Race No. 7
Miller 200
West Allis, WI
June 2, 1996
Saturday Quotes from drivers and managers at the Mile:
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#3 Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
PAUL TRACY | |
| "I would have liked to have gone out and won the pole and gotten the point and all the bonuses that come along with it, but Mother Nature stepped in. The track record would have meant something, but I'm sure it will fall next year" | |
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#6 Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Lola Ford Cosworth XD |
MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| "The car changed a lot from this morning. I had a big time push all of the way through. I knew the second lap would be slower that the first. We didn't change the car from yesterday or this morning so maybe the track changed. It's a little disappointing, but we'll have it ready for tomorrow. The car will be good for the race. I like it here and we have had some success here [four wins], so I'm looking forward to the race." | |
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#21 PacWest Reynard Ford Cosworth |
MARK BLUNDELL | |
| "We made some significant overnight changes and, as you'd expect, the car was much better. I'm especially happy with the balance. I'm still a little on the cautious side, though. We can't get too excited just because we posted some decent times." | |
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#11 Kmart/Budweiser Lola Ford Newman/Haas Racing |
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| "[On highest starting career IndyCar position] "I think we would have started in third or fourth position anyway. The car was a lot better today than it was yesterday. We tried some things in the morning practice that made the car much better. Michael and I have a lot to live up to with the Newman/Haas history here. We want to make it five out of six wins for Newman/Haas at Milwaukee. I think the car will be great during the race. We haven't run on full tanks yet because we were working very hard yesterday to get a set-up. If I had a crystal ball and knew it was going to rain, I would have run on full tanks earlier." | |
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#1 Delco Electronics High Tech Team Galles Lola Mercedes |
EDDIE LAWSON | |
| "I'm a little disappointed with the qualifying decision. I felt like we would have qualified better than 25th. We made some changes after the morning practice and I think the car would have been quicker. We have our work cut out for us tomorrow starting from the back, but we have a better car than it shows on paper. The track is quicker than it was when I ran the Indy Lights. It should be a great race, with a great deal of passing." | |
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#8 Pennzoil Special Reynard Honda Hall Racing |
GIL de FERRAN | |
| "I was quite disappointed. This morning the car was right, maybe a little loose, if anything. When I went out [to qualify], there was a big push. We don't know why the track changed so much. We didn't change a thing on the car. The computer said we had [the potential for] a 20.6 [second] lap. With the testing we did here, we are very confident for the race." | |
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#49 Motorola Reynard Honda Brix Comptech Racing |
PARKER JOHNSTONE | |
| [On his improvement during
the washed-out qualifying session] "Al Unser, Jr. has told me that if the
car is not there, do not try. Well, we had run out of tries, so we had no
choice! I came into Turn One, got off the gas a little, it started getting
loose, so I dirt-tracked it around and did the same for [Turns] Two, Three
and Four, and got the job done. Can we do 200 laps that way? No way, but it
was great fun in qualifying. "The amazing thing is that this was a much different car than we had this morning. We had a transmission problem which cost us a quarter of the practice session this morning; very valuable time. Over lunch, our guys did a great job of cannibalizing our backup car. It is a credit to them that they were able to give me a car I could go out and stand on with confidence. An absolutely incredible group of guys." | |
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#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
ALEX ZANARDI | |
| "I don't know [what happened in the qualifying accident]. The rear of the car came around in the [fourth] corner." | |
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#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford |
ROBBY GORDON | |
| "We were a lot better in practice yesterday. We had a lot of
understeer today. We made some changes last night and they weren't working
out. So, after this morning's practice, we went back to Friday's setup. On
the second lap, [in qualifying], I pushed really bad going into Turn 1 and
got up in the gray. After that, I just brought it into pit lane. It wasn't
worth finishing. [On starting by practice times]: "We think it's a blessing in disguise. It was hard to tell where we were going to end up in qualifying today. We had too much understeer to get in a good run. We're in much better shape now, going by the practice times. We have a good race car, and that's a good feeling. We worked on our race set-up a lot yesterday. So, we're ready." | |
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#25 Arciero-Wells Racing Reynard Toyota |
JEFF KROSNOFF | |
| "With the exceptions of one or two guys, I think it's fair to start based on practice times. I think in practice everybody is going as fast as they can. It's pretty much an accurate depiction of what the grid would have been." | |
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#17 Hollywood Reynard Ford |
| photo Mike Levitt | |
MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| "I knew that we'd take close to a second off of our time from yesterday, and we did. The car's still not totally right, though, because the car is still pushing in the middle corner." | |
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#98 Eagle Mk-V Toyota |
| photo Mike Levitt | |
P.J. JONES | |
| "It feels good to be back racing and to qualify here at the Milwaukee Mile. This one of my favorite mile ovals, and I'm looking forward to the race. Our qualifying run wasn't quite what we expected, so we have some changes to make before the race. We just have to try to get it going a little bit better. We missed a practice session in the beginning of the weekend, and I think we're just one session behind. Hopefully, we can get everything together so that we'll have a good warm-up session tomorrow." | |
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#36 Eagle Mk-V Toyota |
JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II | |
| "Definitely the Eagle chassis and the Toyota engine are working better. We did a couple of changes before qualifying, but of course we were unable to try them because of the rain. But, hopefully, we'll be able to run around during the warm-up and see where we are. We have 30 minutes of warm-up, so that will help." | |