CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 10, 1998

Michael Andretti

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I am very excited about the season. There was a few problems with the chassis that were inherent in the design last year. We just really couldn't fix it until the new car came out. So you have these theories on what it is and you hope that you fix it. The first time out with the car, we were all very happy. Christian and myself, after driving it, we were very happy. We felt that they had fixed the problem; especially on the road courses where we had the problem. So, from that standpoint it was very good. And, also, the tire situation is much, much improved. Goodyear has really stepped it up and the tires are much, much better than they were last year which I think is going to help our Swift look better as well. So, we are very excited going into this year. I think we are going to have a really tough combination. I think, you know, this is as good as a shot as we have had in the last probably three or four years. So, we are excited.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: We were looking at it, four sure. We were probably going to purchase a little bit. See how it goes.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I am very happy with the concept that they are coming up with to slow them down. DeFerran drove this new wing at Fontana and he drove it for the first time and right away, it pretty much did what we had hoped it would do. It made the cars slower. But, yet, it didn't make him undriveable. And, that sounds easy to do, but it is very difficult to do. But, it sounds like they have the right Formula of trying to figure out how to slow us down at those places. I think we are going in the right direction. I think right now with what they have, we have the potential of slowing them down close to 20 miles per hour.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I think it is a good rule. Our series has become so competitive and the quality of the equipment and depth of the equipment is way better than it has been in the last five years. And, I think now it is time to set down some rules. I mean, to get rid of some of the cars that probably really don't belong out there. I think you are going to be surprised. There probably wouldn't be too many that you will be sending home because it has become that deep of a field.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yeah, I mean, every year you think, well, this has got to be -- it can't get anymore competitive than it already is. And then we get out there and we get everybody out on the track at the same time and, geez, you say it is getting tighter and tighter. And you wonder how than can be. And it truly amazes me how competitive it is - the quality of the field, the equipment, and the drivers and the teams, the people in each organization, is just incredible. And it just -- it makes it really difficult because it is so competitive. It is great for the fans, though. I mean, I think we are going to put on some great shows again like we have in the last few years.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I would say in the situation there, I mean, it was from, what I could see, being from the outside is I couldn't believe doing something like that in the first race. Now, if that was the last race, it was coming down to where it had an affect on a Championship standings then I would say, okay, it would make sense for one to slow down and let the other one win; which if I was coming down to the last race and Christian had a chance of winning the Championship or whatever, I would give up a win for him to do that. I think he would probably do the same thing because that is what it is about being a teammate. But, doing it in the first race, I will guarantee you, that won't be happen being Newman/Haas anyway.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: A little bit. That one, yeah. I would say, again, I think it depends on circumstances. Where, just like I was saying, if it is going to affect the Championship, I think it is okay. But, here, it didn't affect anything. I just didn't understand why it happened. I mean, yeah, the team sort of made a mistake with miscommunication. But, obviously, miscommunication means that there is a mistake on both sides. So, I just couldn't understand that. But, what can I say?

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yes.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: That is what it is all about, and, really, that is why Ganassi has won the Championship the last two years because they have had the most reliable car. It is not only competitive, but reliable. We had a competitive car last year, but we weren't reliable. We dropped out of eight races or something, and you are not going to win Championships that way. What we have done, within the team, there has been a lot of changes in personnel. We have Ed back who, to me, is one of the best guys out there. And, his main objective when he got here and what he set in his mind was we have to get our reliability better. That is what he is going to be really concentrating on. We are trying to attack that area and make sure we finish every race because you are not going to win every race but to win a Championship, you are going to have to finish every race and that is going to be our goal this year.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Very happy to have him back on the team. He is such an asset not only within the team and what he knows, he is an engineer first of all, and he knows what it takes and he can communicate well with Peter Gibbons and Brian Lisles, our engineers. And, I think just from that standpoint they speak the same language. Also having Ed there during a race is going to be a huge plus, calling the race because he is very good at calling races and that can win you a lot of races where that was a weak area for our team the last few years. So, from that standpoint I am very excited to have him. So, it is just because he knows how -- he has been there. He has been there for many years and he knows how the whole team works. He knows how the whole system works, and he knows how to win races. So having Ed there is going to be a huge plus for our team, I think, this year.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It is huge.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: You have to be ready to make a call. You have to constantly go into a race, you have to be calculating and thinking, well, what if this happens or that happens, and how to react to that situation. And, Ed is one of the smartest guys I have ever known and he has a way of calculating, computing those things right now, so can make the call, you know, if the yellow comes out at a certain point and you have so much fuel in your tank and you need to make it to the end, he can make the call right now, okay, now is the time to pit, bring him in right now. Those sort of things really can win you races.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yeah, I mean, partly from the driver's standpoint, but mostly from the team's standpoint. Because those guys, between races, you know, they are not only working -- they probably only sleep probably about 10 hours the whole weekend on a given race weekend, but then when they get home, they have got to turn those cars around; get them ready for the next race. So, it puts a tremendous amount of stress on the team. That is where I think, you know, could be the deciding factor at the end of the year. Probably the most organized team, with the best people, may be the ones that have an advantage at the end of the year after 19 races. Hopefully Newman/Haas is one of those teams.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It is a lot of races at a time, but I think what you have to understand is that it sounds like it, but if we weren't at the races, we would be testing anyway. So, from that standpoint, from a driver's standpoint, we are still going to be working whether we are in a race or testing. Sometimes you work harder at a test, on a three-day test than you do on a three-day weekend of racing.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't think you can go many more races than that because of the stress on the teams. I don't see how the teams can handle that. This is -- these cars are not stock cars. In stock cars they can close the garage area at 5 o'clock at night and come back the next morning and there is not much to prepare with these things. But, with our cars, I mean, they just take so many man-hours to prepare them. They are so much more sophisticated, technology-wise, and because of that, they just take so many more man-hours and, you know, I don't see where the teams can handle much more.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't believe so because we have been slowing cars down since I have been in the series anyway figuring out ways of slowing them down and one year at Indy we were qualifying at 220; then they make a rule change; then we are running 210. So, it has been -- It is not like this is something new. We are constantly trying to slow the cars down and there is times when the technology beats the rules some years and you get those big jumps in speed. But then the rules come back and then they slow them down about 20 miles an hour. But in two years we will probably be back up to 240 miles an hour. That just seems to be the way the cycle goes. But if you don't keep these speeds in check, I mean, who knows what the limit would be. It would go beyond the limit of the physical side of it. And, that is not what we are here to do. I think the fans cannot tell the difference between 220 and 240. I mean, it is a number -- it sounds exciting, but really when it comes down to it, they are not there to just watch 240 miles per hour. They are there to watch 30 cars out there racing each other wheel-to-wheel and you are still going to have that. If you do the rules right, you may even have more wheel-to-wheel running than you did when you were running 240. So I don't believe that that will hurt that in any way.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: No, actually it makes you even hungrier and the whole team as well. It is just not me personally. I think it exposed a lot of areas of weakness that our team has had and we have made the changes within the team to make sure that that doesn't happen next year. And, also myself, I made a few mistakes last year and so you learn from it. You just -- it doesn't affect -- no, it doesn't keep you down, doesn't knock you down. If anything, it makes you dig in a little deeper.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I would have to say, yeah. The more experience you get, the more confidence you have and the more you learn to deal with different situations because you have been in those situations before, so -- yeah, I would say you get better. The whole thing now is to keep my physical side up so that doesn't affect me that I am getting older. Right now I feel like I am in the best shape of my career. So, I feel like because of that, with my experience and the shape that I am in right now, hopefully going to be driving the best that I have ever driven in my career.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yeah, I would say I am. Last year, except for the end of the year where I made those two mistakes I was showing a lot more patience, but the reason I did those mistakes but I felt like, well, I have got to try make up the difference now because we have dropped out of so many races and we were having tire problems and things like that. But in the beginning of the year and also the end, you know, from the -- most of 1996 I thought I was very patient and a lot of wins came to me because of that. So, yeah, I think I have learned to be a little bit more patient.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Well, it is definitely in our minds. It is something that just will always bug me and the questions still come up, I think -- I think the IRL is something that will be a thorn in our side for a long time. It is just a shame that it is even there. There is no reason for it to be there. Just imagine if Indianapolis and CART were together right now with the way times are going for auto racing, how big both would have been, how much bigger they both would have been. CART has grown -- it is amazing how CART has grown considering that we don't have Indy. But, imagine if we had Indy, how much better Tony George would be off and how much better we all would be off. So, it is something that will always irk me.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yeah.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Be honest with you, I don't know. I don't know what the deal is. All I know is they cancelled it yesterday, they said it didn't look like the weather was going to cooperate and we were not going to be able to shakedown.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Yeah, it is a nice piece. Mark Hamford did a great job on the aerodynamics of the car. It is much better than it was last year; along with basically our team Peter Gibbons and Brian Lisles coming up with some of the other problems that it had within the design of the suspension. It is much more sound and much better. So, I think the car is a really good car.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Thank you.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: That sounds reasonable, but the problem is one of the sides is not reasonable in that way. I think that has always been our contention. If we were together -- I really feel if the two would have joined forces and been together at this time, we would be probably not as big as NASCAR, but we would be competing with NASCAR and be a much more thorn in NASCAR's side in that way. But, because of losing Indianapolis, you know, it was a shame and it hurt both -- it hurt Indianapolis more than CART even. I think Indy is just -- never will be the same unless you get this resolved. I think the whole city of Indianapolis is taking a huge hit over this.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Absolutely. I mean, CART is moving forward. We are growing. We are definitely growing. But, we are not growing at the rate we could have grown. And Indianapolis is going -- is doing the opposite. Indianapolis has shrunk. It is not -- it is not a real race anymore and really the tradition and everything has been destroyed there. So, from that standpoint, I don't think it is going to be that hard to really -- for us to have a show that is going to be better than Indianapolis. But, I was just pointing out the fact that if we were together, we would have been so much better off.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It is difficult. I don't know who to even say. I mean, there are -- all the teams that won races last year, I believe, every one of those teams is going to be in contention for the Championship. So, I feel that you know, the PacWest Team has come up the last few years. Forsythe Team is probably going to be tough this year. Those are ones that they have won a few races last year, but weren't up there all the time and I believe now we will be racing them race in; race out.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: I don't think it is going to really affect what you see, you know, from the fan's standpoint. All it does, in some ways, it is good for us because we don't have to sit down and analyze okay which tire should we go with. So, from that standpoint, it helps us out a lot so we can concentrate more on just getting our car to work better. But what it does, it gives you one less tire for the weekend; which, at some places, because your tire wears so hard, you might end up finishing practice five minutes earlier because you don't have the tires to do it. But, other than that, I don't think it is going to be a huge thing. I think hopefully it will force the tire manufacturers to be a little more conservative on the tires they pick, especially on the ovals, so you won't have as many marbles which is always a problem when you are into a tire war. If guys have these softer tires out there you create a lot more marbles from the rubber that comes off the tires creates a dangerous situation on the ovals. So, hopefully, that situation wouldn't be as bad.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Oh, Bobby Rahal, you know, he is a big part of the reason why this series is what it is today. Bobby had won three Championships; won a lot of races; been a great spokesman for CART for however many years he was in it. So, he has been a great asset for all of us and for me personally, he has been a huge thorn in my side. I lost three Championships to him where I finished second. And, I have a lot of respect for Bobby. He is a great driver. He has won that -- he is one that I would go wheel-to-wheel with into any corner, not thinking about it in any way knowing that we are both going to come out the other side. I think we both have a lot of respect for each other in what that way.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: Probably. I think -- Bobby has got a different style. And, style has really worked and paid off well for him. That is just being there, you know, just being in contention all the time. And, he can run easily third or fourth all day and end up winning a race. But from the fan's standpoint that maybe is not always the most exciting to win. Where I think myself and Al have been more a little charger where we would come up from the back and we would drive as hard as we can and we probably gave a lot more -- gave a way a lot more wins than we should have because of that style. Especially me, and but, yet for the fan, I think they like that sort of thing. So, I think maybe that is part of it. I don't know.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: You said it. I didn't.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: That is so difficult because I think our fan base is quite different, really. I think if you look at the demographics, we are much different demographics, you know, I think there is some cross-over but not a whole lot because I think those fans just-I don't know how to explain it-but I am sure if you broke down the demographics, if you looked at the way the fan that we go after and the fan that NASCAR goes after, it is two different types of fan and how to do what they are doing, I think CART is trying to do that. We are trying to get us out there more. We are trying to get us licensed more. We are trying to get that sort of exposure. That is what we need to do. Will our fan be as much of a cult type following? Probably not because that is not the type of fan we have, I think.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: They are trying to do that in the Champ Cars that we have because if you notice now the way that number structure is, everybody staying the same number year to year because they thought that No. 6 is basically -- when you say No. 6, that has been my number now for the past three, four years. And, so on, I think, you know, we are trying do that sort of thing in trying to get that sort of - what is the word I am looking for - association with the number and the car and the team-type thing. It is hard, I mean, NASCAR has done a fantastic job. They have just -- I don't think you can put your finger on one thing that they did right. I think they have been doing a lot of things right.

T.E. McHALE: Thanks, Brenda. We will wrap it up for today. We certainly want to thank Michael and for being our guest this afternoon. Thanks, again, Michael, and best of luck in this weekend's Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami presented by Toyota which airs live on ABC TV at 1:30 P.M. eastern time. Again, a reminder to those of you who are able to participate, we would encourage you to call back at 2:30 on this same number 800-857-0033, and talk to Championship Auto Racing Team President and CEO Andrew Craig about the IPO. Thanks again to all of you for being with us this afternoon. We will talk to you next week.