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IRL Las Vegas 500k: Race Day Quotes

12 October 1997

TONY STEWART: "Davey's a great competitor and a great friend. His team
deserves the win and the championship. It's been a very long
night. It's the only night of the year that we didn't have a car that
was just right. They did the best for me they could and worked all
race long to get the push out of the car. We had a shock go out
somewhere during the race and Larry Curry was nearly in tears. We were
ecstatic to get the championship for Larry after all these years. This
team has been working long hours, sometimes 16 hours a day dating back
to orlando. None of the crew guys or their families complained all
year long. This is dedication on everyone's part and we're so produ of
everyone. We really want to thank Tony George for creating this
opportunity for us. They just gave me a fabulous car." (about signing
with Menard in '96): "We had just signed our Busch deal the week
before. I had been in Australia for quite awhile when the call came
after I got home."  (about being the IRL "poster child"): "Maybe now
they can take me off the back of the milk cartons. There's a lot of
guys who are just like I was, waiting for a chance. I'm just another
driver out there. There's 25 or 26 other guys who are just as hungry
as I am. If it weren't for the Irl, I'd still be struggling with Harry
Ranier. Tony George came up with a series, John took a chance on us
and it all turned out for the best. I don't think anyone in CART even
knew who I was. Larry (Curry) wants everyone to understand that next
year, that this is my primary concern (IRL). I have two great car
owners who let me live out my dreams. Larry and I are very close.  He
can start a sentenbce and I'll finish it or I'll start a sentence and
he'll finish it. I bought the house I grew up in last year in Indiana.
There's memory after memory in those walls and I wouldn't trade them
for anything." (about being close to the wall): "We never panicked
when we went up to the wall but you could've measured it with a
micrometer. I'm a Monday through Sunday racer. It was nice tonight to
have two guys with short-track backgrounds going for the
championship. Davey's a great guy and a great competitor. We have the
right tools to win in NASCAR. We had a very good car at Charlotte last
week. We have a very good chance at winning another IRL championship
this year."

LARRY CURRY (Director of Racing, Team Menard): (about his status with
the team): "Somebody called the shop and asked if I'd been fired. I
said I wouldn't be at the shop if that's the case. Glidden, Quaker
State, Menard and all the guys are a true team. And when a great job
Aurora did getting the motors together. It was just a very
nerve-wracking day."

DAVEY HAMILTON: "Off a little at the start of the run. The car was a
little loose. The guys kept working and working on it. The last half
of the race, we were real fast. We just got off time a little bit. The
Power Team is a very good team and we just fell a little short. Tony
did what he had to do.  We ran more laps (over the season) than anyone
did. We did what we had to do. We just had bad luck at Charlotte and
New Hampshire."

DAVEY HAMILTON (11 p.m.): "We were terrible at the first of the
race. The first few laps, I thought we were going to be all right. I
got into Turn 1 and the thing jumped out and I about spun out. When I
lifted, I lost all my momentum and the whole field went by
me. everybody was packed up at that point. I didn't have a chance to
keep 'em behind me so I went from basically first to last in not too
many laps. But the guys kept working on the car all day. By halfway
through the race, we were faster thanh the leaders. We just got caught
on a pit stop. We pitted and two laps later, the yellow came out and
put us a lap down and we tried to fight and get it back. The bottom
line is Tony did what he had to do. All he had to do was finish
10th. We tried.  We gained points on him, just not enough. We'll come
back strong. Hopefully, we continue on with our luck a little bit and
we'll get stronger and stronger in this series. I just want to try to
win one. I didn;t get one this year. Orlando will be my 14th Indy-car
race and car 14, 14th race, maybe we can pull off a win." (about his
schedule): "We have a lot of things lined up as far as testing. We've
done some in the past but not like we're going to do this year. I plan
on running some supermodified stuff and some Silver Crown stuff. We'll
see what happens. I'm going to stay busy." (about Vegas as a home):
"Yeah, I like it here. I like being involved with the track. I want to
see this palcer really succeed. I feel I'm somewhat of a part of
helping it succeed. We'll see what happens. If I continue on with the
Speedway, we'll see. I like being in Las Vegas ...good place to be
based out of. I plan on doing the same thing next year that I've done
this year. I know there's four Indy-car drivers here now...with Vasser
and Hearn and Sam Schmidt and I...two different groups with four
Indy-car drivers, four good guys. I like it here. There's a lot to do
to keep you busy." (about the race from a track standpoint): "There's
a lot of things I see we can improve on as far as the speedway's
concerned and we weren't really prepared for our advertising campaign
for this race. For the people who showed up, with virtually no
pre-advertising, I'm happy with it. And 31 cars with the IRL, that's
awesome, man. The other Indy-car group hasn't had 31 cars probably in
the history of their series. We're on a roll. Indy's already
huge. We're going to have more and more cars there and we'll be right
back to where Indy was before the IRL came about. That's bumping guys
out of shows. I won't be surprised at our next race, at Orlando, if
you see some guys bumped out."

DON SKINNER (Menard crewman): "We had a terrible push in the car. Once
we determined we couldn't place in the race, we just ran for the
championship.  That got the job done. That's all that counts."

DICK SIMON (Team Scandia engineer for Salazar, who got his first
Indy-style win as a driver, car owner or engineer): "I've come close
to winning so many times. There's nothing like winning the first
one. Andy (Evans) has a very strong team and I'm happy to be here. I'm
still in shock. My feet are on pins and needles. I was a nervous
wreck. When I get aboard the plane tonight, I'll probably have a few
tears. The Good Lord and I are having our own session. I was scared on
the last pit stop. He said, 'The car is brilliant. Don't change
anything.' And we changed the tires and fuel. Teams win championships
and when you get the wind in your sails, the next one is easier."

ELISEO SALAZAR: "I have tried to live the best life I could live. The
Good Lord has seen to that. I've kept the faith.  I almost wrecked a
couple times on the back straight. Three-quarters through the race, we
knew what it took to win. The wind picked up halfway through the
race. There was pushing in Turn 1. I was afraid he (Goodyear) was
going to pick up on the restart. But we were first in Turn 1. I wasn't
going to get excited until I saw the checkered flag. It was live in
Chile and I'm sure they're very, very happy.  When I retire, I will
try to get other drivers to keep Chile in the race. It is a very
special race. We will enjoy it till Disney. I'm very happy.
Perseverance pays off. We were close to winning in '95. I knew there
was something special between me and ovals. It's a little sweeter
because it's been hard. We needed a late yellow. I got away from
Dismore at the restart.  We had a good car at the finish."

MARK DISMORE: "The car had an understeer in the beginning. One run was
perfect. On the last run we had another understeer. I killed the right
rear tire with two laps to go and didn't realize it. The tire was down
to the cords. The right rear blistered so bad that I thought I had a
puncture. I almost got into the wall in Turn 3. I had to back off. The
car was real good by itself but not good at all in traffic. I tried to
keep half of the car in clean air to compensate for it. There's two
grooves here, but honestly, it's only about 1 1/2. Whenever I'd get
with 10 car lengths of Eliseo, the car would wash out. Then Goodyear
would start to catch me. It was like a yo-yo effect. There's nothing
to be disappointed about. We were competitive.  We'bve been
competitive all year., The guys did a phenomenal job."

BUDDY LAZIER: "Real disappointed. Coming out of Turn 2, it just
quit. I imagine wwe passed about 10 cars and all of a sudden it just
quit like the switch was just turned off. There was no drive to the
gears. They tried to fix it even though we were two laps down but it
couldn't be fixed."

KENNY BRACK: "The driveshaft broke and gave me an anxious
moment. Yeah, I guess we were close to losing it. It was a great race
car. It ran very well, just what you need. The Galles team did a
wonderful job of preparing it to drive. We'll start next year right
where we left off this year."

EDDIE CHEEVER: "The motor just exploded. I don't know what happened,
it happened so quickly. It's very disappointing."

BILLY BOAT: "We were having a good race. However, we had some
problems. We had a problem on one of the pit stops. Later in the race,
all of a sudden, I had no power. I came in to fix it. The Conseco team
did a good job fixing it. But A.J. pulled me in and that's just the
way the day went. That's racing."

A.J. FOYT: "It was ignition. We were so far down that it didn't do us
any good to stay out, so I pulled him in. We had nothing to gain."

ARIE LUYENDYK: "Something broke in the engine. I noticed it during the
yellow but I waited for the restart. Maybe it was wishful thinking on
my part. During the yellow I heard a screech noise and it started
running rough. I thought it was the gearbox or engine. Something broke
in the camshaft. I was a little leery of restarting. You never know,
it could blow up. I accelerated and it didn't go. It was handling
good. We were having a good race. Our pit stop strategy was good.

BUZZ CALKINS: "I was so focused on missing Sam that I didn't see the
tire.  I struck it, and then jumped the curb. At first I thought I had
only lost the right front wing but I damaged the suspension and that
was terminal.  Early in the race my seat brace broke and I had to hold
myself upright in the car."

SAM SCHMIDT: "I lost the back end in Turn 2 and grazed the wall with
my right rear tire. Everything was fine. I was resting in the grass
and Jack hit me an It wasn't his fault. His right front wing hit my
fright front wing."

JOHNNY UNSER: "The motor let go. Earlier we had electrical problems.
It's a shame because the car was working good. I don't know why we
were killing the battery. That's just the way it goes."

JACK MILLER: "I came out of Turn 2 and saw a fire and smoke, so I went
low to avoid the tire. Someone was sideways and I just hit him. Great
racing conditions. The winds have died down and the racing conditions
couldn't be better."

MIKE SHANK: "It went surprisingly well. It was a little frustrating
for me.  We have a good team. We had a handling problem and I never
regained muy confidence. I touched the wall in Turn 2. That's the only
thing that went wrong. I have a mloot of learning to do and a lot of
confidence to build. I need to get more track time. I have the brains
for it. I just need more skills."

BILLY ROE: "The race went great. I'm just glad we finally finished
one. The car went real good in the middle and at the end, it went
off. I'm just glad to be here."

VINCENZO SOSPIRI: "Bye. That's it."

JIMMY KITE: "I finished. Pit crew did a great job. We said if Salazar
and I finished, we will be happy. Now, Salazar finished first and I
finished sixth. I saw the checkered flag. I was so happy. I was so
excited I could hardly contain my excitement. At the end, we were
having trouble with gauge and sensor. We didn't know how much we could
push it so we just wanted to hold on. I am very glad I finished."

STAN WATTLES: "Had a lot of dust on the track. You see my car...it is
down to carbon fiber. In general, the guys were not too bad. Everybody
behaved themselves. I had one hot lap. I was hoping we could
continue. It was fun and I am so glad we were safe. It was my first
top-10 finish and I am so glad that it is the last race and I did it
here in Las Vegas."

STEPHAN GREGOIRE: "I'm very unlucky. The car was very competitive but
it was a bad race. I had no brakes at the beginning so I had to hold
back. I ran out of fuel. I got a black-flag for coming into the pits
because of no fuel (when pits were closed). I cut the engine and we
had a difficult time restarting the car. The car was very fast. Wish
we could've been a little bit luckier than I was. I was very happy to
finish."

AFFONSO GIAFFONE: "I was having fun. The car ran flat-out. After I
pitted, I lost a lug nut. After that, everything seemed to go bad. The
car pushed something awful. I had a problem with rear suspension. I
cruised to the end.  I was very glad to finish."

TYCE CARLSON: "Just a loss of power. Don't know if it's engine or
electrical. We don't want to stay out there and get in the way. Two
guys are out there running for the championship. We don't want to blow
the motor, as well."

JEFF WARD: "The water pump broke and overheated the engine. We had to
run real hard to try to make up the black flag. Had a real good car
tonight."  (about going from 12th to first in two green laps): "I ran
high through the gray in Turn 1 to get most of 'em, then picked off
two on the backstretch and passed the leader on the next lap. It was
pretty exciting."

JOHN PAUL JR.: "The run was not fun early. We had a big understeer in
traffic. I was okay when I was on the outside but when someone got in
front of me, I had to back off. We stopped twice for radical
front-wing adjustments and got it right. We needed to run this car in
traffic more prior to the race. The team experienced engine problems
resulting in inadequate track time. After we got the understeer
problem handled, the car came into itself finally about halfway
through the race. We were laps down but at least I was able to hold my
head up high at the end."

ROBERTO GUERRERO: "Just a little bruise on my knee and the top of my
foot.  But really, it was a lot less than most of the accidents I've
gotten involved in. It looked very spectacular but really didn't hit
anything solid. It was just a wild ride. I think I've done it all
now. I never really really hit anything hard. When I hit his (Greco's)
tire, the car started going up. All of a sudden, I was looking up at
the moon and I said, 'uh-oh...this doesn't look good.' I was fighting
for position with Marco and I was just getting set to pass him. He ran
out of fuel right at the time I was right there."

ROBBIE BUHL: "Team menard came here for Tony to win the championship
and that's exactly what we did. I look forward to next year. When I
got my brains scrambled at Pikes Peak, the guys all rallied behind me.

JOHN MENARD: "We've had some pretty good sponsors. Glidden Paints has
been with us for over 20 years and we've had some really good
times. The whole concept in the IRL is young drivers. We had a short
car count at Orlando a couple of years ago and we thought it'd be good
to put Tony in a car. We called him and told him to show up."