Race No. 8

Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 Presented by Texaco/Havoline
Portland International Raceway
Portland, Oregon
June 18-20, 1999

	Team Gordon Swift Toyota Qualified 3rd
ROBBY GORDON
"It's nice to be in the top three, but really we want toearn it on a level playing field. The rains in the early session helpedus today. We got a little lucky at the end of our session when the trackstarted to dry up. The guy upstairs was good to us. And, fortunately,we had a set of slicks ready just in case it did dry up. You're onlyallowed two sets of tires for qualifying and we stamped one set ofslicks - I have to hand it to my tire guy, he was on it. Actually, wetried to fake everyone out at the end with tires. I told the guys tokeep the rain tires on when we came in for that last yellow, hoping Al,Jr., and the other teams around us would do the same thing. Once theyall left I wanted to put the slicks on and catch them out. It workedout, anyway. I'm happy to be here and hopefully we can be back in thetop three tomorrow when it's dry. I think that's possible. The car wasgood this morning when we ran with everyone, so I have high hopes forqualifying and the race. Of course I really hope it rains tomorrow, butthat's a different story!"

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified 18th
GREG MOORE
"Like everyone else, we got caught by the rain at the start of qualifyingand it takes more time to properly set up a car for a wet track," heexplained. "There was a dry line at the end, but it was a bit too late forus, even though we did improve our time at that point," added Moore, whomanaged to post the sixth-best time among the first group.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified 2nd
PATRICK CARPENTIER
"By the time our group got out there, the sun had started to shine and thetrack was almost totally dry at the end, and there was almost no problemwith traffic," stated Carpentier, who recorded the fastest race lap at lastyear's Portland event. "Mercedes did a tremendous job adjusting the powercurve for the track conditions. Tomorrow, we will be in the top 5, forsure."

	Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified 10th
SCOTT PRUETT
"It was a good session for us, and I'm pleased with the car. I could =have gotten an even better lap or two out there, but I got held up in =traffic. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, everything will get mixed up. =It'll be anybody's game. We'll see the times drop 2-3 seconds at least. = The good thing for us today was getting into the preferred qualifying =group tomorrow. We'll qualify after the first group, which puts us a =little ahead of the game by knowing the mark we'll have to aim for and =beat."

	MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified 12th
CRISTIANO DA MATTA
"We had a missed opportunity today. The MCI WorldCom Champ car ran =really well, but at the end of the session I picked up a vibration in =one of my tires and I didn't want to push it. I'm not too worried, =though, because the car is good. We know we can do well at this track, =and we have tested a lot to prepare for racing here. Even if the =conditions are different tomorrow, we'll be okay. It wil be a =completely new story without rain tomorrow. We will have to rewrite the =book."

	Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Qualified 22nd
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
"This was a real disappointing run. We should have changed tires for ourlast run but we didn't and it cost us. But, given how the track dried outfor the guys in the second group it didn't make much of a difference.Hopefully we won't have to battle the weather tomorrow."

	Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford No Time
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
"A puddle suckedme in. I thought I had control and the puddle got me. Things like that dowonders for suspension. If there is any bright side to it I guess I get togo home early. As the session began I was already behind because of apenalty assessed from Long Beach and then after my off track excursion therewas not much time left. I hope tomorrow we have a perfect run."

	Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Qualified 6th
MICHEL JOURDAIN
"The car in the rain needs to bebetter. We had a big push during the session. We are not as quick as wewould have liked to go but we are working on it. A good thing for us wasthe fact that we were able to get some dry laps in on the car so that shouldhelp us. The guys in the first session didn't have that opportunity. It'snice to be in the fast group for tomorrow."

	Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified 15th
MAX PAPIS
"Today was workfor your brain. To know that when the conditions on the track are the samefrom everyone you prove that you can run with everyone else. Also I havenever run one lap of practice in this car here in Portland. Bryan did allof our testing here. Getting the setup for today's car was a big questionsmark but I relied on my engineers and they gave me a good car.

	Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified 25th
BRYAN HERTA
"I had trouble seeingout of my visor. I had some bubbles develop when we ran in the rain. Wechanged them three times but they all had the same problem. It's difficultto race in the anyway. Unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to testwhen we were here because it didn't rain. Actually, I think this is thefirst time we have run the car on the rain tires this year. I am lookingforward to tomorrow when hopefully we can show the same kind of results weshowed the last time we tested here."

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Qualified 20th
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
"Theweather conditions made it very difficult. The Tecate/Quaker State car feltreally good towards the end of the qualifying run. I had some trouble withtraffic though on my last two laps which would have been my quickest forsure. But it really didn't make that much of a difference though becausethe second group had a much drier track and they were going to run fastertimes. I am looking forward to tomorrow when hopefully I will get to run indry conditions."

	Tang Payton/Coyne Reynard Ford Qualified 9th
LUIZ GARCIA JR.
"We did a lot oflooking up at the sky today. It really challenged us in regards to settingup the car. Overall I think we had a pretty good day. We still have a lotto learn but I am beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with the car now,especially after the Mid-Ohio test last weekend. Last year here when I wasracing Indy Lights I started sixth and finished third so I am hoping that Ihave saved some of that success for this weekend."

	Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Qualified 26th
P.J. JONES
"My car was notthat great in the rain. Maybe we should have pushed harder to set a quicktime but the way things ended up it would not have made much of a differenceanyway because of the changing track conditions. Hopefully it will be drytomorrow and we will be able to show what we are capable of.