Race No. 3
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach — Long Beach, California
April 3-5, 1998
Sunday Quotes from Long Beach: | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
| ALEX ZANARDI | |
| I hadproblems with the radio and I couldn't reallyhear [owner] Chip [Ganassi] very well. I justdrove as though every car was in my way and Itried to pass as many as I could. When thingswent wrong at the beginning, during one stop wetook on fresh tires, and I'm sure that gave us anadvantage later on. To be honest, I didn't thinkit was possible to get 20 points. I thoughtfourth or fifth [place] was possible. At onepoint, when we made a pit stop, I was hoping they[the crew] would put on fresh tires so I couldhave a chance to win the Omega watch for settingthe fastest race lap. But I came home with thewin. It's amazing. I'm very, very happy. Thereare no words to describe it. Like Cleveland lastyear, I thought it was unrepeatable, and I wasable to do it again. I'm very fortunate that Godhas been with me and has given me the opportunityto display my ability. Bryan [Herta] has been thereference point for everybody all weekend long.There was no doubt that overall, he had thegreatest speed. Sure enough, you need some luck,and I was very happy today that it was on myside. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| I thoughtthe tire would hold up, I probablyshouldn't have gambled that way. Theywere watching the air pressure on thetelemetry in the pits, so I thought Icould stay out there until we saw it wasgoing away totally. But I saw pieces ofit coming off. It was starting to comeapart: I could tell. It's my butt on theline, and I decided to take the risk. Iknew that if I pitted at that point ourchances of winning at that point wheredone. But it just exploded. To be honestit wasn't upsetting the car real, realbad. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford |
| BOBBY RAHAL | |
| Things can get prettymessed up in that hairpin, and it wasjust a case of Michael getting someonein front of him, and then I got him. Butit knocked the steering wheel out of myhands and the engine stalled. The enginemay have had vapor lock which is whythey couldn't push it, but they didn'texactly come running to help either. Atthat point our mission became to run thefastest laps we could, and the datashows we were able to turn the fastestlap in the race. It's disappointing wayto leave Long Beach for the last time,having started up front like we did, butthis track has always been a challenge. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| Theycalled me in early. We really didn'ttalk about `tires' or `no tires' yet.They decided to leave me on the tires Iwas on, and it turned out to not be thebest thing because Alex put new tireson. And there was no question he had aton more race car than I did. I feelgreat because I fought him off as longas I could. We were probably two secondsa lap, or four or five from where weshould have been running. It's a toughday. I told Alex, `One of these days...'No hard feelings on this one, it was agood race all the way around. I thinkthey made a better strategy than us, andthey got the result. ...The car wasgood, and I'm happy we were able tofinish high and get the points like wedid. | |
 | Budweiser/Ralph's Della Penna Racing Swift Ford |
| RICHIE HEARN | |
| We had a gearboxfailure that cost us today. Today I wasfinally getting something going havingmoved into the top 10, and then we gethit with bad luck again. It's too badbecause we had a lot of people out herethis weekend fromour sponsor Ralphs, andI'm sure they are as disappointed as Iam. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| I think Paul broke abit too late. And obviously he came outof the turn slower than I did. He wentwide, and was slow so I decided to getby him. He didn't want to let go of theposition I guess and tried to hold on toit although I think I was prettyobviously half-a-car length ahead ofhim. He ran in, and what happened,happened. It's bad for me and it was badfor him also. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| I'm really proud of the team. We knew we had created a problem for ourselves, but we didn't let it get to us. We know we are a good team and on our way to the championship. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| There were alot of incidences out there today. But we were able to find our way through them and move through the field. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| Greg [Moore] and Tony [Kanaan] were in frontof me and there was a point when itseemed that they were going to crash. Itried to avoid hitting them, but then Igot into the marbles and went straightinto the tires. | |
 | Visteon Reynard Ford |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| We had worked hard allday, and it seemed as if we had fourthwrapped up with less than 10 laps to go.But on that splash and go, we made amistake and ended up running out offuel. It was a tough race on a lot offolks, and we worked hard to keep ournose clean the way we did. It'sdisappointing to go home with only onepoint for our efforts. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| I'm veryhappy with second place. The guys at Team KOOLGreen were terrific. They've given me threefinishes in the points in the first three races.The cars have been really, really good. I can'tsay enough about them. I was pretty sure duringhe last couple of laps that I didn't haveanything more [for Zanardi]. I was being prettydefensive because of the tires. We had run a lotof laps on those tires. But second place isgood. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| My car wasn't brilliant, but itO.K. In the beginning I wasn't thatstrong. I had push, some oversteer. Asmuch as I wanted to defend my position,I didn't want to jeopardize the race. Atthe end I was a little bit strongercoming out of the hairpin, and Iprotected my line a few times. At theend the others were just too much. Ijust went for a good strong finish. Iwas trying to drive as fast as I couldwithin my limits. At the end of my lastpit stop, I came out ahead of Zanardi.He just made a move that compromisedeverybody [in turn four], and if Ididn't leave him the room we would havecrashed. I didn't know he was going forthe win. I opened the door a little bitat the end and it was enough for him toget the lead. When you have the car,let's go for the win, but today it was agood car to finish in the top five. | |
 | Baan Software Davis Racing Lola Ford |
| ARND MEIER | |
| This was not my bestrace. I made a few mistakes on the trackwhich cost me. The car was running goodthough, especially with new tires . Onething that wasn't my fault was when Iwas next to Andre (Ribeiro). I overtookhim and then we got side by side and heclipped my wing. I think I was runningthird at the time it happened. | |