Marlboro Penske Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 18th
AL UNSER, Jr.
We found the Marlboro Penske Mercedes to be a bit loose this morning. We’ve been trying to remedy the problem, and we’re going to continue to work on it tomorrow. My first impressions of the track are very good. I like the layout. It’s very challenging, and it looks like there are more than two passing areas. The track is very smooth, which I really like a lot.

	Marlboro Penske Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 19th
ANDRE RIBEIRO
We were able to improve our time from this morning’s session, but unfortunately we’re still struggling with the setup on the Marlboro car. At this type of track, it’s very important to have good traction and acceleration, so that’s where we’re going to focus our efforts tomorrow.

	Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda Qualified (provisional): 6th
GIL de FERRAN
That was a good result, considering I think I only had four laps. We had a bit of a gearbox problem at the start of the session and then we lost the chance for a last run because of the red flag.

	Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Qualified (provisional): 15th
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
I never got a run on my second set of tires and I was not happy with what I did on the first set. I don't think we got the most out of the session. This track is tough physically but at least there is one place to catch your breath which is on the front straightaway. It's nice and long. We will be able to show our horsepower there. IMPRESSIONS ON THE NEW TRACK The corners are a bit difficult because they are a bit off-camber. But it is that way for everybody. You just have to be a bit more careful when you put the power down.

	Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified (Provisional): 1st
BOBBY RAHAL
The car was awesome and there is still more in it! It can rain all day tomorrow as far as I am concerned but I would like to get the pole honestly and fairly. We are still not out of the woods by any means. There is still quite a bit of work to do and come Sunday it would be awfully nice to be in the front of the grid looking at the pace car for the start of the race. ON THE HOUSTON CIRCUIT . . . It's a lot of work. It's fast and it's tight. People say that it's only a 90 mph lap average but I will tell you, you feel like you are doing 190 mph. You are just trying to use all the road available without hitting the wall. So far, I am enjoying the circuit quite a bit.

	Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified (provisional): 14th
BRYAN HERTA
The track needs to get better and we need to run a few more laps because it's still new to us. But I think this is a fun little track. For a first year track, the folks in Houston have done a great job in putting this race together. And I am sure it will get better as the years go on.

	Hogan Truck Leasing Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 25th
JJ LEHTO
I’m disappointed. We’ve been pretty good at the last few races, but we struggled this morning. We’re on the same tires that we had at Toronto, and we had a bad car there. Now we’ve got the same characteristics that we had at Toronto. We did make some changes and improve. This was basically testing for us. We have a very nervous car. It has understeer. It has oversteer. It has everything at the moment. Still, we gained a lot from this morning.

	Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Qualified (provisional): 7th
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
I was really good on the first set of tires. It's too bad I ran into traffic because we would have been able to go a lot faster. When I put the second set of tires on the red flag came out during my hot lap which was very disappointing. The car is fast, we have good grip and I am confident that we will improve tomorrow. My only question is race day.

	Bettenhausen Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 9th
HELIO CASTRO-NEVES
We’re headed in the right direction, but we’re still six or seven-tenths (of a second) off where we need to be. I want to really fight tomorrow. We know we can do better. We just need to focus tomorrow and find out the best setup and go for it.

 

	Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 21st
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
We wasted a lot of track time this morning and, really, this afternoon, too. Just a bunch of silly little problems. But it wasn’t too bad. The car still has a lot of push, so we’re struggling with that. And we need a car that’s better under braking. It’s too bad, though. I had a lap going that was six-tenths (of a second) faster than my other lap--and that was just after three corners! Then the red flag came out, so we never really got a lap in on our second set of tires.

	PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 24th
MARK BLUNDELL
We’re disappointed. We weren’t able to find a balance in the car both in the morning and the afternoon. Fortunately, there is nowhere to go but up from here, so we’ll give it a thorough look tonight and see if we can find a setup that works. Overall, the track is pretty good--it’s bumpy--but that’s what you expect from a temporary circuit.

	Visteon Reynard Ford Qualified (provisional): 26th
SCOTT PRUETT
We are still sorting out the car and getting it right but we will get better. The track is nice. I think the people here in Houston did a real good job. The only downside to this set-up is the pit-out. It's kind of funky.

	LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda Qualified (provisional): 22nd
TONY KANAAN
Something came loose and there was brake fluid down by the pedals. I almost crashed when my foot slipped off the pedal. We lost a lot of time [making repairs] in the pits. I am a little disappointed because I had a pretty good car, but we will have a chance to do it again tomorrow.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified (provisional): 3rd
DARIO FRANCHITTI
I’m kind of disappointed. I was two-tenths of a second up on Greg Moore when the red flag came out for (Alex) Zanardi’s crash. It’s unfortunate that caused us to lose the lap, but I think the track will be even faster tomorrow. The car was very good straight off the truck, the engineers did a marvelous job because we really didn’t have to do anything to make the car work. I think the car is good enough to do the job, but we’ll find out tomorrow.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified (provisional): 5th
PAUL TRACY
It was a good result for us, now we have to keep it up for the rest of the weekend. The car still is not perfect, we can improve the mid-corner understeer and corner-exit traction. We made a pretty good gain between practice and qualifying today, now we have to make a similar gain tomorrow. The new track is okay. Passing will be tough, like it always is, and the heat will definitely be a factor in the race.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 17th
PATRICK CARPENTIER
That was a tough session. There was a lot of traffic. I thought we could do better. We had a problem in the pits which kept me there for a long time, then I went out behind slower cars and I couldn’t get past them.

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Qualified (provisional): 8th
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
I think there is more in the car than we showed today. I was constantly running into traffic during the session. When I finally had the opportunity to get a hot lap together, we had already used up the tires. Overall I am happy, we are not too far off. ON THE THE HOUSTON CIRCUIT In the turns, because it is a street circuit, the corners end up being a little off-camber. You have to be careful when you put the power down or you can end up spinning.

	Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified (provisional): 2nd
GREG MOORE
The track’s just getting better and better the more rubber is laid down. This morning, we had a pretty good idea on setup. We made a few changes just to help the car go through the corners. But we had to miss the last eight minutes of the session to serve our penalty for causing a red flag during qualifying at Laguna. Then I spun--just carried a little more speed into turn four than I had before--and caused a red flag and got another penalty. I served Laguna’s penalty today, and I’ll have to serve today’s penalty tomorrow. But we seem to be going pretty well.