when you get the results after all the effort you put in, it just uplifts the spirit and gets the momentum going, and then you continue on with it. And I think - you say the long drought - we were very close last year to winning races, and mechanical problems or whatever kept us out of the winner's circle. It's not like we were that far off last year - as far as it seems - but we did not win any races, and that's what everybody looks at. To be able to get a couple of them, back-to-back like this, it just reinforces that Penske, Team Marlboro, is still there, and I hope we'll win some more. We've got the ball rolling; now that we can keep it rolling it should come out very good at the end."

McHale: "With that we'll wrap it up for today, I want to say thanks again to our guests, Rick Mears and Al Unser Jr., we want to wish the best to Marlboro Team Penske in the upcoming Motorola 300, this Saturday at Gateway Intl. Raceway."