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Top-3 qualifiers meet the press
(Click on
any photo to see enlargement)
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WEST
ALLIS, WI - Hot off his dominating win last week at the Indy 500,
Juan continued his dominating ways, winning the pole position for
the Miller Lite 225 at The Milwaukee Mile with a top time of 20.899
sec. Montoya's best lap of 177.769 mph (20.899 seconds) edged
Dario Franchitti for the top spot. Franchitti wound with a best
speed of 177.303 mph (20.954 seconds), with Patrick Carpentier third
at 177.218 mph (29.964 seconds).
The pole, the 10th of
Montoya's two-year CART career, tied him with Teo Fabi, Nigel
Mansell and Alex Zanardi for ninth place on the FedEx Championship
Series career list.
Montoya (Target Toyota
Lola) also registered his third pole of the season, following
similar efforts at Nazareth and Japan. He earned a championship
point, giving him 23 for the season, good for 10th place in the
drivers' standings. Montoya will be chasing his first victory of the
season and the eighth of his career when the green flag flies Sunday
afternoon.
|
Dario Franchitti and crew wait to
qualify
|
Starting
on the outside pole will be Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard) of
Team KOOL Green, who qualified at 177.303 miles per hour (20.954
seconds). He makes a season-best start, exceeding eighth at Rio de
Janeiro. Franchitti and Montoya ended last season in a tie for the
points lead with 212 each, but Montoya claimed the championship
based on his seven victories to Franchitti's three.
Patrick Carpentier (Player's Forsythe Racing Team Ford Reynard) of
Player's Forsythe Racing qualified third at 177.218 miles per hour
(20.964 seconds). Like Franchitti, he makes a season-best start and
continues a run of success at Milwaukee that has seen him qualify
among the top four drivers in three of his four career appearances
at the venue.
"I
knew my first run wasn't quick enough for the pole," admitted
Carpentier. "I thought I had a good shot at it until corner 2
on my last run. In fact, if I had been an inch closer to the wall in
corner 2, I don't think I would have been able to bring the Player's
car back in the pits. I tried to put in a better time by getting on
the throttle before reaching the apex, but I went over some bumps
and the car went loose. I decided to keep going but it didn't get
any better." Carpentier, the last driver to qualify by virtue
of his fastest time in the morning run, put in a fast lap of 20.964
seconds with his first qualifying lap, only .065 seconds behind
Montoya. Despite a determined effort to lower that time on his
second run, Carpentier had to settle for third.
Rounding
out the top five qualifiers were Gil de Ferran (Marlboro Honda
Reynard) of Marlboro Team Penske, who qualified fourth at 177.125
mph (20.975 seconds). De Ferran, who brought Penske Racing its 100th
career victory at Nazareth Speedway last week, makes his fifth
top-five start in six events this season.
They still keep qualifying times
the old way at The Milwaukee Mile, a 'tradition' on the CART
schedule the week after the Indy 500 |
Fifth
on the grid went to Christian Fittipaldi (Big Kmart/Route 66 Ford
Lola) at 176.872 mph (21.005 seconds). The effort marks his fourth
consecutive top-six qualifying performance of the season.
FedEx Championship Series points leader and defending race champion
Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard) qualified sixth at 176.184 mph
(21.087 seconds). He owns a 59-48 lead over Jimmy Vasser (Target
Toyota Lola) entering Sunday's sixth round of the championship.
Vasser qualified 14th Saturday at 174.603 mph (21.278 seconds).
Twenty-two of the 23 qualifiers were separated by less than a
second.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Juan
Montoya - Ganassi Racing Toyota/Lola/Firestone: "It
was loose but I managed to keep it where we wanted to go and
everything worked well. I really want to win here and give that win
to Target and Toyota. To do that, I need to get to the end without
problems. The Firestone tires have been behaving really well. You
look at every oval and our car has just been fantastic." "I
came out this morning and the car was much better than yesterday. We
made some changes before qualifying and put some wing in it and the
car was really loose. The wind was really hurting us, it really
picked up from this morning. I'm surprised I got the pole. [On his
race day problems thus far] How many times have we been so close?
The engine isn't failing now, but it's just little things. We had a
puncture, we've been very unlucky. Look at Japan. That race was mine
and 20 laps from the end, we did a pit stop, and had the problem
there. We just haven't been lucky."
Sylvester Stallone (L) and CHAMPS
director Renny Harlin (C) talk to 'Crusher' of the PacWest
team about the movie. |
Dario
Franchitti - Team Green Honda/Reynard/Firestone:
"It's nice to be back up there. We're starting from the front
and that should help us. We struggled yesterday afternoon with a
loose car. This morning we got it fixed and it's great qualifying
second. The first lap, the car was a little bit nervous, the tires
weren't up to temperature and pressure. The second lap was good and
it was the one that counted. I think we'll have a reasonable car for
tomorrow and I'm looking at scoring some serious points. The
Firestone tires are consistent. We were running really good times
yesterday on tires with race distance on them. "The
car was pretty loose on the first lap, so I waited for the tire
pressures to come up and then I stood on it. The second lap was much
better than the first. It's nice to be up front again after such a
dreadful beginning to the season."
Patrick Carpentier
- Forsythe Racing Ford/Reynard/Firestone: "I thought the car
was good enough for first. I knew my first lap wasn't fast enough.
On the second lap I went a little too early on the power in (turn)
two and the back end just swapped ends on me. I was pretty lucky to
catch it. The tires stay pretty balanced. They don't go away so I'm
very happy with the Firestone tires. The bad thing is everybody has
Firestone now so there's no advantage." "It
was pretty good, the [injured] wrist is okay. Yesterday we did long
runs and there was no pain. It's a lot different than Nazareth,
there was a lot of pain. The first lap was very good, but I had a
big push on the second lap in Turns One and Two and again and Three
and Four. Both ends are very different, this end [Turns One and Two]
is a lot different than this one [Turns Three and Four], but it did
it again. If we can keep up with these guys [Montoya and Franchitti]
it'll be very good. I want to keep up with those guys."
"It's pretty satisfying for the Player's team to get into the
top three in qualifying, particularly since I've been out of
competition for almost two months - except for the one-day race at
Nazareth last weekend," remarked Carpentier, who began the day
by recording the quickest lap in the morning practice session.
"The car has a real good set-up, and I'm looking for a good
race tomorrow."
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI, #11 Big Kmart/Route 66 Ford-Cosworth
Lola
NOTES: Fittipaldi has scored top-seven finishes in all three events
he has raced here. Fittipaldi's qualifying was all the more
impressive since it was his fastest lap so far during the weekend.
They team struggled to find a good set-up on the first day as well
as during the morning practice session before qualifying. He set his
fastest lap of the weekend during qualifying.
"The car was a lot better. In terms of the setup, we changed
the entire world from how the car was yesterday! We made a huge
change overnight. The Big Kmart/Route 66 team really worked hard to
improve the car for qualifying. The car improved just in the nick of
time. Qualifying fifth was a huge improvement from where we were on
Friday. It seemed impossible. Qualifying isn't everything but it's
always important to qualify well. That is half of the battle these
days. I fell better about the race now but I wish we hadn't wasted
so much time on Friday and had run on full tanks. The car was so bad
that we had to keep working on that instead of preparing the car for
the race. We have had a lot of problems in the pits the last couple
of races. We have all worked hard to improve in that area. We need
to have a trouble free race on the track and in the pits and we can
collect a good chunk of points. We've picked up a few points here
and there but not the amount we need to be a contender. "
MICHAEL ANDRETTI, # 6 Big Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Ford-Cosworth
Lola
|
Andretti's
crew surveys the damage
|
NOTES: Andretti crashed between turns two and three in the morning
practice session. He got out of the car on his own and was not hurt.
He returned to the pits and got into his backup car for the
remainder of the practice session. The car sustained enough damage
that it would not be ready for qualifying therefore Andretti
qualified his backup car.
Andretti has won a total of five events here which is a personal
record number of victories at one track for him. He has also won
five races at the Toronto street race. A win here would break the
tie and make Milwaukee the site of his highest number of victories.
It would also break a tie with Al Unser for sole position of third
place in the All Time Records for race wins with his 40th.
"This morning everything went wrong. The tire pressure was too
low and I stood on it too hard and crashed. It's disappointing. I
came into the day thinking I was going for the pole and to end up
10th is a big disappointment. It (the crash) was more of a setback
for me than for the car. I didn't get the most out of the car in
(turns) one and two and had a big push in three and four. I looked
down for the time on my second lap and couldn't believe I was that
slow. I probably left one tenth of a second on the table. Now we
made more work for ourselves for the race. It's possible to win from
10th place but its definitely harder than from first. A win for the
Big Kmart/Texaco/Havoline team would be great. Most of the guys from
the shop will be here and it's a Kmart race. It would be great to
win for a lot of reasons."
Alex
Tagliani - "I'm not worried about the starting
position," added Tagliani, who has demonstrated so far this
season that he is very capable of moving up the field during a race.
"Sure, I would have liked to be starting up closer to the
front, but with the way things went today, I know we're going to
have a good car for the race. It's going to come down to strategy
and taking advantage of every opportunity that you're given. We were
able to make some big advances with our pit stops in Nazareth last
weekend. I'm confident that with the fine work of the Player's crew
during pits stops we can do the same thing tomorrow."
|
Luiz Garcia
buckled in and ready to qualify
|
LUIZ
GARCIA JR. - “I really felt good during qualifying. You know
it’s still a bit tough when we lose time on the track with small
problems to the car. We can’t afford to have those problems. I do
think there has been a lot of improvement with each oval. From
Motegi, Nazareth, and now here, I’ve felt a lot more confident and
good about the car. We have a lot more data on the car and now we
can work on a better set up and have a good race.”
ANDREAS LEBERLE -
“Luiz did a good job today and will do a good one for us tomorrow
during the race. We are confident of a good run and are looking
forward to this race.”
WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY
-
Juan Montoya
won his third pole position of the season and Toyota's fourth in
the last seven races. The pole position gives Montoya his fifth
front row starting position in six races. He has started in the
top three in every
race this season.
-
With Montoya taking
the pole today, it marks the seventh straight race that a
Toyota has qualified on the front row - the longest current
streak for any CART engine manufacturer. During those seven
races, Toyota has earned four pole positions and three
second-fast qualifier spots.
-
20000
Manufacturer Front Row Spots
Toyota 6
Ford 3
Honda 3
-
A Target Chip
Ganassi Racing entry has qualified on the front row in each
of the six races with Toyota power. That's the longest current
streak in Champ Car racing. The team has as many front row
qualifying positions this season as the rest of the FedEx
Championship Series combined.
-
2000 Front Row
Spots
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 6
Marlboro Team Penske 2
Player's Forsythe Racing 1
Newman-Haas 1
Team Rahal 1
Team KOOL Green 1
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Montoya Reaches
Double Digits in Pole Positions with Firestone - Still
riding high off his first Indianapolis 500 victory and the 51st
win at the Brickyard for Firestone, Juan Montoya raced to the
pole position today for Sunday's race. It is the 10th pole
position for the second-year CART driver, all with Firestone
Firehawk racing radials assisting him.
Bobby
Rahal coaches Max Papis before qualifying |
"The
track conditions really changed from Friday to today," said
Al Speyer, Bridgestone/Firestone Motorsports Director.
"While Friday's surface was abrasive, creating some marbles
that Michael Andretti mentioned in the post-practice press
conference, with more use today the track stayed quite clean.
Right now, we're quite pleased with the Firestone tire
performance at Milwaukee, and look forward to a very competitive
race tomorrow. Looking further ahead, we agree with Michael and
others that a reduction of marbles is a very worthwhile goal.
Internally, we are discussing with our engineers ways to improve
wear on our tires and at the same time we're working with CART
on the issue. Our goal is to be the best tire supplier CART has
ever had and we're constantly redesigning our tires to meet that
objective."
-
Temperatures
during qualifying ranged from 103 to 107 degrees track and
from
67 to 70 degrees ambient.
WHAT'S ON TAP
Sunday's
Miller Lite 225 will be broadcast live on ABC at 4 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on the CART Radio Network and on the official CART
web site
Go to
our forums
to discuss this article
TOP QUALIFIERS
| Pos |
No. |
Driver |
Last Completed |
Fastest |
Behind |
Speed (MPH) |
Speed (KPH) |
| Lap |
Time |
Lap |
Time |
Leader |
Prior |
Last |
Fastest |
Last |
Fastest |
 |
| 1 |
1 |
|
Juan Montoya |
2 |
0:20.899 |
2 |
0:20.899 |
0.000 |
0.000 |
177.769 |
177.769 |
286.208 |
286.208 |
|
| 2 |
27 |
|
Dario Franchitti |
2 |
0:20.954 |
2 |
0:20.954 |
0.055 |
0.055 |
177.303 |
177.303 |
285.458 |
285.458 |
|
| 3 |
32 |
|
Patrick Carpentier |
2 |
0:21.617 |
1 |
0:20.964 |
0.065 |
0.010 |
171.865 |
177.218 |
276.703 |
285.321 |
|
| 4 |
2 |
|
Gil de Ferran |
2 |
0:20.975 |
2 |
0:20.975 |
0.076 |
0.011 |
177.125 |
177.125 |
285.171 |
285.171 |
|
| 5 |
11 |
|
Christian Fittipaldi |
2 |
0:21.005 |
2 |
0:21.005 |
0.106 |
0.030 |
176.872 |
176.872 |
284.764 |
284.764 |
|
| 6 |
26 |
|
Paul Tracy |
2 |
0:21.113 |
1 |
0:21.087 |
0.188 |
0.082 |
175.967 |
176.184 |
283.307 |
283.656 |
|
| 7 |
20 |
X |
Roberto Moreno |
2 |
0:21.203 |
1 |
0:21.096 |
0.197 |
0.009 |
175.220 |
176.109 |
282.104 |
283.535 |
|
| 8 |
17 |
|
Mauricio Gugelmin |
2 |
0:21.116 |
2 |
0:21.116 |
0.217 |
0.020 |
175.942 |
175.942 |
283.267 |
283.267 |
|
| 9 |
7 |
|
Max Papis |
2 |
0:21.120 |
2 |
0:21.120 |
0.221 |
0.004 |
175.909 |
175.909 |
283.213 |
283.213 |
|
| 10 |
6 |
X |
Michael Andretti |
2 |
0:21.146 |
1 |
0:21.140 |
0.241 |
0.020 |
175.693 |
175.743 |
282.866 |
282.946 |
|
| 11 |
55 |
|
Tony Kanaan |
2 |
0:21.231 |
1 |
0:21.168 |
0.269 |
0.028 |
174.989 |
175.510 |
281.732 |
282.571 |
|
| 12 |
3 |
|
Helio Castroneves |
2 |
0:21.169 |
2 |
0:21.169 |
0.270 |
0.001 |
175.502 |
175.502 |
282.558 |
282.558 |
|
| 13 |
33 |
|
Alexandre Tagliani |
2 |
0:21.183 |
2 |
0:21.183 |
0.284 |
0.014 |
175.386 |
175.386 |
282.371 |
282.371 |
|
| 14 |
12 |
|
Jimmy Vasser |
1 |
0:21.278 |
1 |
0:21.278 |
0.379 |
0.095 |
174.603 |
174.603 |
281.111 |
281.111 |
|
| 15 |
96 |
|
Oriol Servia |
2 |
0:21.282 |
2 |
0:21.282 |
0.383 |
0.004 |
174.570 |
174.570 |
281.058 |
281.058 |
|
| 16 |
8 |
|
Kenny Brack |
2 |
0:21.329 |
2 |
0:21.329 |
0.430 |
0.047 |
174.185 |
174.185 |
280.438 |
280.438 |
|
| 17 |
18 |
X |
Mark Blundell |
2 |
0:21.467 |
1 |
0:21.379 |
0.480 |
0.050 |
173.066 |
173.778 |
278.636 |
279.783 |
|
| 18 |
34 |
|
Tarso Marques |
2 |
0:21.383 |
2 |
0:21.383 |
0.484 |
0.004 |
173.745 |
173.745 |
279.729 |
279.729 |
|
| 19 |
40 |
|
Adrian Fernandez |
2 |
0:21.399 |
2 |
0:21.399 |
0.500 |
0.016 |
173.616 |
173.616 |
279.522 |
279.522 |
|
| 20 |
5 |
|
Shinji Nakano |
2 |
0:21.434 |
2 |
0:21.434 |
0.535 |
0.035 |
173.332 |
173.332 |
279.065 |
279.065 |
|
| 21 |
97 |
X |
Cristiano da Matta |
2 |
0:21.742 |
2 |
0:21.742 |
0.843 |
0.308 |
170.877 |
170.877 |
275.112 |
275.112 |
|
| 22 |
16 |
|
Michel Jourdain, Jr. |
2 |
0:21.878 |
2 |
0:21.878 |
0.979 |
0.136 |
169.814 |
169.814 |
273.401 |
273.401 |
|
| 23 |
25 |
|
Luiz Garcia Jr. |
2 |
0:22.610 |
2 |
0:22.610 |
1.711 |
0.732 |
164.317 |
164.317 |
264.550 |
264.550 |
|
Juan-derful Juan
bags another pole
