CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 6, 2002

Jimmy Vasser

JIMMY VASSER: Thanks for having me.

JIMMY VASSER: Absolutely. So much work goes into winning races for the race team. The team won six races last year. I find it hard to believe that they hadn't won a 500-mile race, especially as dominant as they have been over the last few years. It certainly is very satisfying. Also taking the pit crew challenge, Craftsman Pit Challenge on Friday, the team really takes that seriously. I think it shows. To have a weekend like that where we could attain a couple goals like that with the pit stop thing and then the race, it's obviously a good weekend for us.

JIMMY VASSER: Yeah, obviously it's an added bonus. It's really cool. Those guys take it seriously. Quickest on pit lane virtually all season long. It certainly gives you an extra boost of confidence when you come down, particularly under yellow flag conditions, pit lane is all bunched up. You know you're going to come out of that at least picking up a spot or retaining your lead.

JIMMY VASSER: I mean, nobody wants to go all season long - two seasons for that matter - without winning a race. I feel bad that I didn't win a race with Patrick, although I felt like I could have. I was dreading not winning a race this year with Rahal. Last year when I came to the team, the Christmas party, there was a big ceremony. They got all these new banners that they hung from the ceiling in their beautiful new shop of all the race wins over the years. They basically started the tradition last year, hung all these banners with all these great victories. Rahal, Herta, Papis, Brack. I was bumming thinking about not hanging up a banner at Christmastime for the race team. At least now we have one to hang.

JIMMY VASSER: That to me is just a product of how many yellows. Record speed, it sounds cool and all that. It was nice. The one thing that's nice about that is there weren't a lot of wrecks and nobody got hurt.

JIMMY VASSER: Certainly you have to have trust in them. There's a lot of lead changes, a lot of moments where you're in a pack of cars, very close together. Everybody did a fantastic job, like Mike said. The cars are very, very fast. The speeds that you're traveling, it could be dangerous in the wrong situation. Everybody at this level is very accomplished and very good at what they do. I echo what Mike said. I never had a moment where I really was unhappy with the way the guys were driving. Everybody I thought gave everybody else some room and still raced hard. At the end of the day, I really don't expect anything different from the Champ Car drivers.

JIMMY VASSER: It was a little bit reminiscent. I knew the restart was going to come. Not long before they told me there was going to be a green, white, checker. I thought I was in the better position, much like on the restart, I don't know what lap it was, maybe 15, somewhere between 10 and 15. Michael was in the same position I was. It's more advantageous to be in second. You get the tow from the lead car. I was really confident that if I did everything I was supposed to do, I'll have a good run on him and should be able to take the lead going into Turn 1. Then it was just a matter of keeping my foot down through 1 and 2, if I had any chance at all to keep Mike from passing me back. Those are the thoughts that were going through my mind. Like I began to say, it was a little bit reminiscent of '98 with Greg Moore at the end of the race.

JIMMY VASSER: Well, I mean, you have to take what you get, right? Sometimes you win, a lot of times you don't. Most times it seems like you don't. I mean, it's a great feeling to take the lead in a motor race, particularly in the closing stages. It's the greatest feeling to win the race. It's the greatest feeling that you can have in racing, is to win a race, particularly when you haven't been winning, and your guys have been working so hard. Obviously, it's very emotional. It's a great feeling.

JIMMY VASSER: I don't know exactly word for word. "Great job, Babe," stuff like that. He was very excited. Just like anybody else, he's a racer - more than most people on the team. You know that. He wants to win big time.

JIMMY VASSER: It was.

JIMMY VASSER: Well, I think it always helps to win a race. But I hope that things aren't that fickle, that it takes a race win to get all the deals done. But there were some good things going on for me before the race, and now I believe there's at least as good a chance, if not better, after the race. Things are moving forward, not at a break-neck pace. Nobody likes to take their uncertainties too far into November or December really when you're talking about racing programs. Things are moving forward.

JIMMY VASSER: The Ford was very strong this weekend. The Ford has been strong particularly on superspeedways for quite some time. I guess I could say I was a little bit surprised at how strong it was. I thought that the Toyota and Honda have been making some gains against the Ford all year long. I think research and development money hasn't been spent as much as it has been on the Toyota and the Honda. I was kind of thinking maybe we were going to be a little farther down on power than we were. It turned out that it didn't seem like we were down on power at all. Ford really seems to like to run, has good legs, likes to run wide open. I was pleasantly surprised to have a very powerful and very reliable Ford engine all day long.

JIMMY VASSER: I think it's the right thing for the series, for sure, especially at this point. Evening out the playing field, making it a little more financially feasible for the teams is a great thing. It's a great power plant. What they do with the resources they have is amazing. I think they do a phenomenal job.

JIMMY VASSER: I don't know about "weird," but it certainly takes you on a rollercoaster ride. I've been through the gamut of emotions before with this sport. It never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think you can expect what's going to happen, the unexpected happens. I'm on the moon really. It's great to not only win races, but to particularly when they haven't come for a while. It's a great feeling to win. Last weekend, it was a crazy race. Everybody's got a story about it. That was a day that I'll never forget.

JIMMY VASSER: That's right. Everybody reminds you you're only as good as your last race. Lucky for me I've got two weeks to bask in it. Mexico City I think is going to be a fantastic event with what we're hearing about the enthusiasm and the crowd numbers for the race. My teammate, Jourdain, I really hope he can win that race. Probably more than myself to win it, I think it would be a fantastic thing for him, Mexico and CART.

JIMMY VASSER: Before you get in the car, you look up in the stands, you see a half empty crowd, nothing worse than that. We play to the energy, too. I mean, when there's a lot of people there, the energy's high, that's a great feeling for the drivers. I think I can speak for everybody, we look forward to that situation come Mexico City.

JIMMY VASSER: I think I've been putting in strong performances all year long. I think I'm driving very well. Just because it doesn't have a victory next to it, it doesn't mean that myself or the team hasn't put in a strong performance in my mind. But I think having a result like that, it certainly doesn't hurt. People want to be associated with race winners. I could tell you I've driven my ass off all season long. Sometimes you get sixth or seventh, and the phone's not really ringing off the hook. You win a race, all of a sudden your long-lost buddies are calling up.

JIMMY VASSER: Buddies and people in the business, as well. The relatives are pretty consistent. It's the other people I'm talking about.

JIMMY VASSER: Absolutely. Actually, I wasn't a karter, I did quarter midgets. But go-karting, it's a great starting point for racers that are going to be move on to CART or any other kind of racing. I think it's a proactive move on CART's behalf. I applaud it. There's a lot of junior formula and younger racing series that need help. I applaud CART's move to continue with the program.

JIMMY VASSER: Thank you.