Race No. 3

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach — Long Beach, California
April 16-18, 1999

	Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda
GIL de FERRAN
We had a good, consistent car all day today. The biggest problem is that passing is very, very difficult. We made two passes on the track today, one on (Max) Papis and one on Michael (Andretti), who had passed me earlier. I'll tell you, that last pass on Michael was one of the toughest ones I have ever made. It was just difficult to make up ground. The last two sets of Goodyear tires were fine. It was just a long, tough race today.

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
JIMMY VASSER
In the second half of the race, I got buried behind Papis. Between the marbles and other traffic, I just couldn't get in front ofhim. After the last pit stop, the car got loose on me.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
GREG MOORE
[about leaving Long Beach leading in the points] That was one of our goals for the weekend, and things worked out for us.I lost a few positions in the first pit stop, when I had towait for traffic, but as the race went on, I managed to gain a fewpositions and then I got Papis in the hairpin on that last lap. That was arelief! We'll be going to Nazareth leading in points, and that's incentive enoughto really want to get another win for Player's and the team.

	Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
I thought we had the car a little better than it actually was.Actually, Christian went more the right way on the setup and it workedfor him. Our setup was wearing the tires out too much. The Swift is agood car but we just need to get it a bit better on the setup.

	MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
CHRISTIANO DA MATTA
This was a tough race, but we were hanging in there. I made a mistake under braking in Turn 6. I went into the turn and braked too late. When I tried to turn the car, I was a little off-line. The track was dirty and full of marbles. At that point, there was nothing I could do to the car, and it went straight into the wall.

	Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
SCOTT PRUETT
I can't say enough about the guys on the Pioneer Electronics/MCI WorldCom team. They did a greatjob this weekend, which is especially great here at Long Beach for Pioneer and Toyota. We finishedthe race in good shape, and now we'll focus on moving forward and collecting points. [Scott on his racing incident]I was hit in the rear, which caused me to spin and lose a lap. There was virtually no damage to thecar. It didn't change the way the car handled, so I kept going. After that, we focused on regaining thelap we lost after the incident. Our biggest challenge became fuel mileage. We wanted to play it smartand make the right call, and with the way the cautions stacked up we had to monitor the fuel situationclosely. Unfortunately, the lap never came back to us.

	Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
I amhappy with our finish but I think we still need to do a little morehomework on our setup on street courses and road courses. We reallyexpected to be a lot stronger here. I would say our qualifying effortwas a disappointment because if we had started in the top six I am surewe could have finished in the top three again, but, that was not thecase. We just need to continue to get our act together otherwise we aregoing to start to fade away at the end of the year. But, I have a lotof confidence in the team and I think we can do it.

	Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford
MICHEL JOURDAIN
Duringour first pit stop it seemed we had a short in the battery, but the problemwas fixed. Then we had to struggle with gear box and engine failures, butwe managed to regain positions to be within the points, but at the end welost the opportunity to achieve at least one point when I ran out of fuel.

	Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford
MAX PAPIS
We werestruggling a bit with traction this weekend. We were a bit loose allday. The track never came to us. I couldn't attack the track the way Iwanted. It's still a top ten and we are only getting better as a team.We will have good days and not as good days.

	Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford
BRYAN HERTA
It seems like Iwas stuck in third all weekend. We started third and finished third. Iam happy with the result and I enjoyed running here. I didn't haveanything for (Juan) Montoya or Dario (Franchitti) at the end of therace. I have to give some credit to Ford, though, they made some greathorsepower all weekend. But I have to say, this race was a heartbreakerfor Tony (Kanaan). [about getting the power down in the race] I thinkit was difficult for everybody. We had some good tires from Firestoneand the Ford engine was good but in my particular case I had goodstraight line speed and good breaking but my car wouldn't get throughthe corners as quick as I needed it to. I think it was a struggle foreverybody but we were not at a disadvantage. [about track conditions] Actually on the parade lap in the trucks there werespots on the track that they had all coned off and they were puttingsealer on the track and I think I kind of looked over at Dario and helooked back at me and wondered what that was all about. It was okay onthe racing line but if you got a little off line it was really ballingup and tearing up. I think if you were to get our car out thereobviously you were not coming back.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
DARIO FRANCHITTI
I gave it everything that I had today, but we just didn't have the car to challenge for the win. That's unusual because normally we have the best car on the street circuits. We were lacking a little bit, but the guys from Team KOOL Green gave me great stops and kept me in the hunt all day. On the track however, we just weren't fast enough today. I'm quite pleased though that we got second place and a lot of points (16) for the PPG Cup.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
PAUL TRACY
The Team KOOL Green crew gave me a great second pit stop and I think we had made up a couple of positions. But then as I was leaving the pit lane someone pulled out in front of me and I got hit. It broke the rear suspension. We can't fix it in the pit lane. It's a shame; Team KOOL Green gave me a great car. We were quicker than everyone down the straights, but it's so hard to pass here and I just couldn't get by anyone.

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
JUAN MONTOYA
Tony had a very fast car today,. I'm not sure I would have been able to get around him. Luckily, I put myself in a position to benefit from his misfortune.

	McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda
TONY KANAAN
I made a mistake. The track was breaking up and I just ran off line alittle bit and lost it. It was tough. Sometimes you learn the hardway. I was running pretty well. All of my guys — the Drive-Thru Crew— did a great job and unfortunately I made a mistake this weekend. Itwas good until 40 laps to go. I am very disappointed, but you learnfrom your mistakes. What happened today hurt but I proved to myselfthat I can run up there.

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Swift Ford
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
This was a hard race. It was just a matter of keeping your noseclean. I was happy that everyone gave each other enough room.Everybody was pretty separated. That turn is just too tight. Afterthat it was just a matter of pressure and keeping the pressure on.After that I passed Max Papis who held me up for a while and I also lostsome time to Montoya. I was putting up good lap times and we pitted andI was fighting most of the day with (Bryan) Herta and Christian(Fittipaldi). The tires were working great for us today. We guessed alittle wrong on our gearing which cost us.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
PATRICK CARPENTIER
What happened on the first lap was really a shame because I had a good carand was keeping up in speed. When I came back, I drovemy very best and was as fast as the leaders. I know that this type ofperformance just has to bring a win sooner or later for my guys who haveworked so hard to give me a good car.

	Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford
P.J. JONES
We had a goodrun going . We didn't have a top three car but we should have been inat least the top ten. I ran into some problems on the track with TarsoMarques. He ran into me once and then when he was a lap down he triedto pass five cars going into turn one and I had to back off which costus track position and time. Then later in the race I was trying to passGreg Moore and I got a good run on him going into turn one and got intothe marbles and got the car sideways and it cost me a lap. We had adecent car that we should have put in the top six or seven.

	Team Gordon Reynard Toyota
ROBBY GORDON
Basically, we need some work on the road courses. Ourlack of testing showed this weekend. As for the race, I made somemistakes and put us a lap down which, at a place like Long Beach, it'stough to recover from. It was really tough to race today. There wasrubber everywhere. I went off early on. I just plain locked up thebrakes, trying to hard to get positions. I'm really looking forward toNazareth. We learned a lot about ourselves on ovals at Homestead andJapan. We seem to be where we want to be on the ovals. We just need todo a ton of work on the road courses. The next four races are on ovals,and Nazareth is one of my favorite places to race."

	Team Kool Green Team manager
BARRY GREEN
It was a pretty good day for Team KOOL Green. Paul got stuck in a pack of cars and even though he was faster, he couldn't make up any positions on the track. His guys gave him great pit stops, particularly the second one when we picked up several places. Unfortunately, we encountered what Paul called an L.A. traffic jam midway down the pit lane and met up wheel-to-wheel with a couple of cars and bent the suspension, which put him out. But Dario carried the colors for Team KOOL Green today. He had great pit stops today and was working the car pretty hard. I think that Montoya's car was just slightly better today. But at this time of the year, second place points are big, big points, so it was a great day for Dario.