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T.E. McHale: Scott Pruett, the driver of the number 20
Visteon Reynard Ford enters Sunday's
Miller Lite 200 at the Milwaukee Mile,
following a fifth place finish in last
Saturday's Motorola 300 at Gateway
International Raceway outside St. Louis. His
Performance tied a season best previously
accomplished in the FedEx Championship
Series season opener at Homestead. Scott
owns two career victories and three
career pole positions in nine years in the
series. He is one of four drivers to capture
both a pole position and a victory last
year.
Scott has scored PPG Cup points in five of six
career starts at the Milwaukee Mile,
including the past four in a row. His career
best at Milwaukee is a fifth place finish in
1989. His career best start is eighth, last
year. Scott enters this weekend's Miller Lite
200 ranked tenth in the PPG Cup standings
with 21 points.
Question: How does it feel to finish in the top five at
St. Louis?
Scott Pruett: We finally got that monkey off our back. We
were one for five, that's not very good. Starting 17th, working
our way up to 5th. The car was good, the team did a great job.
We were real pleased with the finish overall.
Question: Although you did the original testing for
the Firestone tires before they came back
into racing, do you still keep that edge or
do you still do a lot of testing?
Scott Pruett: We still do a lot
of testing for them. They have been looking at using a lot of the
teams to do the testing over the past year. I think what they are
beginning to see is if you get too much information from too
many drivers it is hard to pick your direction. And I think what
they are going to do is go back to testing primarily with three
two, three drivers where they have a real good relationship with
from the standpoint of producing good tires, which would be
myself, Zanardi, Greg Moore. This is well has been talked
about. They can take that data, like they have done in the past
and then be able to move forward more quickly on the
development of the tire instead of over the past year what
they are looking at is using probably ten different drivers to do a
little bit of testing. But what was happening was they were
getting a lot of different data back and it has been very difficult
to make a clear decision on what tire they wanted. In answering
your question, not to draw this out too far, yes, we do still do a
lot of testing for them and it looks like we will continue to
probably increase that amount.
Question: What do you think about the new speedway
wing set up you had to use in St. Louis?
Scott Pruett: From a
safety standpoint, it definitely slowed the cars down. From a
passing standpoint, from a racing standpoint, it made it a little bit
more difficult. This was the first time that we ran speedway
wings on what I would consider a short oval. Even though
Homestead is a short oval, it's still different from going to St.
Louis. I think overall it was a good decision. I think as we learn
more about it, we will continue to make it better and better.
Question: What have you guys found in your oval
testing program that might translate into
a good result this weekend at the
Milwaukee Mile?
Question: What is the most difficult thing about that
historic oval?
Scott Pruett: Getting the set up right.
We found over the last probably the last three or four years,
our set up has tended to go loose. Which is the problem with
most of the teams there. It looks like Newman/Haas and
Penske, Greg Moore, they've always seemed to at least over
the last two or three years run very, very strong there. With
our testing we feel we are getting a pretty good handle on it and
should be contenders this weekend.
Question: When you get into a situation, especially on
the ovals, where the field is so close, is
there added pressure to start finding that
extra 100th of a second, one-tenth of a
second, which could be the difference
between starting first or starting 16th?
Scott Pruett: Exactly. The difference is I was about a half a second off the
pole time at St. Louis and I started 17th. If you are off a little
bit, you are off a lot. Fortunately we've been with our
relationship with Visteon, they being the new sponsor to us this
year and the new technology they bring, we actually just started
looking at some technical advances they are bringing to the
team, some of the stuff we tested at Milwaukee last weekend.
Bringing not just tenths of a second, but hundredths of a second,
as we see, the competition is so very close. A tenth of a second
is like an eternity. A hundredth is a difference between four,
five positions. As we move forward and as all teams move
forward, I know we are focused on any time, we can pick up
any speed and we are very focused on that. And we are
working very hard on it. It comes in small amounts, very, very
small amounts these days, and you have to be focused. It is
amazing because all teams and the drivers have to get the very
last bit of performance out of those cars. And to do that
everything becomes critical, the shocks, the springs, the set up,
the toes, the cambers. And it's been amazing to me seeing that
development over the past four or five years as the level of the
competition just continues to get tougher.
Question: Physically, how have you been feeling
after the last year or two?
Question: At this point, mentally has it been tough
for you?
Scott Pruett: Yes and no. No, from the standpoint that
everything that's happened has been out of my control. It is not
like I've been crashing race cars and making stupid mistakes,
and putting the thing in the fence. You can't blame it on the
crew either. Catching on fire was an issue where we had
problem with the buckeye(?), when it went in and cut an
O-ring. We broke the shift linkage, which was a manufacturing
fault from Reynard. We broke engines in Motegi, which was a
Cosworth problem. The only one we can blame on the crew is
running out of gas at Long Beach. But everybody is determined
and focused and really pushing hard to turn things around. St.
Louis was a good shot in the arm for us. We had a real strong
run. The crew did a good job. The car was pretty good in the
race, and we continued to make it better as we ran faster and
faster. In fact, the closing stage was we were as far fast as
anybody on the race track. Virtually the only time we had on
the track was Friday, first session and then the warm ups. We
were still working on our set up as the race was going on, trying
to make improvements in the car. As we look forward to
Milwaukee this weekend, I think we should have a good strong
run. We had a good test down there. The car looks to be good
and solid. Go down there and have a good race and get a good
result.
Question: Do you ever look at the point standings
and say, if I had not had these freak
problems that we had, I wouldn't be
looking at who's ahead of me in the top ten,
I would be looking at who's behind me in the
top ten. You could very well be in the top
five at this point.
Scott Pruett: Well, if and that's a big (word)--
those two little letters have a pretty big meaning. If things had
turned around we would be three or four in the championship
right now. They aren't. We could say the same thing about last
year. We could say if we didn't get run into at Van Couver and
if things wouldn't have happened got ran into at Laguna, da,
da, da, da. But the reality of it is that we are tenth in the
championship. The good side of it is we have the potential to
finish top three and four every race. We have to just turn that
into results. The first step forward was St. Louis. For us as a
team that was a real good shot in the arm for us as far as
enthusiasm and excitement goes and we'll just carry that on to
Milwaukee.
Question: Scott, with the new teammate, Adrian this
year, how is it going? How is he helping you
and how are you helping him out?
Scott Pruett: Actually it
has been going great. Adrian and I get along very well. The
nice thing is that our set ups are very similar. Last year Raul's
set up and my set up were significantly different. So all the
testing he did and I did, it was very difficult to draw conclusions
to make improvements for both of us. Where this year, we're
able to move forward. All testing I do helps myself and Adrian.
All testing Adrian does helps me as well as him. As we ran at
St. Louis and most of the races, we start out with different set
ups on the car, and look to see how we can make improvements
and then we get together and look at those after each session to
make improvements as a team as well. Our philosophy is if we
can get both of the cars running at the front of the field, let the
drivers work it out up there. So Adrian has been running very
well. He's third in the championship right now and our
relationship is great.
Question: I have a question regarding what you
would recommend to someone getting
started in racing, would you recommend
they take the road you did with the
open-wheels through SCCA and Fords?
Scott Pruett: It all
depends on the age of the person getting started. The best road
is go carts. In fact, I did my first race when I was eight years
old and worked my way up over the years. It is a great starting
ground. If you look at most of the drivers, whether it is Michael
or Al Jr., J.J. Lehto, Gugelmin, those guys started racing go
carts, Schumacher, Senna, they started racing go carts, that's
the best place to start.
From there, for me I just took whatever route I could, which
led me to sedan cars back to open-wheeled cars.
Fortunately these days having go carts and Formula Atlantic
and Indy Lights Series, there is the opportunity for young
aspiring drivers to at least get out there and race at the same
tracks that we do. Get seen by the major league teams. Now
we have more of a minor league and Double A, Single A, Triple
A system to move up the ranks into the big leagues.
Question: If we could jump ahead one week to the
race here in Detroit, what if anything do
you know about the changes that they've
made here in the track?
Scott Pruett: Actually, about two months
ago I traveled to Detroit and went out to the race track, saw all
the changes and everything looks to be very, very good.
One of the biggest issues that had been with that circuit out on
Belle Isle is that it is so difficult to pass. The race is just follow
the leader up to this point. So as we go by start finish, we make
the sweeper to the right and the sweeper to the left and now we
have a good straight away where it looks like there is a good
opportunity to do some passing. It also changes what used to be
turns three, four, five, six as we go across the bridge out
towards the straight away as it comes along the river there.
That's from a driver's standpoint one of the biggest complaint
we had about that race track, was the fact it was so difficult to
pass. We made some changes and it looks like it is going to
make for a lot better racing.
Question: Are you going to see a lot more activity at
that front straight away, even though
there is a 90 degree turn at the end of it?
Scott Pruett: Yeah, but what happens is it looks to be long enough where at
least it will give the opportunity get up underneath some guy.
Because of the track layout, it is almost impossible to pass
anybody there. Even if you are quicker. And those opportunities
where you do try to make a pass, it looks like half the time you
wind up having contact with the guy and one of the cars go out.
It definitely looks like an improvement. And I'm looking forward
to going back there and competing in a couple of weeks.
Question:
What are you looking forward to the rest
of the year? We talked about the next two
weekends, what about the rest?
Scott Pruett: We are looking for first and foremost good results. It looks like
the potential is there. Having a new primary engineer and
second engineer, we are all coming to grips with our
relationship, not from a personal level, from a performance
standpoint. We have had great race cars, now we have to look
at getting a better qualifying car. As we get into the season, I
think that we will continue to get stronger and stronger. We are
looking for great results. We are looking forward to our
relationship with Visteon, which is a new sponsor for us. It
looks like we will be continuing with those guys for three years
and beyond. Now that we are getting off the old on the road
courses, I think our performance will continue to get better as
well.
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