IRL: Steve Knapp Proves Persistence Pays
22 September 1998
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With the top 20 cars separated by only 7/10ths of a second and less than 5 mph in average speed the competition at Texas is intense. Although not as quick as they would have liked in early practice and a bit disappointed with their qualifying result, Knapp, and Chuck Buckman and Paul Diatlovich's small but talented PDM Racing team never lost focus. Right into the final half hour practice Saturday afternoon Knapp and the team kept working, searching for the elusive extra couple miles per hour. Their hard work was rewarded, as the team would find the right combination in the final 10 minutes of the session.
"It's been a long weekend for us up until now" commented Knapp. "What's deceiving here, when you look at the grid, is just how close everyone is. Just about all the fast teams have been here and tested. We're a small team and just don't have the budget to do that - our testing starts when we roll the car off the trailer at the event. I'm still working to learn the tracks and what these cars like and don't like. With some help from both the Goodyear Tire people and ISM Racing we made a big improvement the last session out. We finally have the setup we would have liked to roll off the trailer at the beginning of the weekend with."
"I've got to commend Chuck, Paul and the rest of my guys - we all put our heads down and kept at it. I have a car I'm confident in now - we should have a really good car in the race."
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