microphone pict Scott Pruett:
Should'a Won, Should'a Won
Jim DeFord interviews Patrick Racing driver Scott Pruett

©1996 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.

Exclusive Interview

SpeedCenter Editor, Jim DeFord, interviewed Patrick Racing driver Scott Pruett at Portland International Raceway, on June 22 in Portland.

SpeedCenter: "Congratulations on starting on the front row."

Scott Pruett: "Thanks."

SpeedCenter: "How was it to watch the other drivers from the [ABC] camera stand continue on after you broke[during Saturday qualifying]?"

Scott Pruett: "It's just real disappointing. The guys worked so hard. Everybody at Patrick Racing and Firestone worked so hard. Firestone obviously wasn't hurt much, but the team - they're a team - well, we're disappointed and you know, we had the chance and I figured a realistic chance of getting the pole today and it was cut short because of engine failure."

SpeedCenter: "Do you think the team would have been able to put out the backup car if you were allowed to return to the pits?"

Scott Pruett: "We wouldn't have done that anyway. Because of the amount of time, what happens is you forfeit your [qualifying time] if you bring the backup car out. So, at that point what we had is as good as it was going to be and to try and do better than that with the backup car would have just taken too long to have that happen."

"...there was a lot of talk last year about Nigel Mansell coming back and running together and I think that would be an ideal situation for myself as well as Nigel."
Scott Pruett
SpeedCenter: "Al Harrington wants to know when you're going on Dance Fever."

Scott Pruett: "[laughing] Yeah right. Not for awhile. Not until we get another pole at least."

SpeedCenter: "Would the [Patrick Racing] team ever consider another car and driver and would you enjoy having a teammate?"

Scott Pruett: "As we've seen with two cars I think that with the right set of circumstances two cars are a good deal and I think that in a lot of cases it's not a good deal. And Pat [Patrick] is very understanding of that.

"For instance there was a lot of talk last year about Nigel Mansell coming back and running together and I think that would be an ideal situation for myself as well as Nigel. So as long as the chemistry is the drivers is good I think it's definitely a benefit to have that.

"You look at Jimmy Vasser and Alex Zanardi and they seem to work very well together. If you look at, and read some of the stuff you've heard, Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. don't seem to work quite as well together as others, so In the right set of circumstances I think a two car team is very good."

SpeedCenter: "Your hardcore fans stuck with you through the Truesports fiasco. How did you deal with what the media was saying?"

Scott Pruett: "You take everything the media says with a grain of salt anyway. [Everyone laughs] I don't read any press that's put out about myself - myself and/or the team. Every weekend I just try to do the best job I can. Whether things are going good or things are going bad. If you look at last year here [Portland], the tire wasn't as good as it could be, but that didn't take it away from me trying to give it 100% all the time."

SpeedCenter: " And the whole team too."

Scott Pruett: "Yeah. Exactly. And it's the same thing. Yeah, we're disappointed with the engine program. Extremely disappointed today but we can't change that and we can't fix that, so as a team we have to keep our focus.

"How can we make the car the best? How can I go as fast as I can? How can the engineers do their best job? How can the mechanics do their best job? That's where our focus is."

"For Cosworth they have to make big gains. Big, big gains to get there. Just by making the little gains we'll probably stay on par with where we are at."
Scott Pruett
SpeedCenter: "Do you see, or does the team see any new future developments with Cosworth regarding reliability and power?"

Scott Pruett: "It's ongoing. It's been ongoing. They've been working at it, but we also have to remember that Mercedes and Honda as well as Toyota, they're also making advances. They aren't sitting still. So, that target where we had to be at the first race of the year has moved up now. So, everybody has escalated that range.

"For Cosworth they have to make big gains. Big, big gains to get there. Just by making the little gains we'll probably stay on par with where we are at."

SpeedCenter: "The competition right now is so intense. We have 15 cars within one-second of each other. Does that put more pressure on you? Especially during qualifying?"

Scott Pruett: "No...I mean, it doesn't put any more pressure on me than it does the whole team. I think that when a team...I feel that the way we're working right now is in every essence a team. What we discuss. How we discuss it. The effort that those guys give. The effort that I give on the track, I think it's showing with our performance.

"Yeah, things on paper may not look as good as they could be, but I qualified first at Detroit and I was quickest at Mid-Ohio. We had the opportunity to put the car on the pole here. Could've put the car on the pole at Australia. Should'a won Long Beach. Should'a won, should'a won, should'a won.

"I mean, there's a lot of things....that if things were just in our favor a little bit, the whole season could be different, but that's not going to detract from the job that we have to do.

"We could sit here and look back...The good thing of it is, we're running for the lead. We're running to put the car on the pole. The bad thing is that we just need to keep overcoming these obstacles."

SpeedCenter: "Scott, thanks for taking the time out of your very busy schedule. Good luck."

Scott Pruett: "You're welcome. Thanks."