CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 21, 1998

Robby Gordon

Cal Wells III

ROBBY GORDON: Thanks.

CAL WELLS III: Thanks.

ROBBY GORDON: It is not that you can make a direct comparison. What it is was shocks and springs and combinations like that you can work through different variables and, yeah, I think it is very possible. I have come from off-road racing. Rick Mears has come from off-road racing. My engineer, Kenny Anderson, started with motorcycles, off-road racing. You know, it is a different form of racing, but I honestly believe it is probably one of the best kept secrets. You can learn an awful lot there. Cal Wells, our team owner, has won numerous off-road championships. We have also won a Championship together back in 1989. These aren't stock pick-up trucks that we race, by any means. They are half million dollar race cars that definitely are way more technical than any NASCAR I have ever driven or seen. And, it is just different. So, I don't think I am crazy by saying that at all.

ROBBY GORDON: I think the preparation is the No. 1 key. That is one thing I wanted to bring to the Winston Cup team is the discipline on the preparation because at an off-road race, you don't have a pit area every mile and a half that you can drive in and make an adjustment or fix something that fell off so, when you put the parts on the cars, they have gone to be on for a thousand miles in the dirt which is tougher than any other street race or Daytona 500 or even Indy 500.

ROBBY GORDON: It is not that it is my last opportunity, by any means. There is a couple of things - I am sure David is on the line here - but there was a couple of places in there where it says I have run myself out of IndyCar teams from Indianapolis all the way down to Charlotte - not true. Various Winston Cup teams have called me and very good IndyCars out of Indianapolis have called. So, it is not that I can't drive for somebody else. I believe this is a very good opportunity with Cal Wells because we have worked together before. They are based in Southern California which is close to my house. We can talk daily about the program and we can compare different ideas back and forth. But, there is some things that have happened. The key is I have -- I give some ammunition to guys like yourself and other people have thought what was only true, and it nailed me in the long run.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, yeah, I believe that is very important. I have got to watch what I say, for sure. I mean, I am very spur-of-the-moment - something is on my mind, I say it. And, that is what has really gotten me in trouble more than anything. But, I was with Walker for three years, we had a good relationship. Derrick and me are still friends. I believe that if there was ever an opportunity Derrick would have me back there in a second. He has talked to me before about: If we ever did a two-car team give me a call, so we are still friends, so that part is not true, for sure. And I did a three-year deal at SABCO but we were on opposite ends of the spectrum on how a race team should be run; not that their way is bad or my way is bad, it is just two different ways.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, I will start with first things first, Dave, I really appreciate the article. It cleared the air on a lot of things and it came out real good.

ROBBY GORDON: When I was talking to Robin, I wasn't nailing you for that. I know what sells papers so it is okay.

ROBBY GORDON: I know. It is not a big deal. The big thing now is we have got to get the performance up and got to get back towards victory lane.

ROBBY GORDON: So, Nazareth, onto that, I am really excited to get started at Nazareth. I have been out of the saddle for a while. Been doing a lot of testing. Testing has been going very well. We had a very good test at Nazareth a few weeks back when we weren't real far off, so I think it will be a good weekend for us there.

CAL WELLS III: Cautiously optimistic. We are working real hard towards a package that we hope will set Toyota's best qualifying effort in the FedEx Championship Series. Robby has tested real well; so has Max. We think we have got a competent platform. Toyota has got some new things up their sleeve we are going to bring out this coming weekend. Obviously, Robby has a lot of good quality miles there and it has contributed quite a bit to our testing so far. We are real excited about the knowledge that he has been able to bring and what he has been able to do with the car here. It is actually helping us here testing. We are in St. Louis here today testing and we are actually finding quite a bit of speed as well. So it has enhanced our engineering and intellectual base quite a bit to add Robby to our consortium of people. And, we hope that we can demonstrate what we are capable of doing this week at Nazareth. Predictions are hard to come by, but I am pretty excited about where we can end up.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, I don't understand what you mean by the "Reaction of CART drivers."

ROBBY GORDON: Well, you know, to be honest with you, I left and went there because I felt it was a good opportunity at that time and day. So, that was my own decision. As far as them as competitors, I am looking forward to racing with them. It is not like I am best friends with any of them out there - it is hard to be when you race at a competitive level like CART Racing right now. I think the most important thing is that Max and me really stick together and work real hard in our setups and get the cars where they handle well and then we will race on Sunday and we will go out and hang out with our friends on Monday.

ROBBY GORDON: Yeah, nothing firm yet. We had numerous talks with several Winston Cup teams, but hopefully we can get something worked out here in the soon future.

ROBBY GORDON: I think Hiro has brought a lot to the team. He has done a lot of the testing over the last couple of years. Has done numerous miles for Toyota. It is hard to make comparisons between me and Hiro. I am excited about the opportunity. Hopefully we can do a fine job for them in the Panasonic Duskin car.

ROBBY GORDON: Long material goals right now are a bit confusing. I would like to stay with this team and make this team a Championship team. I believe that -- I know for a fact that Cal Wells has the commitment of being a Championship team. I know that Toyota is working very hard on their engine development program so that they can be race winners and Championship winners, so I am excited to be here. It is a good place to be and I think that the CART Racing is very, very competitive right now. So, you have got to get the maximum out of your equipment and I believe that Cal will get the most out of the team and I believe that in the near future, Toyota will have this engine sorted out and we will be very competitive.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, just because I left SABCO at the end of the season last year my career is completely unstable?

ROBBY GORDON: I was with Walker for three years. We initially signed there with a two-year deal and moved it over to a three-year deal, so, that was my decision at the end of the year to go with Winston Cup racing. If I wanted to stay at Walker, I could have stayed there.

ROBBY GORDON: And, we did. We were on the pole at the third race. I think a lot of people forgot that. I think the very easiest thing to say is -- look at where we are the right now with points. I don't think it was all me.

ROBBY GORDON: Yeah, look where they are at. I mean, do I have to say anything more than that?

ROBBY GORDON: I believe he is. As far as my knowledge, he is going to be involved with the team. I know he is coming to the race this weekend to help us out in any way he can. He is very involved in IndyCar Racing. He has his Swift Chassis that has won a race this season and is very competitive. So, yes, he is going to stay involved with the team. And, you never know where that will go in the future either.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, I mean, every package is different. I have driven the Ford. I have driven the Merc and the Toyota - all of them the same chassis. The America and the Toyota have been on Firestone tires so there is a little difference there. We are working real hard. Don't think that we let a day go by, you know, with working on our engine development or working on chassis development. And, we will be competitive. We put very competitive times on the board at Nazareth on our last test. We are not a long ways off here at all. I feel we will be very competitive. We are a month and half away from here so I think we will be bringing back some better engines with more horsepower. Reliability has gone up a tremendous amount since even when I started at the beginning of the season, we have run here for two days; had no problems. I know that AAR, All American Racers, were here earlier or late last week and they ran 500 and something miles on an engine. So, we are getting our reliability there. The key is -- the first thing is to make them really run, because you must first finish to finish first.

ROBBY GORDON: I think I am probably in better shape than I have been since 1995. 1996 was a bit frustrating so, we are getting everything back on track. Cal has hired a trainer for me that works out with me virtually every day, so, I think that will help on the trackside - as far as performance, won't fall out of the saddle. Because, for sure, we are going to have to drive the wheels off the car for the whole race at this time and day.

ROBBY GORDON: I don't think anybody has doubted it. Every once in a while you take a couple of steps back and it happens to everybody. I mean, it has happened to great drivers driving for great teams every once in a while; you miss a beat. 1996, we really didn't have the optimum package, but we dealt with it. 1997 I got into something I wasn't understanding 100% what I was getting into. So I am not -- I am going to take all the blame myself that I didn't understand what the cards were dealt to me and didn't deal with them very well. So, we are going to take that and we are going to learn from it and we are going to go on.

ROBBY GORDON: Yeah, no more than I would any weekend, you know, I think, you know, I climbed back in the IndyCar at Fontana. The first session, I am third quickest, you know, I have had a dismal year the second half of Winston Cup and right away we are competitive at Fontana in Hogan's car. We finished 8th, which I am pretty sure that is the best finish of that team at the time and day it was. So, I don't think I have changed in any way. I am going to race just as hard I have always raced before. The key is, honestly, having the tools to do my job.

ROBBY GORDON: Well, I had offers at the end of 1997 to drive for full-time teams. I am not going to mention the teams. But I believe that not taking those opportunities are going to help me in the future because I am with a team that is a Championship-caliber team. Toyota is very, very committed to the series so it is not that I didn't have a full-time ride. I knew I was going to race some races this year for Toyota and we were just taking one day at a time. We have been doing a lot of testing, an awful lot of testing. I am getting ready for the 1998 season and now we get to go out and race. A few of us have known whether it was going to go on for a while so I have been focused and understood what the cards were dealt to me from the beginning.

ROBBY GORDON: Oh, no. I really enjoy CART Racing as well as I enjoy Winston Cup Racing. I feel like I have got a good opportunity here and we are going to take it one day at a time.

ROBBY GORDON: I think they are only making promises that they can keep. They are working as hard as they can, like I said. We have got some -- we probably have the most horsepower that we have had to date for this weekend. I honestly believe when we rev at 19,2 there or 19,3, sorry, and that would put us, like, fourth on the grid last year. So, I think we will get down to a low 19, maybe even a high 18 and I believe that will qualify us in the Top-10 for Nazareth. So, I honestly believe we will be competitive there.

ROBBY GORDON: For me, it really hasn't been. I have been able to switch back and forth from one car to the other pretty regularly. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to do that this year. Like I said, we have had some conversations with some good Winston Cup teams that are very interesting and we are just going to take one day at a time. If a good opportunity comes up, we might run a couple of Winston Cup races. But, I believe a race car is a race car if you understand what the tools are you have to work with each separate race car, A Winston Cup car, with -- you don't have wings on them really to adjust to aero-wise, but you still have springs and shocks that have got to get a lot of mechanical grip. It is the same thing we need to do with IndyCars except we have a few more tools to adjust the cars - a race car is a race car. Thank you.