Race No. 12
US 500
Presented by Toyota
Michigan Speedway — Brooklyn, Michigan
July 23-25, 1999
Sunday Quotes from Michigan: |
Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 23rd |
| GREG MOORE | |
| We were biding our time, coming up in positions and driving as smoothly as possible. The Player's team was perfect. On the first pit stop we had a slight problem, and on the second one we lost first gear. We had the car to win this race, unfortunately just not today. It's part of racing. | |
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Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Finished: 4th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| We just didn't have enough power down the straights and were slow in the corners. I was eaten alive in the corners. The Ford engine was great, but we just didn't run enough downforce in our car. Max was on it. He was in a class of his own. You have to drive all 500-miles to win though. It's too bad for him after running so strong. His day will come though. Today he proved he could run strong. It was a long day for us. I was very happy to get some points to keep pace with Montoya and Dario in the standings. Everyone drove well today. Everybody took care of each other. | |
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Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Finished: 8th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| The car was not bad but it was not great either. We had too much drag and not enough speed on the straights. After I lost the draft it was too hard to catch up. Forget it. I would get beside someone and loose the draft and a lot of positions in the process. When I was in the top-five I could keep up with everyone because we had the draft. On the last stint, everyone was quicker than I was. My rear bar was broken so that made it tough but we don't know at what point during the race it broke. I am very happy to leave here with points. We have a good position in the standings. | |
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Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford Finished: 21st |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| The right rear CV joint broke and although we could continue, the team decided to not to do so. The car has too much downforce and it is hard to drive under those conditions. The only thing that I could do was to follow the field. That's why it was better to retire. | |
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Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 7th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
|
Besides the last
three-fourths of the laps today, it was the nicest day of my life. Even
with the last lap this was the nicest day of my life. We dominated and we
did a fantastic job. I am very proud of everyone on my team and this is
just life. We will become tougher and stronger and come back. I really
wanted to have my flag on the podium, but I couldn't. I am going to have it
there one day. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST INDICATION THAT YOU WERE OUT OF FUEL? DID THE ENGINE SPUTTER? I had no clue. I was waiting to pass the start/finish line and it just stopped completely. We had no clue. The lap before they told me to go down on the mixture and I went down on the mixture. Today was not our day. Today was our day, but, just not at the start/finish line. We need to go away from there with a smile on our face knowing that we were the best, because we were, except for the last half-lap. WHAT WAS YOUR IMMEDIATE EMOTION AFTER THE ENGINE WENT DEAD? I said many bad words in Italian that I cannot repeat. But my first emotion was like, 'My god.' I can't say much more. Bobby gave me a fantastic car and was with me all the way. We are a very tight team. Today we showed what I told you guys at the beginning of the season. Just wait, because when we get our chemistry right, we will dominate. But, I am very glad for Tony (Kanaan) because he is a nice guy and deserves to win. WAS IT SURPRISING HOW YOU COULD BREAK AWAY FROM THE DRAFT AND EVERYONE ELSE KEPT GETTING FURTHER AWAY IN YOUR MIRRORS? I knew what we could do. I just let them play with each other, kept it flat, and pulled away. YOUR PIT STOPS WERE THE FASTEST ON PIT ROAD TODAY . . . We were a half-second faster in Toronto than anyone in the pits. Jim and all my guys have a lot of experience. They did a great job. We just have to go home with a smile on our face. This is racing, just think all of the people who lost the World Championship on the last day. I could have won it today, but, I will win another. BOBBY SAID YOU HAD NOT TELEMETRY, WHAT DID THE DASHBOARD LOOK LIKE? Nothing. The dashboard was completely frozen. I kept asking the guys what was happening and they didn't know either. We think maybe it stayed full-rich. I had no rev-counter, no nothing. WHAT KIND OF PROBLEMS DID THAT GIVE YOU IN DRIVING? I just kept concentrating and looking in the mirrors all the time. I was picking up maybe 10 to 15 percent in the corners, pulled away, thought the race was ours. PRIOR TO THAT, WERE YOU HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE? I had the time of my life all race. I had a fantastic car and we did a good job. It's sad we didn't win it but it gives me more confidence that next time we will be on the podium. | |
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Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| The car was a handful the first part of the race and I was working hard on staying on the lead lap. I was coming out of turn one and it stepped out on me and caused me to understeer into the gray. Then you are a passenger and that wall comes up awfully quick. | |
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Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Finished: 20th |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| The car never really felt comfortable today. At the beginning of the race we had a little trouble with an electrical problem which is why I pitted and changed the steering wheel. After the change, everything was working well. Once everything settled down after the start, the car began to develop a slight handling problem. The handling of the car, after that, just continued to get worse and worse. The team thinks we had a suspension problem in the rear. It got to the point where the car would just not work at all. It was just better to park the car. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Finished: 5th |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
|
The whole race was a lot of fun. There were occasions when it would
be a little interesting. You would be on the high side of somebody coming
out of Turns 2 or 4 and you’d see their hands trying to slowly correct the
understeer as they were sliding up the wall towards you. It was
interesting at those points, but it was a pleasure to race these guys today.
I certainly felt at home on the superspeedway today. It really depends on the car, especially on a superspeedway, and I think the guys from Team KOOL Green gave me a great car today. The only problem we did have was a tire going down in the last sprint to the finish. We put some front wing in to correct the understeer that we had. I thought we had a faster car for the finish, not necessarily the most consistent, but faster. That’s when the tire (right rear) went down at the end. I was understeering worse than I did all day with the tire going down, so we kind of lost out in our shot at the podium. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| There at the end, I don’t think you could slip a piece of paper between me and Michael (Andretti) we were that close. We had a great battle. It’s the hardest that I’ve ever driven on a road course, street course or anything. For the last 50 laps everyone was going as hard as you can go. We got some fresh tires on the car in the final stop that made it a little loose coming off the corners. I had to hold my breath a little bit and I got pretty winded towards the end. I’m glad to bring the KOOL car home in third. It was what we needed in the points, moving up a couple of spots in the championship. We’ll just keep chipping away at it. | |
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McDonald's
Forsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Finished: 1st |
| TONY KANAAN | |
|
It was an up and down race for us but we never gave up. Today was our
day. I want to thank my team, Jerry (Forsythe) and Steve (Horne), my
engineers Diane Holl, Martin Pare and Mike Camosy and my Drive-Thru
crew. Everyone did a great job.
I lost radio contact about 10 laps into the race. I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. I would put my hand up as I went by the pits to communicate about the car. By the end, my arm was getting pretty tired! Seriously, the car was working really good. We were running in third when the gurney on the rear wing broke and that put us a lap down, but we fought back. I think luck is turning our way now. The first one feels great! Well, I'm sure they all feel pretty good, but this is special. I knew we would get there. | |
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Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Finshed: 6th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| For some reason I could just not stay with the slipstream. We don't know why. We don't know if we geared too tall to stay with the leader or what. My car would push on its own, but it was a little loose in traffic. At the end of the race we found a little bit of a problem with the Gurney. It was a hard race with not may yellows. The condition of the track was not as good as it was last year. It was a safe race which was good and we wanted to get to the finish today and we did. | |
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Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Finished: 10th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| I wanted to remain on the lead lap, with a much better finish for the Player's team on this super oval. From the start, the car had a lot of push and I just couldn't keep up. It took until mid-race to adjust, and at the end the car was very competitive but it was just too late. | |
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Patrick Racing Visteon Swift Ford Finished: 16th |
| P.J. JONES | |
| We were behind the game all weekend. We struggled with the car all weekend and at the start of the race the car was really loose. So, I was just hanging on there and when we got the first yellow we made a wing change and it got better. We never really got a handle on it. Then Patrick (Carpentier) and I were racing side-by-side, just hanging in there, and I think Patrick pushed up a little on me and when he did that I got into the loose stuff and it went right into the wall. | |
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Team Gordon Swift Toyota Finished: 26th |
| ROBBY GORDON | |
| I've been fighting a loose condition all weekend. Today, in the race, the condition just became worse. At the start, the car seemed to be decent. But as the laps ticked off, the car went way off. I couldn't keep it straight with any speed at all. There was no sense making a bad situation even worse. | |
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Owner Team Rahal |
| BOBBY RAHAL | |
| The telemetry froze on us earlier in the race and luckily there was a yellow. So we turned it off, and turned it back on, and it worked again. But after the last stop it did the same thing, so we had no idea what kind of fuel mileage we were getting and where we were on the mixture. We turned Max's car down lean and we were very confident that we had enough fuel. So we need to go back and look at the data and talk to the software people because there is a possibility when the telemetry goes down the car automatically goes full rich. Max was running quite lean after the last stop and we thought he could maintain it and I guess we were as surprised as anybody. Obviously, I am devastated for Max because he dominated and his performance was the most dominating performance I have seen in this place. Like I said to him, he won the race, we lost it for him. | |