Race No. 8
Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 Presented by Texaco/Havoline
Portland International Raceway
Portland, Oregon
June 18-20, 1999
Sunday Quotes from Portland: | Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda Finished 1st |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| The car was working so well, and the tires were so consistent, that when Derrick gave the order, I felt very confident. Really, I was not thinking about the gap (to Montoya). I was just concentrating as hard as I could to drive to the maximum every lap. For me, it was a tense moment [the final pit stop]. It was hard for me to know what would happen. When Derrick said, 'Plus seven' (seconds to Montoya) when I left the pits, I said to myself, 'Yeah, baby, it looks good.' It adds to the joy. I'm so happy for Derrick and all the team because for the last couple of years everyone has been giving, giving, giving, with nothing in return. Now, we can't get the smiles off our faces. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| Third place after starting 12th is good. It certainly helps us in the points.I must say thanks to my Team KOOL Green crew. They hung in thereafter the terrible day we had yesterday. It's very frustrating to start so farback. I did my part, trying to pass as many guys as I could and the TeamKOOL Green crew certainly did their part on the pit stops. They gainedme a few positions today. Great teamwork for Team KOOL Greentoday! I don't think you could believe how slow we were going there at theend. We were using fifth gear instead of fourth, using half throttle downthe straights, just trying to make the fuel mileage. The team was talkingme through it and called it just right. | |
| Alpine Walker Racing Reynard Honda Finished 19th | |
| MEMO GIDLEY | |
| I'm happy with my first race, learning what it takes to go on the front. I still have a lot to learn. Lap 85 I was feeling great, much better than the first lap. I'm confident that Cleveland will be better. I'm feeling much more confortable with the car and getting to know everybody in the team. I'm also happy for Gil, what a great win! Congratulations Gil! | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| It was a fuel race pure and simple. We just didn't have enough in theTeam KOOL Green car. I used up too much in the first few laps after thelast stop. I had to coast the last 10 laps and had to let Adrian(Fernandez) go by which was hard to do. I couldn't make the fuelmileage and keep him behind me. We played it as close as we could. Iran out right at the checkered flag. We want to knock down top-fivefinishes for the rest of the year. If we can do that, we could be right backin the fight for the championship. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes |
| ROBERTO MORENO | |
| We had a very good car. The handling was excellent, and we played the game right. The Firestonetires were superb and the Mercedes-Benz engine was very fuel efficient. It was a race to conserve fuel and theMotorola PacWest team really helped me make it to the finish. Our telemetry went down at about lap 35 and Ihad to constantly relay the fuel readings to the guys in the pits. They told me they'd have to pay me more forbeing the DAG ("Data Acquisition Geek") as well! Teamwork was the key to our great effort. My engineers and crew called the right shots and we were able tobring the Motorola car to the front. | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| The balance was pretty good. We had a little bit of understeer, but it was nothing drastic. I wasdriving cleanly, conserving fuel, and pushing as hard as I could. Unfortunately, we lost boost pressure completely and we don't know why. It may have been something thatwas present all weekend, because we were never quick on the straightaways. | |
 | McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Finished 15th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| "My car wasn't bad, but it's hard to gain positions when you're tryingto conserve fuel and you start towards the back. I knew it was going tobe a lot of work today. It was a tough weekend for us and it's over.On to the next one." | |
| McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Steve Horne, Team President Reynard Honda | |
| STEVE HORNE | |
| "Today was a major fuel economy run and when you start in the back, it'spretty hard to save the fuel and run fast. From about a third of therace on, it was a just a fueleconomy run." | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished 6th |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| YOUR SIXTH PLACE IS NOTWHERE YOU HAD HOPED YOU WOULD BE AT THE END OF THE DAY BUT GIVEN YOURSTRUGGLES RECENTLY ON THE OVALS IT'S A POSITIVE START TO THE ROAD COURSESEASON . . ."It was a fuel economy race for everybody and I didn't have thepace in the race that some of the others did. We did out best to try andmake it to the finish and luckily we did. One thing that hurt us was duringone of the restarts I almost spun and that allowed Adrian (Fernandez) to geta run on me and then I got tangled up with Memo Gidley in the Festival andDario (Franchitti) got around me so I lost two spots there. That hurt us.Those two spots were important." | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished 8th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| "We wereconserving fuel every lap. Maybe sometimes it's better to go flat outsometimes though. It was just a different strategy than what (de Ferranused). It just comes down to some races everything goes right and someraces everything is a struggle. I made the wrong call on the start of therace. When the green flag dropped I went left and everybody stopped.Usually I pick the right line on the start and I can make up a few positionsbut this time I didn't and I lost one. It didn't cost me that much but ifyou can get a spot on the start you can use that to do better. Overall weare still gaining experience. Team Rahal deserves to be better but to bebetter you first need to learn." | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished 14th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| "When I camein for my last splash of fuel the car stalled. I don't think it was becausewe didn't have enough revs or because we were on the limiter. It's hard tosay whether or not it was my fault or the ECU. That cost us some pointstowards the championship. I don't know why the others didn't have to stopfor fuel. If I would have run any leaner we would have gotten blown awaydown the straights by the other guys. This can't happen again. This finishis disappointing because we could have scored some points." | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished 10th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| CAN YOU TAKE ME BACK TO THE FIRST PIT STOP WHEN THE CAR STALLED . . ."Ourrace came down to the engine stalling. The engine just stopped on me when Iwent to leave the pits. I don't really know what the problem was. Theythink it is the same problem that Christian (Fittipaldi) had in Long Beachwith the ECU. It was not a bad finish since we did drop down to 25th at onepoint. We did make up a lot of ground but we certainly didn't get as manypoints towards the championship as we wanted. We need to make up pointsduring this portion of the season. This is just very disappointing becausethe problem we had was out of our control." | |
 | Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Finished 21st |
| P.J. JONES | |
| "We were okay butnot great. If we could have got up to 15th we could have probably finished10th or so. I spun the car when I was trying to pass lap traffic and lockedthe rear brakes." WERE YOU FRUSTRATED THAT NO ONE WAS COMING OUT TO HELPYOU RESTART THE CAR? "I sat there for three laps. I was really morefrustrated with myself. When I spun I was trying to get by Robby (Gordon)and I thought he was going to let me go and then he began to close the doorand I got hard on the brakes locked the rears (brakes)." | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finished 4th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| TODAY'SRACE TURNED INTO ONE OF FUEL ECONOMY. HOW LEAN WERE YOU GUYS RUNNING?"Very lean. I was surprised how good the Ford was running in terms of theleanness of the engine. We have never run the engine that lean. The fuelmileage was excellent and the pace was excellent which was a key for us topass Paul Tracy at the end. I am very pleased with the progress that Fordhas made with the engine. We are looking good right now and we just need tokeep up the pace. It was a first race with our '99 Reynard and we showed alot of potential here." | |
 | Team Gordon Swift Toyota Finished 17th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| After going a lap down early as a result of a spin in Turn One, RobbyGordon fought all day to finish 17th, on the lead lap, in Sunday'sBudweiser GI Joe's 200 in Portland, Ore. Gordon's JohnsManville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota/Swift was loose throughout the day,especially as the stints wore on, making it difficult to overtake underbraking. Team Gordon continues on the FedEx Championship trail nextweekend in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland. "Whoa. That was way too tough a race to finish 17th. Ifeel like I've been through a war. Basically, we were loose all day. Icouldn't race anyone into the corners without taking myself out. I spunin (Turn) One early and that sent us back enough to eventually go a lapdown. We managed to get the lap back and keep it for good, but thisseries is too tight to try and win from that far behind. The guys infront just "check out" if you let them out of your sight. I'mdepressed, but I know this is what I signed up for. Nothing's easy -we'll keep at it, though, and we'll be in Cleveland working to race upfront." | |
| Team Gordon Swift Toyota co-owner | |
| MIKE HELD | |
| "Tough day at the office. It was a hard-foughtrun that ended up 17th, on the lead lap. Unfortunately, 16 cars aheadof us had a hard fought run, as well. Hey, it was a good characterbuilder if it couldn't be a points scorer. Someday we'll be better forkeeping the nose to the grindstone and plowing forward." | |
| Walker Racing Reynard Honda Team Owner | |
| DERRIK WALKER | |
| Special day; One of those days when things work! Our fuel mileage was not what we wanted so we decide to start racing instead of trying to play the two-stop strategy. Pit stops were key! Gaining track position gave us the idea to go. Gil drove a flawless race and our car was good enough to make good use the tires. So much has been said about tires, that I was really glad we were able to give Goodyear something to be proud of. It's been a while since our sponsors had a good result., Thanks Valvoline, Cummins, National Rental Car, Craftsman, NGK, Parametric Technology, Delphi Automotive Systems, Stanley, Knoll, St. Elmo Steak House, and Alpine; we could not have done it without you. Teamwork won the day for us. Thanks Honda, for your patience. Reynard, cheers! Memo had a good solid start to his introduction into Champ cars. He did well, good to see another driver move up from the ranks of Atlantic. Ron Catt and guys picked up where we left of in Homestead; team's working well. Hats off to the whole team! | |