Race No. 19
Marlboro 500
Presented by Toyota
California Speedway — Fontana, California
October 30 - November 1, 1998
Friday Quotes from Fontana:| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | GREG MOORE |
| TONY KANAAN |
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Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| I really believe that if we didn't have [the Handford Device] on, we'd be going 245 [miles per hour], maybe even more. Are we going to have the same type of racing we had at Michigan? Probably not, but I still think you're going to see a lot of passing, like at Michigan, and a very exciting race. At Michigan, the driving was the best I've ever seen in any type of racing, ever, and it's going to take the same thing here. We tested here right before we left for Australia and we made a huge gain in tires. I think the race is where you'll see it. I'm very happy with what Goodyear has brought for this weekend. I think we have a better tire than Firestone. I really do. | |
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Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| We started on the same basis we had at Michigan and the car responded really, really well. Even when you want to run on your own, you can't. There's always traffic and there are always people ahead of you. But the car felt pretty comfortable. With this new wing, you have to be a little bit more careful. You just have to play the race by ear and try to get to the end. It's gonna be a very exciting race, just like the last one. | |
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LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| We were struggling a bit in the morning, so I lost my confidence in the first practice. Then we blew the engine. So, it was a pretty difficult day for us. I am building up my confidence again. We have to work on the car. It is really bad in traffic. I can't run with anybody and that is the way you race here, so we need to find some more downforce to be able to run with everybody else. We'll see if we can do that for tomorrow. | |
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Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes |
| GREG MOORE | |
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We didn't test here at all. Last year, we came here with the same setup we ran at Michigan and this year we were able to do the same thing. I had heard the track was a little bumpier in [Turns] One and Two, so we had to change the setup a little bit to allow for that. The car responded well. This afternoon, we just went out and tried to run some tires in for the race. The biggest worry that I've got is working your way through traffic because we're running so close together. At Michigan, we had to make changes on the car as the tires kept changing. The person who wins this race will be the driver who adapts his car and his driving to the changing conditions.
I like the way the series is set up now with road course and street events between Michigan (the U.S. 500 on July 27) and here. We have the small ovals, the Michigan race and then the road and street courses and it measures a true champion that way. If we raced here a week or two after Michigan, everybody would probably stay up at Michigan and test and get a lot of track time. I'd rather have it this way. It is much better this way to end the season with a superspeedway event because this is our Super Bowl with $1 million going to the winner. I just think that is a great way to end our season. | |