Race No. 19
Marlboro 500
Presented by Toyota
California Speedway — Fontana, California
October 30 - November 1, 1998
Raceday Quotes from Fontana: |
Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 3rd |
| ALEX ZANARDI | |
| I'm very surprised to be here. At the beginning of the race, I was pushing very hard, but my car was not in good balance and going as well as I wanted it to. But one small change and surprisingly, it came around. We went one lap down and made a little mistake and had to come in to serve a penalty. We were lucky and brave, because Chip [Ganassi] did the right calls and we were able to get back on the lead lap. Then, I was able to start passing the cars in front of me. We got third [place], which is much better than I thought, so I'm very happy. I will take with me some good memories, and this is one of them. | |
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Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished: 18th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| The car got down on the apron a bit too far. I was having a problem seeing through my visor because of the glare and at the same time I was trying to get as much out of the track as possible and pushed a bit too hard. Then the back end came around and that was it. I hit the wall pretty hard. It’s too bad because we were strong today. I really wanted to end the season the way we started -- with a win. | |
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Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 11th |
| BOBBY RAHAL | |
| Last night, I was so tired. I had lots of owner stuff with meetings at starting at 7 a.m. yesterday [Saturday], then practice and qualifying and more meetings. I didn't get back to the hotel until 6 and by the time 10 o'clock rolled around I was out. I had thought I might have trouble sleeping on the night before my last race, but I didn't have any trouble at all. I don't really know what I'm feeling right now. The enormity of turning that page is the biggest thing I feel. I don't feel melancholy or joy, or any of those things you might think I'd feel. A long chapter of my life is now over, and a new chapter starts. Where that will take me, I don't know. [On the tribute in pit lane following the morning warmup] That was pretty good. Some of those people have never looked better. Of course, they shall remain nameless. [On the late race get-together between Bryan Herta and Max Papis, next year's Team Rahal teammates] I hope that was not the future of Team Rahal. I had already introduced Max to Bryan some time ago. I didn't think he'd feel the need to do it again. The thing that has struck me the most this year is the people that have had the opportunity for me to say 'Thank you' to them. Every race this year, there's been something very special that has touched me emotionally. The races tend to blur to be honest, but those are the things that I remember. Early in the race, the car was running strong, then the car went real loose on the second or third set of tires. I lost a lot of ground trying to get it sorted out and we got out of sync, to be honest. We've let some races get away from us. Obviously, you can't let that happen if you hope to be competitive in the series. I finished ahead of some very talented people, and more than anything, I think we retired on a competitive footing, and that's what I wanted to do more than anything else. | |
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Budweiser/Ralph's Della Penna Racing Swift Ford Finished: 8th |
| RICHIE HEARN | |
| It just wasn’t our day today. We had a handling problem right off the start. I was fine by myself, but, when I ran up on traffic the car got much worse. Because of that I could not be as aggressive as I was in Michigan. It was a long day for the whole team. | |
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Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished: 7th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| We had a huge understeer problem. We addes two-and-a-half turns to the car and it didn’t get any better. Throughout the race we kept putting more and more front wing into the car. The car should have done donuts with all the wing we put into it. We didn’t have this problem during the morning warm-up so I don’t know where it came from. With the problems we had today, seventh place is not that bad. This has been a tough season because we did not get the results we expected and are capable of. However, we have made quite a bit of improvement in our performance over the last few races and hopefully we can carry it into 1999. | |
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Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Finished: 1st |
| JIMMY VASSER | |
| It was a fantastic way to finish the season. The million dollars is great, but the goal for me coming in here was to finish second in the championship. Alex has had the championship won for some time, and it's been a goal of our team for me to finish second. A lot of things have been done to help me accomplish that, and quite frankly, at times, I've felt that I let the team down. We've had an uphill battle [to finish second] and it's great to get it accomplished. [On his departing teammate, Alex Zanardi] I've learned a lot from Mr. Zanardi, more out of the cockpit than in it. He's been a great teammate and a great friend; it's great to be up here with him. [On the last lap pass of Greg Moore]. I saw Greg had a big gurney on his car, which gives it a lot more downforce and makes the car run better in traffic, but I knew that he'd have trouble running by himself. I knew that if I had a good restart, get a good run on him. He was really a sitting duck; there was nothing he could do about it. The same thing happened to me at Michigan. | |
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Bettenhausen Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes Finished: 10th |
| HELIO CASTRO-NEVES | |
| I’ll have to say that it was a pretty good race. There was a big split between the fourth and fifth gears and that was causing me problems on the restarts. Early in the race, we also had a problem with understeer, but they were able to fix that. I have no idea what happened at the start of the race, but the problem obviously cured itself. | |
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Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Finished: 5th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| The work the guys did in the pits was fantastic. That was the best part of our day. The crew was unbelievable. They got me from fourth to first every time. We also got amazing fuel mileage. We were always able to run a few laps longer than the rest, and that was an advantage. The car was consistent and balanced, but ultimately just not fast enough. If I would have been one mph faster on my own I could have challenged for the million, but I got all I could out of the speed I had. | |
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PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Finished: 6th |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
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I had the best car of the year today. A lot happened in front of me: Franchitti blowing up, Pruett crashing, and de Ferran losing an engine. I actually spun on de Ferran's oil and ended up in the grass. Fortunately, I came away okay except for losing a couple of positions on the race track.
I think we were a bit over-geared and that made us too slow on the restarts. Subsequently we went down a lap at one point because of that. But the guys came up with an excellent strategy that got us back on the lead lap. We were lapping competitively all day and the crew did a good job in the pits.
We had a good shootout at the end. There were three cars in front of me and I just went for it. Overall, it was a good solid performance. I'm happy to finish in the Top-6. We've had good results in five out of the six 500-mile races we've competed in so it's good to keep the record going.
[On the season] It was definately the toughest season of my career. Now it's history and forgotten in my book. I'm looking to the future, looking to '99. | |
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Visteon Reynard Ford Finished: 20th |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| This is not the way I wanted to finish out the season for Visteon, Ford or Pat (Patrick). I am not quite sure what happened out there. We made some adjustments and actually went a lap down before we passed Greg (Moore) to get out lap back. The car felt quite good once we got the setup back to my liking. I went down into turn three, we were actually carrying a little bit of understeer at the time, and the car just jumped out from under me. I have to take a look at the telemetry and see if it tells us anything. | |
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LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda Finished: 19th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| The car was good at the beginning of the race. Then we started losing grip. After two pit stops we found out that the front wing was adjusting itself down. It was pretty scary out there. We changed the nose, but by then we were several laps down. In the end, we went out because of a wheel bearing. It was a tough weekend for us. Luckily, we did what we had to do before this weekend. I made three promises this season -- to win Rookie of the Year, finish in the top 10 in points and (recently) to win this race. So, we did two out of three. I am very happy with our results, and now I am no longer a rookie. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 22nd |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
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You never know how this thing could have turned out, but the KOOL car was running really, really well. There wasn’t any warning on the engine. I just heard a noise and then the engine let go. But I think Team KOOL Green did a wonderful job this weekend, having run so bad at Michigan earlier this year. We’ve worked really hard since then and we were running up front today. I’ve learned a lot about racing on superspeedways since my first race at Michigan last year. It really felt great to be competitive all weekend and to be challenging for the win. I’m just disappointed we couldn’t finish the race.
[On finishing third in the PPG Cup standings] I would have loved to finish second overall in the championship. But I don’t care about the money. One or two hundred thousand (dollars) up or down doesn’t really matter. Finishing second would have been great, but third overall is still a good reflection of the kind of season we had. Team KOOL Green was the team to beat in the second half of the season. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 14th |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| From my standpoint, I dropped the ball. The guys at Team KOOL Green worked their butts off all season and they deserved to finish the year on a high note. I just tried to do the restart the way I’d done the previous one and get a good jump, and it just drove around on me. It was my mistake. I’m just sorry for the guys and everybody from KOOL, Klein Tools, Honda, Firestone and everybody else on Team KOOL Green. We’ll regroup and start getting ready for next season. | |
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Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 26th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| I waited for my first pit stop to check it out and when I tried to leave the pits, it would not engage into first gear. I finally came back on the track with nine laps down but unfortunately, the problem was not fixed. It's a tough way to end the season, but all the adversity we faced this year will help us get better and prepare for a breakthrough season in 1999. | |
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Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finished: 4th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| It was a tough day. But, it was very rewarding at the end. The car was not very good at the beginning. We had a lot of push. We weren’t very quick at the start so I had to be patient. I was actually surprised at how quick the other guys out there were at the beginning of the race compared to how fast I was and that cost me a lap. We continued to tune the car to the point where it started to work. I didn’t think we had the speed though. That has nothing to do with the engine, but with the downforce levels we picked for the sidepods and I think that hurt us a little today. I could not pass the guys in front of me in the closing laps. I could get alongside of them but couldn’t get by. It was a little bit frustrating. Sometimes the car was not there and I just had to keep telling myself to be patient. | |
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Baan Software Davis Racing Lola Ford Finished: 24th |
| ARND MEIER | |
| There was no warning. The car was very good up until then. I had a bit of an oversteer problem, but nothing major. I'm just sorry my race ended early. The conditions were pretty good. I didn't have a problem with any turbulence or wind. I'm thankful to have gotten the chance to race this season. It certainly was better than last year. | |
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Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 2nd |
| GREG MOORE | |
| They [Vasser and Zanardi] came out of nowhere. It was amazing how quick they caught with me. Alex got loose in [Turn] 2, then I caught Jimmy's draft into [Turn] 3 and 4, but he was too far ahead. Second place today is the first loser. It's a bitter pill to swallow. I thought Paul and I would be able to break away. I thought it was going to be a two-horse Canadian race for the last 10 laps. Then Max and Bryan got together and that was it. We had five or six laps to go and I was running second, and I radioed to my guys, 'Does this look familiar?' [It's where Moore was at Michigan with five laps remaining]. I would have been happy to follow Paul for a couple of laps and then go for it. I wasn't sure if we'd get a restart or not, but I stayed on it really hard because I didn't know if Paul had spun or continued or not. Once I came back around and saw him standing by his car, he gave me a wave and I thought, 'Gee, as long as he's O.K., I really hope he hit the wall hard, so it will take awhile to clean up. | |
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Team Kool Green Team manager |
| BARRY GREEN | |
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Team KOOL Green can’t lose sight of the fact that we had had two fast cars, two fast drivers, we ran up front and had a chance of winning it today. We obviously made a mistake four laps from the end, but this is not a low day for us. Paul had to be very aggressive on the restart to hold them off and he was trying to do that, and it just got away from him. I guess that just sums up our season. Paul has made a big difference for this team and we’ll be back next season with a big punch.
It was a tremendous drive for Dario today. It was only his third 500-miler and he was fast; he was cruising. Unfortunately, we had an equipment failure. But Dario knows now that he can run up front on these superspeedways. | |