Race No. 5
Nazareth, PA
April 28, 1996
Saturday Quotes from Drivers and Managers at Nazareth: |
#12 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
JIMMY VASSER | |
| "The car was great. I have to hand it to the crew. Hopefully, we can get the Penskes in the race when it counts. I know we can make some changes to make the car quicker. You can win from the back here with the right setup." | |
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#99 Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
GREG MOORE | |
| "I'm disappointed. needless to
say. I was looking for a better position. I would have preferred being in
the top 10, but again, we have a good dependable race car. We worked on race
setups yesterday and this morning to have a consistent car. That we have. "The race start will be exciting, and I should manage to move up quickly. It is indeed difficult to pass on this oval, but heavy traffic should help. I'm counting on that, and I will have to be patient." | |
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#3 Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
PAUL TRACY | |
| [after practice]"The car is handling great, but
there is still some more [left]. Track conditions are perfect. They've done
such a great job after all of the snow and ice they had last winter. We're
going to work on our race setup next. [after qualifying] "I knew after the first session yesterday we were capable of getting in the 18s. I'm very proud to have set a world record. I'd like to dedicate this to my uncle who died of cancer the day before yesterday. Hopefully, we can win the race for him. "We've still got some work to do. It's tough to go fast here, but the toughest thing is to keep it going through the whole race." | |
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#6 Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Lola Ford Cosworth XD |
MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| [after morning practice]"We have
having a little problem with understeer. We worked on the usual things in
the session and improved the car. I'm going to go back and work with Peter
[engineer Peter Gibbons] to try to make it better before qualifying. [after qualifying]"Actually, I think we're in pretty good shape. I tried to go faster in Turn Two, and the front end didn't stick. I thought I'd be able to do it flat, but it just didn't stick. "Everything seems to be coming together here. We have a good race car - maybe the best package we've had this year. We should be tough in the race. We've got to come away from here with some points. At the minimum, we need to come away with a podium finish." | |
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#20 Firestone Lola Ford Patrick Racing |
SCOTT PRUETT | |
| "The car was pretty
good. I am pleased with the time, but I don't think I got everything out of
the car that I could have. The Firestone tires performed very well, and the
Patrick team did a great job preparing the car. "We made a change to the car for qualifying. We were guessing a little bit on the setup, but it looks like we made the right choice. The car was better during my qualifying run than in any of the practice sessions. [On traveling to Talladega, Alabama for this afternoon's IROC race following qualifying]: "Having the IROC race this afternoon hasn't been a distraction for me. It just has made today very hectic." | |
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#9 Marlboro Hogan Penske Mercedes-Benz |
EMERSON FITTIPALDI | |
| "We're going to try and run well, get some points, and finish the race. Paul's going to be more aggressive from the pole, and we're concerned about scoring some points for the championship. Of course, I'm going to drive aggressively, too." | |
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#21 Visa PacWest Reynard Ford |
TEO FABI | |
| "The car's still not doing what I would like it to do, but at least we're improving. There's still a lot that I'd like to get out of the car, but it's tough when you come here without doing any testing. We need more than one day to get ready for this track." | |
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#11 Kmart/Budweiser Lola Ford Newman/Haas Racing |
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| [after morning practice]"The car is
good in turns one and two but not in three. The car is understeering. We
made a big improvement since last session but we need to come up with
something for turn three before qualifying. It's a big gamble because you
can't make any changes to the car once you start qualifying [as in
street/road course qualifying]. [after qualifying]"I had too much push in Turn Two. The car felt better this morning. The track has changed a lot. We tried to anticipate the weather, but we ended up not having enough front wing. Last year, I started in 17th place and led the race, so we should be in good shape this year." | |
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#1 Delco Electronics High Tech Team Galles Lola Mercedes |
EDDIE LAWSON | |
| "I think I pushed the car too much going into Turn Three and it caused a big push, which really killed my time. The car is definitely better than in practice. I just got in too hot and the front wouldn't take it. We have a good car for the race tomorrow, it's just too bad we're starting so far back." | |
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#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
ALEX ZANARDI | |
| "The [qualifying] run was not as good as I would have liked, but it's obviously better than we ran this morning. But it's difficult, when you're coming from a car that is loose and inconsistent, it's hard to have confidence and really push for a time." | |
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#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford |
ROBBY GORDON | |
| [after practoice on Tracy going faster than Gordon's '95 qualifying record of 19.206]: "We
went faster than the record too in practice last year. You've got to back it
up in qualifying. He's quick. I think we could've gone that quick if we
could've run more in our sessions. We're just having little problems every
time out. [after qualifying]:"We're pretty happy with [our qualifying time]. We didn't get many laps in practice this weekend. So, it was pretty hard to find the balance for qualifying. We're happy we got that close. We didn't get to really get a balance on a new set of tires. But, we took the best guess we had. We think we could have gone better, but we've got a pretty good race car. Tomorrow, you'll see what cars are prepared to race and what ones aren't." | |
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#25 Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard Toyota |
JEFF KROSNOFF | |
| "After this
morning's run, I went back to the bus and watched the video tapes of the
session. That actually helped quite a bit after going out to the corner and
watching. In lieu of doing real laps, that was all I could come up with. I
saw what I was doing wrong and found a couple of things that I could easily
correct just on the qualifying laps. So, the run was a lot more aggressive
and we picked up a lot more speed. "It's going to be a tough race. We are still off the pace, so we are going to have to deal with staying out of the way while we're fighting our own battles. We are looking to get through the race and see our first checkered flag." | |
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#17 Hollywood Reynard Ford |
| photo Mike Levitt | |
MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| "We basically did as well as we could given the situation, but I'm pretty disappointed with my time. This goes back to Friday when we wasted practically the whole day because of brake problems. It's bad enough to lose 15 minutes here, but when you lose a whole day, you're really in trouble." | |
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#19 Panasonic/DUSKIN Lola Ford Cosworth |
HIRO MATSUSHITA | |
| "Qualifying was good and bad, in that I ran my quickest laps of the weekend, but we were a little too conservative with our setup changes. We certainly made good progress, but the weather here is always difficult to judge." | |
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#15 Valvoline DuraBlend Special Reynard Ford |
| photo Phil Abbott | |
MIKE GROFF | |
| "We made
a change right at the end of the session that I think is going to help us in
qualifying. We gained some front end grip on the exits and turned our
quickest lap, even though we barely had a chance to feel it out. We're
hoping to get into the 19s in qualifying. [after qualifying]"We went a little bit better than we did before. I was a little cautious because we made some changes going into the run. That's when we did our best lap. I felt like I could step it up a little in the second lap, and I did. Then, the car stepped out on me a little. I got a little bit loose in Turn Two. But at least we know that we've got to work with going into the race, and I think that's good to know." | |
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#1 Brahma Sports Team Reynard Ford Cosworth |
RAUL BOESEL | |
| "I'm pleased with my
lap time. I squeezed everything out of the car and it's a shame we had a
problem with the engine in the morning practice because we didn't get a
chance to see what direction we needed to go on the setup when we put on the
new tires. "Overall, though, we're not too disappointed. We've made progress and I think we should have a good car for the race." | |
| #5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Team Owner | |
DERRICK WALKER | |
| [on Gordon's Reynard]: "There seems to be an oil leak at the front of the engine. It's not a serious leak, but if it gets worse and with us being so close to qualifying, we would be in trouble if we had to take the engine off the chassis to fix it. So, we opted to stop now and fix the leak." | |