Race No. 12

Michigan 500
Brooklyn Michigan
July 28, 1996

	#99 Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz
GREG MOORE
[finished 17th]: "Having to run close to 200 laps knowing you have no chance to win makes for a very long day. I lost some of my motivation, being 21 laps behind the leader. It's too bad, because the car was just perfect. Again, it was bad luck. After my long pit stop, it was jut a question of bringing the car home."

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	#6 Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Lola Ford Cosworth XD
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
[finished 22nd]: "The car was really good. I'm really disappointed that the alternator went. The battery just stopped. No question about it, we had the best handling car out there today. I thought we might have a shot at winning. We've had the car [to contend] for almost all of the races, we would be looking good in the points because we ran well each time we DNF'd. We would have had to come in every 20 laps to change the battery so we decided not to take a chance if we really couldn't run up front."

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	#31 LCI International Lola Honda Tasman Motorsports Group
ANDRE RIBEIRO
[about his penalty early in the race]: "I was screaming inside the car because I had to go to the end of the line. I didn't like it. I had a fantastic race. The car was strong and fast for 500 miles. It was a very good and very reliable car."

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	#11 Kmart/Budweiser Lola Ford Newman/Haas Racing
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
[finished 10th]: "I was really worried about Emerson at the beginning of the race. It took them so long to get him out of the car that I thought he was really hurt. I felt so much better when Brian [Lisles, engineer] came over the radio and told me that Fernando [de Paiva, Fittipaldi's manager] checked on Emerson, and he was okay. They took him to get X-rays. "I think we could have finished seventh if my front wing didn't fly off. We had to come in to replace it and it takes a long time. I was one lap down at the time and then I dropped down further. With no warning, the front wing flew off. It hit my wind screen hard enough to break it and also took a big chip out of my mirror and overhead camera. I'm so lucky that it didn't hit me. "At the end of the race, Vasser passed me with about three or four laps to go. It was good racing. It's nice to score points again. Hopefully, we'll come back stronger at Mid-Ohio."

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	#7 Cristal/Copec/Mobil 1 Team Scandia Lola Ford Cosworth
ELISEO SALAZAR
[finished 11th]: "We drove a good race, a sensible race, because we didn't have the car to fight with the leaders. We tried to stay away from trouble and we fought understeer the whole day. We tried to adjust but we didn't really succeed. I wanted to finish in the top 10, but all in all, it was a good result."

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	#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford
ROBBY GORDON
[finished eighth]: "We were a little bit off on our setup in the beginning. The wind was blowing in a little bit of a different direction and it definitely caught us out. I was holding on to the steering wheel so tight that I called in to Derrick and told him that they were going to have to pry my hands off the steering wheel at the end of the race. I had a handful. But Derrick and Rob [Edwards] did a great job. We all worked together. I told them what the car was doing and they turned the car around."

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	#10 Delco Electronics High Tech Team Galles Lola Mercedes
DAVY JONES
[finished 12th]: "Well, we had our hands full today. The car wasn't very good in traffic at the start of the race, but we worked with it and it was much better in the end. I'm not sure what happened to the front wing, but I guess Christian [Fittipaldi] had a similar problem. Some days you're on and some day's you're off; we just didn't hit it right today. All of these teams and drivers have raced here once this year, so I was a little behind. It was definitely a lot to take in for one weekend."

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	#18 Miller Racing Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal
BOBBY RAHAL
[finished 24th]: "That was strange. Everything was fine, and as I was leaving the pits, the engine made a weird sound, like a whirling sound and mashing. Like a fuel pump or something. It just wouldn't run going down the pits. We got back to the pits and there was water everywhere. So much for running conservatively. I was just taking it easy in the first few laps."

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	#12 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
JIMMY VASSER
[finished ninth]: "What a long day! I think something is wrong with the car; it just wasn't right. We had an ill-handling car all day. We also had a couple of cut tires. The car went big-time loose, the radios went bad, and I picked up some debris from Parker Johnstone's accident. My lap speeds varied from 207 to 230 mph. That will tell you something about the problems we had today. I'm tired of driving for one or two points, but we're still leading the championship and that's the most important thing. We've had good tests at Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake [sites of the next two races], and I have as good a chance as anyone at those places."

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	#2 Marlboro Penske Mercedes
AL UNSER, Jr.
[finished fourth]: "We ended up better today, than we did here in the month of May [Unser finished eighth in the Inaugural U.S. 500] which was one of our goals. Mercedes-Benz gave us a great engine and Goodyear gave us great tires, and I think they're the ones that made us competitive today. We helped the car in the beginning of the race and at the end we ended up hurting it a little bit because we wound up going loose. I'm really proud of the Marlboro Penske Team; they busted their tails today. "It's been a competitive year and we're trying to be as consistent as we can. We moved one step closer to getting that No. 1 back on the Marlboro car."

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	#8 Pennzoil Special Reynard Honda Hall Racing
GIL de FERRAN
[finished 19th]: "It's a shame. We were running really well. The car was working well. We easily could have had a top-six finish. The wheel [from Zanardi's car] came close to hitting me. It took off my left inside mirror. This was my lucky day. It would have been nice to win on an oval this year, but maybe in the future."

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	#28 Shell Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal
BRYAN HERTA
[finished second, matching his previous career-best finish at Cleveland in 1995]: [On passing Gugelmin on the last restart] "The draft is so important here. I got in Mo's draft and I zigged the right way, and moved into second place. "At the end of the race, we took out a lot of drag, which we had put in in the middle, when we put in the Gurney flap. It was Andre Ribeiro's day to win, I'm happy. "Mercedes proved a lot. The car worked very well. The horsepower was improved. This really helped us out. We're pleased with the continuing development."

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	#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
ALEX ZANARDI
[finished 21st]: "The car was getting a bit loose. I went high to get around traffic, and the back of the car began to swing around — and I just wasn't able to keep it off the wall"

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	#32 Tecate Beer/Quaker State Lola Honda Tasman Motorsports Group
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
[finished 20th]: "It's a bad feeling. The guys were doing a great job. I had a great car, but naturally, I didn't get to finish the race like I wanted to. It was a clutch problem. The car was very good and very fast, and I was waiting for the last 20 laps to battle my teammate, Andre."

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	#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford
ROBBY GORDON
[about starting the X-car] "We did run a lot better in the XD by myself. If I lost the draft in the race, I'd have to run by myself. We thought we would qualify a little better yesterday. We were all disappointed with our qualifying. You know, when you're back that far, you might as well take a gamble and just go back a little farther and see whey you can run."

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	#16 Bettenhaused Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes-Benz
STEFAN JOHANSSON
[finished a season-high fifth]: "The car was almost perfect all day. We just had a little push when the car had a full fuel load, but once we had run a few laps and traffic loosened, the car was fine. It was really great, especially after the season we've had. The car hasn't been good since Nazareth. Really, I had a good car and it was a good car to race. This is also our best result of the season, so we're obviously very happy about that."

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	#17 Hollywood Reynard Ford
photo Mike Levitt
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
[finished third]: "I probably had one of the best cars I've ever had in terms of balance. It was a decent day. The start was very frightful, going through the debris of Emmo. The nine pit stops sure didn't help, but I didn't think it would be a good place to run without mirrors. I was pressing the throttle so hard today that my right leg fell asleep, and I had to switch to my left foot sometimes because I kept so much pressure on my right foot . But I think we got about as much out of this package as we're going to get."

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	#98 Eagle Mk-V Toyota
photo Mike Levitt
P.J. JONES
[finished 16th]: "It wasn't glamorous, but we finished, and that's great for the entire AAR Eagle Toyota program. It's nice to finish. We didn't have the perfect car by any means, but we finished and that's one feather in our cap."

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	#36 Eagle Mk-V Toyota
JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II
[finished 14th]: "We got what we were trying to get, which was having a consistent car and making it to the end. I'm very pleased for AAR, Toyota, TRD [Toyota Racing Development] and Castrol, because this was a completely different situation from our performance in the U.S. 500. That's why it's so good to come back to Michigan. The car was on the race track the entire time, including practice, and that was a great help to our finish and the development of the Eagle Toyota."

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	#1 Brahma Sports Team Reynard Ford Cosworth
RAUL BOESEL
[finished seventh]: "It feels so good to finish a race and to get some points. We had a problem with the boost; it kept dropping down in the middle of the corners and we had to race like that all day. By myself, the car was fine, but I couldn't run well in traffic and that's where we would lose. The pit stops were great and we gained positions on every stop. Everyone on the crew was very good. I am just so pleased to finish."

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