CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 1999

Dario Franchitti

Juan Pablo Montoya

JUAN MONTOYA: Hello, everyone. I think it's been, you know, it's a good season. You know, I really like to have you know, a better position to come into the last race, but the way we're coming in, you know, we're just going to try to go for the win.

JUAN MONTOYA: Well, I don't think things have changed much, you know. We just had a bit of bad luck, we had a bit of bad luck in the middle of the season, and it just came back when it shouldn't have came back. You know, we had a problem in Houston, miscommunication, and I didn't know about , the car was there, and you know, we had an accident. And I think the last race I just made a single mistake, you know.

JUAN MONTOYA: Well, I don't know, you know. I think it would be better to be in front, you know, having the nine points position in a 500 hundred mile race. But, you know, that's the way it's coming, and we just have to see what happens. You know, we're going to try of course to win the race and win the championship.

JUAN MONTOYA: Thanks.

JUAN MONTOYA: Yeah. You know, I think the plan is just go out and run around for about 450 miles, you know. Try to stay in there and get a good race car for the end of the race, you know.

JUAN MONTOYA: Just relaxing, you know. I went to Bahamas for the weekend, and that's it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: No problem. How are you?

JUAN MONTOYA: Me?

T.E. McHALE: Yeah. Go ahead, Mike.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Hi Mike, how are you?

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I'm looking forward to getting there and going racing, basically. It's -- I been quite lucky. I've been relaxing and stuff getting away from everything. I'm just looking forward to getting there and getting on with it. The 500 mile races are good fun, so it's -- I've always got that in mind and looking forward to it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Well, I think there's a certain tactic used. And when I was listening to Juan talking a minute ago when I joined, and that's, you know, you gotta sort of hang around for the first 450. Make sure you're in the hunt, and then go for it from there on. And obviously set up is critical, and that he something that we're obviously working hard on all weekend.

JUAN MONTOYA: Well, you know what Dario say, you gotta stay in for 450 miles and then just go for it at the end. It's going to be interesting, you know, because it's very easy to win the race and to finish tenth, you know. Normally, top-ten guys are running very close, so anything can happen.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: No, not at all. I mean, obviously the advantage is helpful. But as we saw at (inaudible) it doesn't really mean anything. It's the same attitude I guess I've used all year to get it there, to do the best job I possibly can, and we'll see what the result is at the end of the day.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thanks, Steve.

JUAN MONTOYA: No. You know, I'm pretty relax about it. We won seven races. Nobody else done it this year. We just had bad luck in other races. We gave away I don't know how many points, you know, by single mistakes, you know. Very silly things that, you know, I'm -- as a part of the team we've done it. Everyone has made mistakes and we've had to pay for it. So that's the way it goes.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: What was the biggest point -- what was the farthest away Juan was lead-wise?

DARIO FRANCHITTI: T.E., can you remember that?

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Because I don't think that it was that -- I think 20 points got into Houston, which was pretty big.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: It's only one -- I guess a couple of races. But I mean, I never thought we were out of it. And I thought, you know, obviously mid season I was thinking Juan was doing a terrific job. I just thought I'm going to have to keep working here. There's only one way we're going to get back into this thing, and that's to keep working and get good results. And that's what we've been doing from basically the start. I guess the trick is you know, never give up, and we're not going to do that until Sunday night next week.

JUAN MONTOYA: Well, I don't know. I think the ovals has been good. You know, I like them. I enjoy them. It hasn't been difficult for me. I feel very comfortable driving them. It's funny, because I think we have more points in the ovals than in the road courses or something like that. But, you know, it's been pretty silly mistakes we've done. You know, we've gave away point to Dario very silly. I think Dario has done a great job as well. But, you know, that's racing, you know, and we'll see what happens in time. You know, I'm not going to give up either, and we'll see what happens.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: You know, well, the 500-mile races are always interesting, because, you know, with the Hanford Wing could sort of be losing it going into the last lap and finish, and nobody knows where. So, yeah, you gotta work with the playing field you're given. And as I said, I'm looking forward to the 500-mile race. It's not going to be easy. Yeah, I think it's an exciting and fitting end to what's been is a pretty exciting season.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think road course drivers probably, you know, getting used to an oval is probably a little bit easier.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I don't think that really bothers -- the speed is not really a problem. I think when you learn to drive on a road course, you learn to deal with a lot more factors, you know, braking, down shifting, all that kind of stuff. Each corner is different, so when you come to an oval, you just gotta learn the small, you know, the intricacies of the art of driving ovals, I guess.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thank you.

JUAN MONTOYA: You want to go ahead?

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think the distance of the race makes it that much more, you know, there's that many more things that can go wrong because 500 mile race. The just think the cars are pushed to their absolute limit to run as fast as they do for that length of time. So that's probably the only -- probably the biggest difference.

JUAN MONTOYA: I think the same a Dario, you know. 500 miles, anything can happen, you know. You know, the stress on the engines and everything is just to the limit. You know, you gotta take care of the equipment to get to the end.

JUAN MONTOYA: Not really, you know. You gotta get to the end of the races and you gotta take care of the equipment. But, you know, you gotta race as well. You know, you gotta stay up front. I need to get many points, so I'm going to go for it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: As I said before, I'm going to get out there and do the best job I possibly can. I want to be right up in front. Obviously, my position is slightly different from Juan's in the fact that I don't need to go out and win the race. I just sort of need to be within a place or two, I guess. But I would like to get out there and try to win this thing. So I'm going to be out there pushing. Obviously, the number one priority is the championship, but you just gotta go and treat every race the same, you know treat every race the same as we have for the whole year.

JUAN MONTOYA: I think it's going to be very interesting, you know. I think we got one of the fastest pit stops, if not the fastest one around, and I would love to see my guys winning that money.

JUAN MONTOYA: Okay.

JUAN MONTOYA: I will. I mean, I think nobody done what I've done this year. You know, it's surprising having won seven races and everything we've done and we haven't win the championship. I think we gave away points to Dario, too many points to Dario too easy. And, you know, couple of races we should have won it, and mistake not coming into the pits and things like that. But I think, you know, we'll see what happens. I'm just going to try to take it as cool as I can, you know, get there and see what happens.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Hi, Scott.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Not too bad. I think either Australia or Toronto are the two that we'd look at, and, you know, hopefully on Sunday we'll have another one that will rank up there besides those two. But right now I've got to look at those two and say, yeah, those were the highlights so far.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Toronto, I guess is the fact that, you know, we won in such a controlled manner. And Australia pretty much the same. I think the pole position in Australia really gave me a great deal of satisfaction.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: To be, I guess whatever point lead I had or whatever. I mean that really, you know, I was really happy with that one.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thank you, Scott.

JUAN MONTOYA: I don't think we lost any momentum. You know, we just make mistakes and we have to pay for them. I think my team is fighting as hard as we've been fighting all year. And I don't think they want to give away anything, you know. We're going to go for the win and do the best we can.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think really the momentum think, if you look at the way the season's gone, sort of ebbs and flows, you can see that, yeah, it's certainly played a part. And think you can really, really tell that Sunday night how much of an affect that it's had.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Well, we -- after the race in Laguna obviously things were looking pretty bad. I haven't finished the last two races. So I think there's a difference. Obviously we're a bit happier with second and a first place finish, and we've taken back the championship lead. So obviously the team's really buzzing at the moment, and we're very confident on both sides, the team as well as myself. You know, I think that is a factor, yeah, we're on top of things.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: How are you?

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I certainly hoped it was going to happen. It's kind of the things you dream with about. You dream about winning Champ car title and Formula 1 championships. These are the things you dream about, but you never actually think they'll happen, so it would obviously be a terrific thing if it did happen.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah. I think every race you go into you use the experience you've learned throughout their whole career.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think every lap you drive you learn something, and I think opportunities like this season, you have to use all the experience you've gained.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thank you very much.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: That's life, isn't it, I guess? You gotta -- you know as I said before, you've gotta work with the playing field you're given. We've both done it before. There's not really too much to say. You can't really complain about it, or think of it as a bad thing or wish it was on a road course. You just gotta get on with it. And as I said before, I'm looking forward to the 500-mile race.

JUAN MONTOYA: How you doing, man?

JUAN MONTOYA: I don't know, you know, anything can happen. And, you know, I would love to see myself winning the championship, but if it doesn't happen, you know everything has a reason, you know.

JUAN MONTOYA: Nothing. You know, it's all right. It's another race. Another day in the office. You know, it will be an interesting race for me, so we'll see.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thanks.

JUAN MONTOYA: Thanks, man.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: They are pretty similar. I would say Fontana has a slightly different angle on the track and that's the biggest difference I would say, otherwise it's pretty similar. That's about as much as -- you know, I think the lap times are a little quicker at Fontana, but that's about it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah, I'm a little bit surprised about that. I mean, first of all they pull out of Formula 1, and then they pull out of, you know, Champ car, and also I guess the IRL. They have been getting -- for sometime they've had a particularly difficult time with competing against Firestone, particularly in Champ car. They haven't managed to -- they won one race this year with (inaudible.) It just surprises me, and I think it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Firestone. And it's a shame there's not going to be any competition for them to show how good their product is, because they've obviously been the dominant force for the last four years or so. I was a bit surprised.

JUAN MONTOYA: No, you know, really, it's a bit surprising. It's a shame, you know, because that's another fight they had going on. It's more things going on. Another challenge. Something else you want to try, you know, to have for the people, you know. So it could be an advantage or it could be disadvantage. But it would make it more interesting. It's a shame they pull out.

JUAN MONTOYA: For me it's an issue. You know, that point could make the difference at the end of the race, you know.

JUAN MONTOYA: So, we'll see. You know, we need to get to the end. The biggest points are at the end, so we need to get to the end. But if the car a quick enough to run up front, we're going to try run up front.

JUAN MONTOYA: Well, you know, that's the way it comes. You have to chance to pass someone, you're going to pass him. I don't think it's a big deal.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah. I mean, obviously the first part in Michigan the race was pretty entertaining with Juan and Michael, you know, Michael and myself, Paul and Michael. We were mixing it up pretty well. But I don't think any of us were really try that hard to get away. Like Juan said, if you've got the opportunity to pass and you've got like a ten-mile-an-hour tour on somebody, you're going to go by them.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: But, you know, without trying too hard, we were putting on a pretty good show. Obviously, the point could make a difference in the most laps.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah. For sure you're gonna -- you can run in traffic and everything and you can see what it's all about. Generally, by the end of the race there's a lot less cars on the track. You gotta sort of factor that in as well. But through the whole race, you just improving the car and you're trying to get it better.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: That's quite a question. I think obviously at the start season we were just being conservative getting some points on the board. By the mid point, obviously the momentum, Juan's momentum had really picked up and I was obviously surprised at how consistent, what a good job he was doing simply because of the fact that it was his first year racing. I've known him for a good number of years, and obviously I know he's very, very fast. But just the good job he was going doing consistently. So at that point, you know, we were just trying to get things figured out with our car and get the car improved a little bit. And we stopped, I guess through the middle point we stopped being quite as conservative. But we still -- in the races we're still going for finishes and I'm focusing on the championship. I think, you know, in that middle point in the season we just kept working, just kept our heads down. And I think the only mistake we've really made, and certainly the mistake I've made was in Vancouver. I was very disappointed with that.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: No, I don't think -- Fontana's wide open. If somebody wants to pass you, they'll pass you. And I think if anyway Paul can help I'm sure he will. I'm sure Jimmy is going to help Juan in any way he can. But as far as that's concerned, I don't think that's something you can think about in advance too much.

JUAN MONTOYA: No, I don't. You know, I think it's been a very long season, and Dario and myself we had up and downs, and, you know, that's just going to be the, you know, the final thing we want to win is the championship. But you know, I think all the job we done through the year has been very important.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I mean, I think the championship is the big prize. Obviously, I'll be disappointed if I don't win it. But as Juan says, through the year we have both done very good jobs, so I don't think you can be too disappointed. Although I'm sure one of us will be. So I don't think -- it's certainly not a winner takes all, you know, but in a way it is, I guess.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Who was that for? Sorry.

JUAN MONTOYA: For me. I don't know, you know, it's a bit disappointing, because we should have won the championship, you know. But mistake after mistake after mistake, he hasn't let us to the job, you know. It's a shame, but, you know, that's the way it came and we have to stick with it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah. I think I'm not in a position, you know, where -- I mean obviously, it comes down to either Juan or myself, and, you know, I think I'm only going to -- the result or the proof of the pudding is in the fact that if I win the championship, and that's when it'll be deserved. If not, then obviously it wasn't.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thank you.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I have a question for Juan. Is he in an airport?

JUAN MONTOYA: Yeah.

JUAN MONTOYA: No, I'm not. I will in couple minutes. I haven't seen an airport yet.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I can hear also somethings going in the background.

JUAN MONTOYA: No, no. That's the tires squealing. I'm driving.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think when you start racing, no matter how small the race, you always want to win. And I think on the track, for me certainly it's always been about winning. Away from the track it's a different deal. I get on very, very well with Juan. We have some fun. It's about the race on the track, it's not about away from the fact. I enjoy the fact that I'm competing against him, and I enjoy the fact that he's a fierce competitor. That makes it all the more fun, I guess.

JUAN MONTOYA: Yeah. I think the same. You know, we got a good relationship, but on the track he wants to win and I want to win. Each one of us wants to do the best job, you know. I'm not going to bend my race and he's not going bend his. I don't know. It's a lot of fun racing against Dario, and know him since a few years ago. It's a shame these cars have a bit of body work, but that's the way it goes.

JUAN MONTOYA: No, you know, I knew they were not going to be there because there was nothing to do there. I knew Jimmy was out already, as well, so that's the way it comes. I felt a bit dumb. I knew I made a mistake and I had to pay for it. Simple as that.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Oh, yeah. Their teammate in particular there's a good relationship I have with Paul. He's really an integral part of our whole team. Our information we both gather during the practices we both use basically. We're working basically getting information off two cars rather than one. We're on fairly similar set ups, so we can really work with each other that on that and it certainly helps the development process.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I'm quite happy with it this way. We get a weekend off. You know, you can't do that. You can't think that way. The race is happening when it's happening, and I'm quite happy about it.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thanks a lot.

JUAN MONTOYA: I don't know, it would be nice to win it. You know, you always race to try to win races and win the championship. It's my first year in CART. It would be nice to win in the first year, but if I don't win in the first year we'll try to win in the second one. There's a lot of things going on still, and it's wide open for either Dario or myself.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think obviously the championship means that you've done the best job of the year, really, consistently for the whole season. And it's the focus at the start the season and it has been for our team to win that, and obviously it would be a great achievement. I think we've done a good job so far, and we're just going to keep pushing for this one more race.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Thank you.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Well, I think the first plan after the race is Juan and myself are going to go out and have a small party, because we agreed some time ago whatever the results, win or lose, we are going to have a small party after the race.

JUAN MONTOYA: Little one, by the way.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Who knows. I mean, I have a contract next year with team KOOL green. And after that, anything is possible.

JUAN MONTOYA: I don't know, you know. I gotta deal with Chip next year as well. You know, you never know what happens.