Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 1st
ALEX ZANARDI
Obviously, it was a fantastic day for me. I'm obviously very happy with the way the day turned out. The championship has started very well, and I'm certainly very happy that I've been able to take advantage of other people's misadventures. There is still plenty of time for me to go home with a grumpy face. Things can't always go this well all the time. We were obviously concerned [about pit strategy] before the race. I told the team, "We have to play the odds," and the odds are usually to follow the leader, but I think we were surprised a little bit when Bryan [Herta] came into the pits. At that point, I decided that wasn't the way to go and I'm pleased that our way turned out to be the right way. It was surprising to me to see Bryan, who had the best car and was leading, take the chance. Normally, that's a chance you take when you're running 14th. I'm absolutely not the best driver in the world. But I have to believe deep inside that I'm not worse than anybody, either. Otherwise, I'd better pick another job. But I still have much more to learn. Conditions were tough, there wasn't a lot of chance and opportunity to take a rest.

	Marlboro Penske Mercedes Finished: 5th
AL UNSER, Jr.
Our car is an infant — but it grew up a couple of years today. We were able to come from a long way back (18th on the grid) to finish on the top five. Marlboro Team Penske did a great job — my guys gave me a good racecar and Roger (Penske) had a great strategy. My car, tires and engine were there for me the whole race. I wish we could have been a bit quicker at the end to deal with the guys ahead of us, but we'll get them next time.

	Marlboro Penske Mercedes Finished: 15th
ANDRE RIBEIRO
The gearbox worked perfectly all day until lap 93 when we had a problem which ended our day. It's really too bad, because we were having a good race and both Marlboro cars were improving. Each week we see more and more of the car's potential, now we just need for our luck to change and we should be right up there.

	Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Ford Finished: 20th
GIL de FERRAN
I thought we were going to get something out of nothing, I thought a second place might be in the cards after starting mid-field. But the last restart was a bit of a mix-up. I nailed it, and thought I had Herta on the inside. I turned left, he stayed with me, turned into me and moved me off onto the grass. I thought it was a bit ill-judged. I managed to pass him and stay on course, he should have been able to do the same.

	Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished: 17th
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
It's such a shame that I was caught up in the accident at the beginning of the race. Talk about being in the wrong place. I thought I had puled off a great pass. I went to the outside of the turn when everyone was on the inside. I had a clear path ahead of me, and could go faster that all of the drivers stuck in traffic on the inside. I would have gone from 10th to fourth place. Fourth place would have definitely given me something to work with.

	Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 6th
BOBBY RAHAL
We had a pretty good car today. That was really wild in the first turn at the start. I'm sure you'll see my in-car camera shots in a lot of news highlights. I just saw Moore flying by in front of me. That was a brave attempt. But it didn't work. And he took out several guys. In the race, the car was just a little too slow on the straights. We had too much wing in the car. I never saw Bryan all day. He must have had a fast car.

	Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 3rd
BRYAN HERTA
This was one of the best race cars I've had ever, today. I could do a lot with it. In terms of pitstop strategy, that was obviously the story of the race. I haven't had a chance to talk with the team, but they obviously thought that the best plan was to stop. And I think that it worked out that it wasn't. That's the breaks. You make your decision, your choice, and you live or die by it. Luckily we were able to have a fast enough race car where we were able to get back up and finish on the podium, so I'm really pleased about that. [on the restart] Richie Hearn was between Alex and I; I think he was a lap down. My radio was in an out, but I think my team told me that Richie was going to try to get out of the way, and let the race play out. But he didn't go with Alex, and I kind of got stuck behind him., and Gil got a run on me. We went side-by-side down the straightaway, he had the inside braking into Turn One. I didn't want to give up, so I stayed on the outside, braked a little later. I stayed around the outside all the way around. I didn't chop him. And I had the inside for Turn Two. I thought he'd give me that. He just kept moving me over, moving me over and drove me right over the curb. Then I hit the curb and drove over his front tire. And it's a miracle that I finished the race. [on the late race battle with Pruett] That was fun. It was enjoyable to race with Scott because it was clean racing, hard racing. With the marbles that you have nowadays, and as close as everybody is running, frankly my best shot was just to try to push him into a mistake. So I just tried to harry him at every possible corner that I could and get underneath his rear wing and make sure he knew all the time that I was there. But he didn't make a mistake. He did a good job.

	Hogan Truck Leasing Reynard Mercedes Finished: 25th
JJ LEHTO
We have been unlucky all season so far. We've been trying to run very hard, but it seems that bad luck is on our side at the moment. There's going to be a lot of changes in a short time. We are working very hard, we are starting to test more, and we are trying to get things together. Things haven't come together as they should in the last couple of races. It's just a shame, because the guys have been working hard, but with no results.

	Budweiser/Ralph's Della Penna Racing Swift Ford Finished: 10th
RICHIE HEARN
Any time you can get a top 10 after starting twenty-third, it's a good day. At the start, it was weird. I don't know exactly what had happened, but the whole group though the accident was going to collect to the inside, when it actually went outside. It was like the seas parting open. I jumped up like 10 positions and was suddenly back in the race without having finished a lap. But then after that, the car was just... medium. We struggled with some hard work. We had some problems in the pits which cost us a couple of more positions really. [on the last restart] I knew what was going on. And I wanted to see Bryan have every chance possible of getting the win. But when we went into the last corner before I heard that we were going green, I had crap all over my tires so I had to slow down. As it turned out I held Bryan up as he obviously couldn't pass me yet. He was kind of waiting, and that caused de Ferran to get a run on him. And of course they tangled allowing Pruett to get in there. I feel bad because I was trying to do the right thing. I hope Bryan's not mad at me. [regarding the Bud lizard Louis on the car this weekend: is Louie lucky?] Well, we finished tenth.

	Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished: 26th
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
[on the incident with Moore that forced him out of the race] Yes, he (Greg Moore) and I talked. It's easy to say you're sorry afterwards. I just think that Greg was a bit over optimistic. Like he was starting fourteenth, I was seventh, I didn't lose any positions at the start, and I definitely don't see how a guy can go from fourteenth to seventh on the first corner. They told me that the accident had developed already and that he only ended up landing on top of me. We'll just go to the next race. There's not much you can say. I'm very disappointed because we're going through a very difficult period at the moment. We can't even finish the race. It's very hard. We're competitive, but I can't get through the races. I don't know why this happens.

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 8th
JIMMY VASSER
It was just a bad day, but we made the best of what we could do with it. I think there must have been "something in the water" today. The car started out pretty good, but we picked up a pretty good push as the race went on. [on his contact with Fernandez and later Blundell] It was pretty much the same thing both times — I thought I had the corner going into the first turn, and they came into the back of me. Mark's hit wasn't too bad, but Adrian's was pretty hard; it spun me around and I needed a push to get going again.

 

	Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Finished: 7th
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
It feels good to have a real racecar underneath me again. We'veworked really hard, with three days of testing last week at Sebring,and we made progress with the car all weekend. We made a major changewith the shocks and we are still learning how the car reacts. I had astrong and consistent car all day long, and the guys gave me greatpit stops. A two-stop strategy was probably the way to go. We'restill not as far up as I would like, but it's nice to be fighting inthe top ten again.

	PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Finished: 22nd
MARK BLUNDELL
I had a good racecar. I made clean moves into the chicane and passedfour or five people, and I tried the inside on Vasser. He turnedright in on me — I was on the inside line and his right front hit myleft front. Then the tire went down a few turns later.

	Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Finished: 19th
MICHEL JOURDAIN
During the start I had contact with Gil de Ferran. I thought he was going to the other side of the track. The problem is that Greg Moore started like crazy, and this caused all that mess. In the contact with Gil, a steering toe link was bent and I lost one lap pitting for a replacement. Toward the end, I had to retire, because my car began leaking oil due to an oil cooler break.

	Visteon Reynard Ford Finished: 2nd
SCOTT PRUETT
Actually, everything went pretty good. We had our own strategy, like Bryan said. When the first yellow came out we immediately went into a two-stop strategy which paid off good for us. I can't say enough for the Visteon guys. We've had a struggle all season. Our qualifying hasn't been good. Between running out of gas, catching on fire, you name it — it's happened to us this year. It's nice to get things turned around here in Portland. Ford and especially Firestone have given us a great product, and we ran hard all day long. I didn't think I could hold Bryan off at the end. He had a very good car. But everybody is so close, it's hard to get a run on (another) Fortunately, I just had enough to stay ahead. [on the late race battle with Herta] That was fun. Bryan and I were both trying as hard as we could. When you have a car that's underneath you enough where you can drive it hard and have fun... you know he was keeping me honest. I was making a few little mistakes here and there, but fortunately, no big ones. It was good fun and that's what racing is all about.

	LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda Finished: 4th
TONY KANAAN
I am very happy. We had a pretty good race. The car was consistent all the time, the guys did a great job in the pits and I could be consistent on the track. I think fourth place is good but I want more. I want to finish one time in the top three and to try to win. For today, it was good. It's time to think about Cleveland. Steve Horne told me about the start and to do a double brake at the end of the straightaway to stay out of trouble. Throughout the race he was helping me to keep a good pace. He is very important for me. It is good to have him talking to me all the time. I think we can have pretty good results together. It's too early to think about the Rookie of the Year. We still have 10 races to go and I think Helio (Castro-Neves) and I are going to be fighting to the end.

	Arciero/Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 23rd
ROBBY GORDON
The first turn was quite exciting. I actually passeda lot of cars going into the turn. I was outside of Paul [Tracy] whowas also passing a lot of cars. As soon as I got around the corner Isaid "Oh man, we're not going to make it through here." It wasgrid-locked. It looked like Los Angeles traffic, so I said "I'm goingto run in the dirt." I was cutting through the dirt but then I knew Iwouldn't have enough speed to carry through the dirt so I said "I'vegot to get out of here." I was spinning my tires and spinning mytires and I was lucky we didn't stall it. Later, my teammate [MaxPapis] and I collided and it put me a lap down. I don't think Max sawme, actually. I was stuck right behind Al Unser Jr. and Al wasgetting ready to pass when it went back green and Max turned back tothe inside of me. I'm 100 percent sure that Max didn't see me on theinside. It's crazy that we lost a fuel pump. We haven't had thatproblem all year and it is unfortunate. Toyota has done a good jobgetting the reliability in the engine.

	MCI Arciero Wells Reynard Toyota Finished: 11th
MAX PAPIS
We started conservatively because we started at the back. In qualifying, we are usually competitive and run in the topfifteen. During the second qualifying session, we missed out a bitand we had to start in the back. We expected the MCI car to bedifferent in qualifying and we didn't achieve what we wanted. Welearned something for next time. If we can start closer to the frontwe can do better. We couldn't go through the first chicane on therestart and I preferred to go straight. I had to stop and we gotlapped. From there on, I had pretty aggressive restarts and we did alot of overtaking. We learned a lot about the car. Toyota made a lotof progress and we finished the race in the points. We keep finishingthe races and that, for sure, is going to lead us to somethingpositive towards the end of the season.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 21st
DARIO FRANCHITTI
It was a strange start. Bryan (Herta) was a full car length ahead of me. We got through the first corners and there was a full course yellow. Once we got running again, Bryan was pulling away from me, but I was very conservative on the fuel, so I wasn't worried. He pitted early and that's when I started pulling away, even though I was running lean on the fuel. Then, on my first pit stop I lost position when I stalled it trying to leave. On the second pit stop our fueler had difficulty engaging the fuel nozzle. Then, I almost stalled it again leaving the pits. I got back out and was pushing pretty hard on the new tires trying to make up the lost time. I almost got past PJ (Jones) coming out of Turn Six. He didn't see me and just turned into me, spinning me around and into the barriers. That was all she wrote. Physically it was a very tough race. The hardest race I've ever driven in and we didn't even finish. I'm disappointed because it was looking good at the start, but that's racing. We'll go to Cleveland and try again. I like Cleveland and someone has got to beat Alessandro (Zanardi). It might as well be me.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 28th
PAUL TRACY
I didn't really see what happened. There was a big accident in front of me and cars were in the air all around, there was nowhere for me to go. You can't get too aggressive at the start here, there's only so much room. It was a frustrating weekend. We had a good car and didn't get a chance to show it.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 9th
PATRICK CARPENTIER
Ninth place is excellent. The Blue Crew did a great job. We lost some time at the beginning of the race because we had some tire pressure problems, but they made an adjustment and the car was really fast and stable. Then we got the fastest lap time. This afternoon was definitely demanding. It was really hot out there. I had my visor open a lot, even though there were rocks flying around. At this track you feel high G forces, and you're going very fast. I'm sure my neck will be sore tomorrow.

	Castrol/Degree AAR Racing Reynard Toyota Finished: 14th
ALEX BARRON
It was a frustrating weekend but it was nice to end up with a finishing car. We made progress throughout the race, but I stalled the car during my first pit stop and lost some valuable time. I think we had a decent race setup, hopefully we'll be able to take what we learned here to Cleveland.

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finished: 24th
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
[on his race-ending contact with Jimmy Vasser] A few times I was trying to pass him, but I wasn't close enough. This time I felt I was close enough, and I just dived to the inside. I was already committed, and he didn't open the gap, and we had an incident. I tried the pass, it didn't work. But in my mind, I felt I had it. We were running a little bit quicker than Jimmy, and I was trying to not let the guys in front of him get away from me. I was close going into Turn 1. I felt I had the line. But Jimmy didn't give me any room. It's unfortunate. We're running for a championship, but there are a lot of races to go.

	Baan Software Davis Racing Lola Ford Finished: 12th
ARND MEIER
I'd like to thank the team very much for giving me a car that ran well. It was very consistent and it shows on the lap times during the race. We were in good shape all day. At the start I saw a bunch of drivers sliding around. I looked for a spot, saw it and went for it. I got through with no problem. The restarts were no problem for me until the last yellow when Max got by me. On the last one I had a concrete spot on my tire which prevented me from braking well on the first chicane we came to. It took two or three laps before I got rid of that spot on my tire.

	Castrol/Degree AAR Racing Reynard Toyota Finished: 16th
P.J. JONES
I don't really know what happened with Franchitti. I spun and was coming out of the grass, trying to get back up to speed and he appeared from nowhere. He clipped my right front tire and I had to limp my way back to the pits.

	Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 27th
GREG MOORE
There was a bottleneck down at the first turn and everyone in front of me was almost stopped. I tried to pass on the inside, but I misjudged and went too deep into the Festival Curves. I feel bad for Christian (Fittipaldi) and Paul (Tracy). It was my mistake.