Race No. 1
Malrboro Grand Prix of Miami
Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex — Homestead, Florida
March 13-15, 1998
Friday Quotes from Homestead: | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
| GREG MOORE | |
| Qualifying is always important, especially on an oval like this. Passing for position will be important, especially when you’re in traffic. Last year in qualifying, we were close to flat [out]. This year driving on an outside line is an option, where last year it really wasn’t. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| I didn't get to complete many laps today. I did 10 total in two different cars this morning and nine in my backup car this afternoon. In the morning session I had an oil leak in the gearbox and my backup car stuck in gear. I guess you could say it wasn't a productive day at the office. My primary car didn't get fixed for the afternoon session, so I went out in my backup car for nine laps. Last year we had problems in every session except the race, and that's the part that counts. | |
 | Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
| ANDRE RIBEIRO | |
| That was a very quick session and we were running on full tanks. The thing is I'm happy because of the reliability of everything. We didn't have any problems. In our case, we have a new car and we are still learning about the car. Every minute we have on the track is good, so the short session hurt us there. | |
 | Visteon Reynard Ford |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| Well, last year we averaged third on the grid when it came to pure speed. The Ford-Cosworth engine has proved it has some muscle. Ford and Cosworth have worked very hard over the winter. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to run the complete '98 spec engine, and it's running real good. In this (afternoon) session we ran 221(mph) down the straight, which is quite a bit faster than some of the other times we saw. The main thing we've seen, especially during the last few tests, is that the durability and consistency of the engine has improved. We saw some problems last year, and they have been fixed." ON THE TRACK'S RECONFIGURATION TO A SAFER LAYOUT... "This is still a tough place. To go fast, you have to really get everything right. If you don't have all the elements in place, and you try to overdrive the car, you will get in trouble. This actually reminds me of Indianapolis in the late '80's when the wind would change a little bit and your setup would go off; the weather would change and your setup goes off. Everything has to be just right to go real fast right here. If you have the tire pressure off a little bit, the stagger off a little bit, the front wing off a little bit or ride height ... any of those elements can throw you off two- or three-tenths. And now that's the difference between running in the top three and the top 20. If anyone thinks this track is now a pussycat, they need to go out and take a lap in that car. It will wake them up real quick. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| I'm very happy with the car. It's good to have had a productive session today, especially after struggling a bit in testing. I just wish we'd had a bit more time. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Swift Ford Newman/Haas Racing |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| It [qualifying] is going to be a matter of going out at at the right time, getting the right tires and perfect conditions. I think [the pole] is going to be between the 25.0 and 25.3 [second] range … This is a very important season for us. We’ve made some big gains in the car and some big gains in the tires and we’re definitely starting from a point where we’re a lot more solid than we were when we started last year. | |
 | Shell Reynard Ford Team Rahal |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| It was a pretty good day. It was good to get the first day out of the way because there’s so much buildup and hype for the first race. The car worked well in the morning. The afternoon was a little sporadic. I think we need a little more time to work on our race setups, but we’re looking forward to qualifying tomorrow. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| This morning we did our thing by putting our homework to the test, and we were only three-tenths off the leader. And I didn't even have a completely clean lap. We're right there on the fight. It's going to be key as to how you setup the car for qualifying tomorrow. We were concentrating on full tanks this afternoon, so our afternoon time is not indicative of our best. We are in good shape right now. | |
 | Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| It was a very good day for us. This morning we ran with the full fuel tanks most of the time, and I was in traffic quite a bit. The Valvoline/Cummins car felt very good in race conditions. This afternoon we took fuel out and the car was also good in qualifying trim. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| The car was a lot better than this morning. We had the wrong camber on one of the front wheels in the first session, so we fixed that. We know which way to go with the setup now. I'm disappointed I wasn't able to run the same times that I ran in testing here two weeks ago. But, it was a big difference from this morning. It's tough to get the feel of the car when you're stuck sitting in the pits. We didn't get enough track time today. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| I just wish we had another lap... the session was so short. This morning I was a little concerned. We had a slight balance problem with the chassis, but now I have the car like I like it. I'm getting happier now. | |
| Hogan Truck Leasing Reynard Mercedes | |
| JJ LEHTO | |
| We only got about ten laps because the session was so short. We just did some stuff with full (fuel) tanks preparing for Sunday. I also played around a little bit to get used to running in traffic. We feel pretty good, but it's not a hundred percent, ‘cause I don't have the experience yet. | |