Elkhart Lake

Race No. 10

Texaco Havoline 200
Elkhart Lake's Road America
Elkhart Lake, WisconsinJuly 9 - 11, 1999

Saturday Quotes from Elkhart Lake:
Index of Quotes available
MICHAEL ANDRETTI ADRIAN FERNANDEZ GIL DE FERRAN
DARIO FRANCHITTI MEMO GIDLEY CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
GREG MOORE JUAN MONTOYA PAUL TRACY

Moore PictForsythe
Player's/Indeck
Reynard Mercedes
Qualified: 8th
GREG MOORE
I was afraid that would put an end to the session for me but the Player's team cleaned up the car in a flash. There was grass and gravel everywhere. They also changed the damaged front wing, and they did everything in record time. Going back out, I had time to put in six or seven fast laps and move back up to eighth position. It was a great recovery!

Andretti PictKmart/Texaco/Havoline
Swift Ford
Qualified: 1st
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
We didn't know when to go out, if we should go out right away or we should wait. Because, if you go out right away, you have a chance of catching guys putting on their new tires and slowing you down. That's what we did. We went out and I got two laps in and I was going for my flyer and I caught somebody going into Turn 1 and it really screwed that lap up. That might have been a quicker lap than my pole lap.

Then, I came in to put fuel in, and then we went out and just did a flyer. That says something about these tires. I mean, it was our second run on the tires and I was able to put it on the pole on the second run. The other thing I've got to give credit to is the Ford engine. I mean, this is the best engine I think I've ever had. It's been pulling really strong all weekend long. This is a good place to do it. This is where you want to go fast. I'm very happy with that, and the car's been really good, so I'm hoping we can put it all together tomorrow.


C. Fittipaldi PictKmart/Texaco Havoline
Newman/Haas Racing
Swift Ford
Qualified: 4th
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
The car was pretty good. Michael put a very good lap together and will be tough in the race. I would rather be starting alongside him rather than behind him, but I'm pretty happy with fourth place. It would be nice to finish on the podium here again after finishing third last year, but it would be even better to win here. I really like driving on this course. We have had some good runs here and have run in the top three in every race. Hopefully, this one won't be an exception.

Franchitti PictTeam Kool Green
Reynard Honda
Qualified: 7th
DARIO FRANCHITTI
We didn't qualify particularly well here last year (6th), so starting seventh should not hurt us too much. The track grip did build towards the end of the session, but Richie Hearn's accident (in Turn 14) spoiled my best lap as I was pushing the Team KOOL Green car harder. His car was in a thousand scattered pieces at the timing line.

The track was very fast this morning and had a lot of grip. I don't know what kind of cars were on the track since then because there was no grip for the first half of the session. I was pushing a bit too hard when the track wasn't up for it yet. By the end of the session, I was pretty happy with the car because it was handling the way I wanted it, which we haven't had for the last couple of races.


Tracy PictTeam Kool Green
Reynard Honda
Qualified: 9th
PAUL TRACY
On our first set of tires, we cut a tire down so we had one less run than everyone else out there. Cutting that tire really slowed down our progress.

I'm a little disappointed because on the second set of tires I made a couple of mistakes in the Team KOOL Green car when I had two good laps going. I braked a little too late and it (rear of car) stepped out on me and that killed two laps in a row, both times in Turn 8. We had to regroup and I think we did. I had to be very conservative, trying not to make a mistake to get a good time. So, I know there was more (speed) there.

We're starting ninth, which isn't bad. It's going to be a tight race that's tough on engines. I think we have a good race car.


Montoya PictTarget
Chip Ganassi Racing
Reynard Honda
Qualified: 2nd
JUAN MONTOYA
We started qualifying with too much understeer. We started putting front wing in, and we still had a lot of understeer. Coming into the last corner on the last lap, we ran out of fuel. I'm pretty pleased. I think it was good for Michael to get the pole, and I'm very pleased for the job I did, because I wasn't expecting to be in the front. I thought we were going to be eighth or ninth on the grid. I'm pretty pleased.

Fernandez PictTecate Beer/Quaker State
Patrick Racing
Reynard Ford
Qualified: 5th
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
Today was much better than yesterday. We made some mistakes yesterday, but we were able to catch up and put together a good run. I am just really happy with the way we rebounded from a frustrating day yesterday, when we knew we had a better car than we showed. We didn't test here, which I think was a big factor in being a little behind yesterday, but we caught up today and were strong in the morning and qualifying. It is always better to start up front. It allows you to run your own pace and work your own strategy which is very important here.

de Ferran PictValvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special
Walker Racing
Reynard Honda
Qualified: 3rd
GIL de FERRAN
It shouldn't have run out. It was a shame. We had a good car. We couldn't quite count the eggs. If it hadn't run out, at least we could have made them think about it. It just shouldn't have run out. We have a good racecar though, and the tires are good in the long runs.

We were feeling pretty confident about our chances going into the qualifying session this afternoon. We had a good first run. I had a little bit too much understeer, and we made a couple of changes in between, so we put the second set of tires on and things were looking pretty good. The tires were really coming in. They took a while for us to get the best out of them, so every lap that I was doing, they were getting a little bit better. Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel, and that was it. I wasn't able to do anymore.

The reason why we ran out of fuel was that there seemed to be a fuel calculation error there that we were not expecting. We thought we had quite a bit more fuel than we had on the car. It's a shame, because the car is really handling well. The car was handling well this morning with race trim, and we're looking forward to the race tomorrow.


gidley  PictAlpine
Walker Racing
Reynard Honda
Qualified: 15th
MEMO GIDLEY
Well, that was disappointing. After our problem this morning, we had to change motors and the car had a misfire right from the start. The guys worked on it all session long, but we never found the cause.