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T.E. McHALE: We are joined now by Paul's teammate, Dario
Franchitti, the runnerup in the 1999 FedEx Championship Series.
Good afternoon. Thanks for being on the call today.
T.E. McHALE: Dario was half of a historic battle for the 1999 FedEx Championship Series Championship as he and Juan Montoya concluded the season tied atop the points standings for the first time in CART's 21-year history. Although Montoya claimed the Championship on a tie-breaker, that did nothing to detract from a spectacular season for Franchitti which included victories at Toronto, Detroit and Australia; a series high 11 podium finishes and pole positions at Mid-Ohio in Australia. Dario scored points in 16 of 20 starts including 9 of the last 10 and scored a series high 128 points on road or street courses. He is finished on the podium in 15 of his last 26 FedEx Championship Series starts dating to his first career victory at Road America in 1998. He recorded only the 7th 200-point season since the current scoring system went into effect in 1983 and finished second in the FedEx Championship Series with 212 points. Dario joins us today in the final stages of his recovery from a fractured pelvis and brain contusions sustained in a February 9th testing accident during CART spring training at Homestead Miami Speedway. He has been cleared to drive by CART's Director of Medical Affairs and is expected to test at Nazareth Speedway Sunday and Monday after which a determination will be made on his status for the season opening event at Homestead. Although the team test will be closed to public and media, Team KOOL Green will provide daily reports of Dario's progress. We will open the call for questions for Dario. Question: You are in Austria right now doing your fitness program with your trainer?
Question: You were over there for how many days and what kind of activity did you get up to?
Then we started working on getting the heart rate up a bit; getting all the systems working again and the body getting used to that kind of exercise. Then we worked on, really, leg strength, for a lot of the time we had sets of stairs that are in the village that we were working on, one set 165 steps sort of 1 and 2 grade and the other stairs, 300 something stairs and slightly less grade. We worked first of all, walking on the 300 stairs. I think the first day we did 1,500 stairs. By the end of the week we managed to get up to 1,600 stairs, up running, and 1,600 walking down, so we are pretty happy with that. Question: You are obviously feeling --
Question: Is there going to be any tension on your part getting back into the cockpit after a wreck like that?
Question: Do you kind of feel like you are stepping into this from behind because of all the testing you missed?
Paul has been doing a great job. He has been shouldering the brunt of the work, really, and the development work with the engineers at Team KOOL Green have done a great job. So although I do not have the mileage myself, the team has got development mileage. Hopefully, I will be able to get back in there as if I hadn't left. I don't have any other way of looking at it. I can't start the season thinking, oh, I am behind, I haven't had testing because I am already looking for excuses; I am not looking for excuses, I am looking to win races. Question: What compels a guy to get back into a car after a crash like that? What is it that drives you guys that is a little bit different maybe from what you'd call normal people? I don't know if you could address --
Question: What are your impressions of Michael Andretti, if you had to sum him up to someone, what he has been like competing against him and what does he kind of bring to the table that is different?
Question: Don Halliday moved over to Team Rahal. What are your impressions of Don, what did he bring to the table as far as engineering goes? What made him a little bit special?
Question: What was it like to run a Championship season like did you last year, where it is a 20-race grind and you get to the end and you are tied for the points, yet you don't win the Championship because of the asterisk, I guess you want to call it, is it -- does it get you even more for the last year? How would you describe that experience?
After we left the last race I just went away and started building on what I was hoping to do this year. Question: I know CART is looking at restructuring their schedule. Do you see problem with the existing schedule? Is there a need to have to maybe get some of your races earlier in the season so you can quit before football seasons kicks in this September?
Restricted the testing there which is a good thing, I think. Too much testing, I think it can be bad for the actual racing because the teams perfect everything so much. I think 20 races with less testing is actually a pretty good schedule. Question: I know that there was a lot of speculation in the press about or at least privately among us about what Ashley would say after your accident. Now the shoe will be on the other foot with her running in the celebrity race at Long Beach. How are you feeling about that?
Question: You are going to have any trepidation about it or are you giving her some pointers?
Question: She is a true race fan?
Question: When all these changes that -- teams have gone on these tremendous makeovers, it is almost like to the outsider, it is like looking at the winner of the Super Bowl, you know, throws out the coach and gets a whole new offense. What are we to make of that, these major changes that have occurred in so many of these teams, players, cars, motors, everything?
I just think a lot of people have seen, you know, that they think the grass is greener. And over here at Team Green we were quite happy - partners with Honda and Reynard, I think these guys work, you know, I think they do a great job and they work so hard, everything they do is great. So if anybody comes up with something better, Honda and Reynard will push so hard that, again, we will be up at the front is how I feel. I have faith in the people I am working with. With Firestone, unfortunately, there is no competition for them just now so it is a little bit boring for their engineers, but they are still supplying great tires. Question: Even though there were so few cars on Goodyears last year, what effect will going to basically a spec tire have on the series this year?
I just think it is one area of competition you don't have anymore which is kind of disappointing because Firestone loved to show off what great tires they have by winning races. Unfortunately when they win races now, they are only fighting against themselves. That is the downside to that. The downside to a tire wars we had before is that tires get softer and softer and corner speeds get higher and obviously the danger increases a little bit. But I tell you, there is nothing quite like a car with new Firestone Tires in a qualifying lap. When they are at their best, it is a great feeling. Maybe the tires are a bit harder this year and the grip won't be quite as much. Question: This time last year you and I talked about the upcoming season and correct me if I am wrong, but I guaged you as being cautiously optimistic. How are you looking towards this year? More optimistic? More cautiously optimistic? Just going to get what you can get?
So I think that with the guys at Team KOOL Green and, as I say, the Honda, Reynard, Firestone package, I expect it to be challenging. Question: After having to sit out - and I am not sure- is this the first time you have ever been forced out of a car due to an injury?
Question: Mentally does that change you and your attitude towards racing, and your attitude towards just life in general?
Question: I have been away ever since spring training. Was there a cause for the crash ever found?
Question: What is the last thing you remember?
Question: Have you talked to Steve recently?
Question: I just wondered how he is doing right now.
Question: Seventhgear.com, hello, dario.
Question: We apologize for that. We don't make them up. We get fed stuff and a lot of times it doesn't turn out.
Question: We will be more careful next time.
Question: Has Ashley expressed any interest at all to you about maybe auditioning for the Champs movie?
Question: In light of your accident at Homestead, my understanding is Kirk Russell paid a visit yesterday to Antonio Ferrari's shop where he has his new IPS safety barrier. I was just was wondering what your thoughts are on a barrier such as that on an oval and/or a road course to improve safety; are you pushing CART for it? Have you spoken to CART about doing something?
I think whatever they can do they need to start working at it. That wall is awful hard and the speeds we are running around the ovals -- you think about it, you look at Formula I track and the speeds they are running are nowhere near ours and yet they have all these big gravel traps and stuff and yet we run on an oval and we have these problems. We have to look at that seriously. I was talking to people like Gil and Christian and Max came to visit me, we were getting in that a little bit, but not too much. Question: On a scale of 0 to 100% where do you feel you will be at Homestead?
T.E. McHALE: We will take one final question for Dario before we let him go for the day and bring Juan out on the call. Question: Do you feel perhaps in a funny way that maybe-- you were maybe better prepared for this season than in the past given that, you know, given that you are -- given that you have had this kind of odd amount of time to kind of prepare mentally and at least physically from the waist up?
I am pretty happy with where I am just now. Question: Juan Montoya, you have raced against him some, even before you got into Champ Cars and I just wondered if you could kind of talk about him kind of like you talked about Michael Andretti a little while ago talk about what makes him Juan Montoya.
No, I mean, Juan -- I think the one thing is he tries pretty hard. I think last year to come from in his first year he didn't make too many mistakes, but when he was poofed he did make them, but he is -- he is fast. He is one of the fast ones. He keeps me honest, I would say is probably -- he keeps me motivated and keeps me pushing because we had a pretty good battle last year. T.E. McHALE: Thanks, Dario, for spending some time with us this morning. Best of luck in your recovery. Best of luck in your test this weekend and throughout the 2000 FedEx Championship Series season. Looks like we are going to see you back soon and we are all very happy to see that.
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