CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 6, 1999

Michael Andretti

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: How are you?

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Probably not a whole lot. A little bit, but not a lot because they are two different tracks, you know, two different types of tracks, I should say. Basically CART has four different types of race tracks they race on. You have street circuit, road course, then you have the natural road course and the high speed oval and small ovals. Those four are really quite different from each other. There's not a whole lot that we will use. It's probably going to be more stuff that we learned at Long Beach and things like that that will help us out there.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I really like the racetrack. You know, I was a little bit partial to the old layout. I really liked that last turn that used to be there. Now they had to get rid of it because of I guess they had to put some buildings in there or something. I was a little disappointed in that. But the rest of the track, I just really like. I think it's a fun track to drive. It's one of the best street circuits anywhere, I think.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Just I wish I would have had more (laughter). Greedy, you know. I'm pretty proud of what I've been able to do. I really achieved the goal that I wanted, and that is to win a lot of races because that's my immediate goal all the time, is to win the next race. You know, to be able to be leading that category means a lot to me right now.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Right. It felt really good. We all needed that win really bad. The way we won it was fun, too. We had a good battle there with Helio. Helio did a really good job and really kept the pressure on. To win in that fashion makes it feel even better. It was a big win for us. Hopefully we can notch a few more before the end of the year.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: That's a good question. It's tough out there. I think maybe it is a little bit. You know, the talent out there is so strong right now. What makes it even more so is I think the teams themselves, everybody is so close together now. There's really no way to get an advantage out there anymore. It makes it hard to beat those guys. Maybe it is. For me it's a little harder now than it used to be.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I still think it's quite different than F-1, just the way it's all structured. It is more competition-oriented. Everybody has a lot of respect for each other out there, I believe. It's not necessarily -- I wouldn't call it cut-throat. I think guys are out there still doing good, fair racing. It's more good, fair competition, where in F-1 you just never know. You always got to watch, knives are flying all over the place (laughter). It is quite different in that way. It's very enjoyable from that standpoint. That's what I really enjoy about the FedEx Championship.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't know. I think our team just has more experience with it. Because of that, it works well. There are not a lot of Swifts out there, but the ones that are out there have gotten some good results. You look at PJ at Nazareth, finishing second, which is his best finish ever. I think the car is very competitive. There's times when the other Swifts have run pretty quick, as well. To be down on the car I think is not fair.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I think Christian is going to be very difficult to beat there. He's one of the guys we have to beat. We had a good test there. I think we should be pretty competitive. I'm looking forward to this weekend.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I think Montoya, he's been very strong, Franchitti is going to be tough. You have to look at the Players team. There's so many guys out there you you've got to beat.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It's very unfair in so many ways to do that. I know exactly what Alex is going through. You know, you can't forget about a lot of other guys. Look at Villeneuve. He was here and won the Championship here, went over there and won the championship, took him just as long there. I still believe and I know that our talent is as deep and as strong as F-1. The problem is in F-1, what makes it different is over here all the equipment's very close so you can show your talent a lot more, whereas in F-1, the equipment is so different from team to team that a lot of times you can be the best driver ever, and if you're not on the right team over there, you're not going to be able to show it. It's just I think the structure is so different, and because of that it makes it hard to judge. A lot of times it's a lot easier for a good driver to get good results over here than it is over there because all the teams are equal over here so you can show your talent, where over there it's a lot more difficult unless you're with a McLaren or Ferrari.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It's going to take us to just keep finishing races. I think if we keep finishing races, we'll keep the pressure on him. We gave away a few races. You look at Milwaukee, that one hurt us very badly because I believe we would have picked up a lot of ground on him there. We can't let that happen anymore. We can just hope that he gets a few bad breaks like we got in the beginning of the season. In this game, things can turn around very quickly, so there's still a lot of racing left. We just got to keep the pressure on him.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Disappointed, very disappointed. I think Cleveland was a very good race for our series. For one, it was a great racetrack. We always put on great races there. The fans were really great there, as well. I'm quite disappointed that they weren't able to put that one together.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Last year was a little disappointing. I mean, you know, the way it worked out, we would have only finished second at Elkhart Lake, which would have been a good result. We blew a tire on the last lap and ended up in the wall. Toronto, we had a really good run going, but unfortunately my rear tires wore out and I wasn't able to hold off Alex near the end of the race. Again, we had two good results, a lot of points for a championship, but they were disappointing, especially the one at Toronto because we should have won that one, but unfortunately we just ran out of tire. I love Elkhart Lake, it's one of my favorite race tracks. It has everything: long straightaways into the slow corner so you can do passing, you have a lot of fast corners, uphill, downhill. It just has everything you would want in a racetrack. I just really enjoy it.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Oh, yeah, it would be great if we can get another one. I don't know of any other course out there like Road America. It's really a nice track. I mean, to me, the next closest one that I've ever driven on is probably Spa in Belgium that's like that.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: We'll see. It's okay. It's not one of my favorite race tracks, the layout, although they have changed it. I haven't driven there since they changed it. You know, I guess I can't comment on it because I haven't seen it since it's been redone. It worries me a little bit if we were to go to Atlanta, I just don't know how we would do down there. It is the heart of NASCAR country. It would be quite interesting to see what would happen.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't know. I think they're sort of misjudging it a little bit. I think there's going to be some interest, but I think it's going to be -- I don't think it's going to be as big of an event as a lot of people think it is, in my opinion. I think the demographics are quite different in Indianapolis, and it's going to be a bit of a culture shock for the fans when they do get there, when they find out that they can't even get within a quarter of a mile of any race cars or any drivers. I think that's going to be a big adjustment for the fans over here. I think you're going to have interest the first year, but I think it's going to turn a lot of fans off for the following years.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't know of any promotion.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Enjoyed beating? Well, I think I've had some great races with Al, Jr. he's a great one to race against. He was always good and fair. We had a lot of good wheel-to-wheel races, including my very first one at Long Beach, which is still a very memorable one. Al was always great to race against.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Thank you, very much.