Race No. 14
Texaco Havoline 200
Elkhart Lake's Road America
Elkhart Lake, WisconsinAugust 14 - 16, 1998
Raceday Quotes from Elkhart Lake: | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 2nd |
| ALEX ZANARDI | |
| Congratulations to Christian [Fittipaldi], he's had some tough luck and it's about time that he gets a good result. I'm really happy for both him and Dario [Franchitti]. They're both good guys and they deserve good results. It was a great race after Lap 1. That was very unfortunate. In the short chute between Turns 1 and 2, I saw a puff of smoke. Everybody stopped, and that wasn't even the braking point. The first thing I did was hit the brake, but it wasn't soon enough. After that, we had to take an aggressive strategy, and thanks to my boys [in the pit crew], it paid off. I'm happy for the way I raced, although I'm disappointed for what happened on Lap 1. It's exactly what I wouldn't need after what happened last week [when he was placed on probation]. | |
 | Marlboro Penske Mercedes Finished: 27th |
| AL UNSER, Jr. | |
| I don’t know what happened. I got drilled from behind really, really hard. Someone used me for brakes. Whoever hit me didn’t care. They weren’t paying attention. People in front of me were using their heads, but whoever was behind me just wasn’t thinking. It’s a shame. We had a really good car. It just isn’t right. | |
 | Marlboro Penske Mercedes Finished: 25th |
| ANDRE RIBEIRO | |
| Unfortunately, on lap eight I suddenly developed a misfire, and my Marlboro Penske/Mercedes just stalled on the entry to the carousel. They still don’t know why this happened, but I’m confident they will find the cause and work to find a solution. I’m going to take the next couple of weeks off to rest my leg, and we should be set to go in Vancouver. | |
 | Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 16th |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| It’s just so unfortunate. I really don’t know what else to say. The Valvoline-Cummins car was running very strong, our pit stops were excellent and I thought for sure we had a really good chance for the race victory. When the engine failed, there was no warning at all, so I have no idea what happened. It just let go. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished: 15th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| This is very, very, very disappointing. We were right there on the last lap and the tire broke. After that point there was nothing we could do. We had a solid second place run going and if we wouldn't have had problems, it would have been a good day. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 8th |
| BOBBY RAHAL | |
| We had a good car today. Maybe a car that could have won. We were just unlucky with the caution flags. We were in position with fuel management, but, when Bryan's yellow came out we had to pit to be in the proper sequence for fuel. The car went loose when I lost the (left) side panel of the rear wing. I guess it (side plate) is there for a reason. I'm sorry my last race here wasn't a good one. I think we had the car to be up front and I was in the right position - the lead. It didn't work out that way. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 23rd |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| I saw him coming. I don't know what caused him to run up on me. I was trying to talk to the crew on the radio and then Alex went up and over me. When he went up on me, Alex's car hit me on the hand. It's okay, it just brushed me. | |
 | Hogan Truck Leasing Reynard Mercedes Finished: 18th |
| JJ LEHTO | |
| I just started to lose power. Then something big happened at the back. I don’t know if it was an electrical fire or what. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished: 3rd |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| I honestly don't know what happened [to create his sore neck]. This has never happened before. This morning, I went out and did five laps and after I came in, I could hardly turn my head. I took a shot and I took a couple of Advils, but when we went out to do the parade laps, I thought I was done. Then my neck started getting hot and I started feeling better. Other than that, the race was fine. We had a good day. We've had a hard time getting back here since the last time. We have five more races to go, and hopefully, I can visit you guys again and we can get ready for next year. My car was very slow down the straights. We ran a little bit too much wing in the car. It was very hard for me to pass, but people could pass me very easily. We had a very bad first stop, I went from sixth to 14th which obviously cost us a little bit. But other than that we ran smoothly the rest of the day and I am very happy to be on the podium again. This season has been very hard for me. The car has the performance. It goes quick, but we just have not been able to put the races together. | |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 9th |
| JIMMY VASSER | |
| We had a lot of problems today, it wasn’t a very good day for us. The dashboard acted up early, the gearbox was misbehaving, especially the 3-4 upshift, and we would be blown off on the straight because of it. And the handling was off, it was real loose going into the corners and then understeer coming out. So we hung on as best we could and got as many points as we could. I guess it wasn’t too bad, all things considered, but we’ve had better days. | |
 | Bettenhausen Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes Finished: 26th |
| HELIO CASTRO-NEVES | |
| We had an exhaust problem. The header pipe broke. We were 13th fastest in this morning’s practice. On the first lap, I smelled a little smoke. On the second lap, the cockpit filled with smoke. By the third lap I was losing power. Then it was over. It’s a shame; a lot of the guys who were behind me finished in the top 10. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Finished: 19th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| I wound up with no brakes. Every corner the pedal would go down to the bulkhead. Twice coming into Canada Corner I ran wide pumping up the brakes, then it started to happen in every corner. We stopped to bleed them, but it didn’t help. I would’ve been in the fence somewhere if we stayed out there. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Finished: 7th |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| On the parade lap, smoke started wafting up out of the cockpit and getting into my eyes. We have yet to get to the bottom of that. So I came in, and we changed the steering wheel and started from the back of the pack. After that, we basically just chopped our way through the field. We had a strong race, the guys gave us good stops and, except for a couple of little problems, produced a solid top-seven finish for the team. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Reynard Ford Finished: 14th |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| My car had a lot of push all over the track during the race. However, we reached our first goal, which was to finish the race. We are happy with that and we'll keep working to give better performance in the following races. Today I caught a cold, but I feel ok. | |
 | Visteon Reynard Ford Finished: 20th |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| Ford has been doing a hell of a job with us all season long and it's unfortunate that we did have an engine failure. It does unfortunately happen from time to time and we will just make the most of it and hope they just keep working at it and we will be back at Vancouver. ....[On the start of the race]... It's a tough situation. In my case I just got whacked from behind. I have not had a chance to look at it, but it was a pretty good lick. We need to just calm down for the first two or three turns and get the race underway. | |
 | LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda Finished: 4th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| I made a rookie mistake [his spin on lap 45] and it cost us a podium finish. It was a mistake on my part, but I guess fourth place is better than nothing. I feel bad for my team, they did a great job today. | |
 | Arciero/Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 12th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| We were running well but I got passed by one car and then lost my momentum and four more went by me. Max did a good job today; he passed me in Turn Two. I made a mistake. We had a good run, the crew did a good job and we’ll take the points. | |
 | MCI Arciero Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 11th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| I am really, really pleased for the MCI Toyota car and team. Iain Watt (engineer) did a good job today as always. We chose a very risky setup. When I saw the car on the grid I thought we had a superspeedway configuration. It paid off and we could hang out there with the faster guys; we had enough speed to stay in their draft. The MCI crew did a good job on the pit stops. It’s more points for the car, the MCI team and Toyota program, it’s really great. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 1st |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| The first win is great. I hope it is the first of many. When I looked at my pit board after the last stop and saw P1 and +10 to Michael (Andretti), I said 'I've seen this before… in Toronto'. And I just slowed it down. I was careful with the brakes and just took it easy. The Team KOOL Green guys gave me great pit stops and that enabled me to run away with it. It was very difficult to pass anybody on track, so I just concentrated on good stops and quick 'out' laps. After the last stop, I saw 'plus-10' on the pit board, and that kind of worried me, because that's exactly what it said in Toronto before I went off [after leading 76 of the first 79 laps]. I was slowing it down and being cautious on the brakes the last couple of laps and cruising it home. I could really run fast after the last stop because of the fuel mileage we were getting. The guys at Team KOOL Green are going to have a party tonight. They did a great job. The stops were awesome. And I hope this [victory] is the first of many. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 6th |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| I was just hanging on the last 10 laps. My drink dispenser didn't work the whole race and the handling of the car wasn't that good. But, we finished sixth and picked up some points. And I'm really happy for Dario because he certainly deserves it. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 28th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| Somebody in front of me spun and I tried to avoid getting involved, but then Paul [Tracy] moved me into the grass and I ended up in the sand trap. We’re all aggressive and we all want to win, but it’s a shame when an over-aggressive driver ends up putting others out of the race. The Blue Crew worked so hard on setting up the car. We had a good chance on finishing up at the front. I couldn’t see Unser. Somebody spun him, and there was a big cloud of dust. It’s really too bad. We had a great car this morning and thought we had a good chance for the race--same for Unser. We’re all aggressive and competitive, and everybody’s trying for a position. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finished: 5th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| [On the black flag for the pit speed violation] I got confused with the buttons on the steering wheel. There's too many buttons there. I hit the wrong one as I was exiting pit road. It's a shame because we were having a good race. I tell you we have a good car. Overall I am pretty happy with the result. We moved into third in the points and gained some on second place. We just need to keep finishing races and do the best we can and things will turn out for the Tecate/Quaker State Team. | |
 | Baan Software Davis Racing Lola Ford Finished: 10th |
| ARND MEIER | |
| We had a very good run today. The car was running very, very good and I tried to improve my position but at the end the two drivers in front of me got a little faster at the end. I was a little faster than them in the corners, but not fast enough to catch them. | |
 | Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 21st |
| GREG MOORE | |
| We had a great strategy planned. When I came in, the Blue Crew did a good pit stop. When I left the pits, something in the drive line broke. Even though we had problems all weekend, I think our strategy would have paid off and we could have won this race. Our plan was for two stops. We knew we’d run out on that first tank, but everything was going according to plan. I came in, and we had a good stop. Then I tried to leave the pits, and the race was done. I selected first gear and something in the driveline broke. I’m not worried about the championship. I just want to win some more races. It’s real disappointing. | |
 | Team Kool Green Team manager |
| BARRY GREEN | |
| This is a special race track and it has been a long time. It was just a matter of time with Dario. And what a perfect race he drove. The pit crew was perfect. And for Paul to finish sixth from where he had to start; it's just a great day for Team KOOL Green. I'm just emotionally drained. We've finally got the monkey off our back. To get that second win is going to be very, very hard. But, I think it will be easier than this one. | |