---

CART: Team Gordon Portland Notes/Quotes

19 June 1999

Robby Gordon
#22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-Swift
Practice/Qualifying Notes/Quotes – Friday, June 18, 1999
Budweiser/ GI Joe's 200
Round 9 of 20 in the CART FedEx Championship Series
At Portland International Raceway – Portland, Ore.

After a strong morning practice Friday at the Budweiser/GI Joe's 200 in 
Portland, Ore., Robby Gordon and Team Gordon followed with an even
stronger provisional qualifying effort, placing the Johns Manville/
Panasonic/Menards Toyota-powered Swift in the top three for the first
time this season.  Gordon's best lap, 1:01.138 seconds around the 1.969-
mile road course came at the end of the day's provisional qualifying
session as the track began to dry out.  Pole qualifying continues
Saturday at 12:45 p.m. PDT.


Quotes

ROBBY GORDON – "It's nice to be in the top three, but really we want to
earn it on a level playing field.  The rains in the early session helped
us today. We got a little lucky at the end of our session when the track
started to dry up. The guy upstairs was good to us.  And, fortunately,
we had a set of slicks ready just in case it did dry up.  You're only
allowed two sets of tires for qualifying and we stamped one set of
slicks - I have to hand it to my tire guy, he was on it.  Actually, we
tried to fake everyone out at the end with tires.  I told the guys to
keep the rain tires on when we came in for that last yellow, hoping Al,
Jr., and the other teams around us would do the same thing.  Once they
all left I wanted to put the slicks on and catch them out.  It worked
out, anyway. I'm happy to be here and hopefully we can be back in the
top three tomorrow when it's dry. I think that's possible. The car was
good this morning when we ran with everyone, so I have high hopes for
qualifying and the race.  Of course I really hope it rains tomorrow, but
that's a different story!"



Contact:  Kinnon Marshall 714-632-2722;  Laz Denes 310-538-2599