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CART: Houston Saturday Qualifying Notes/Quotes, Robby Gordon

26 September 1999

Robby Gordon
#22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-Eagle
Qualifying Notes/Quotes ­ Saturday, September 25, 1999
TEXACO GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON
Round 18 of 20 in the CART FedEx Championship Series

Qualifying Position - 22nd
Qualifying Time - 60.906 seconds

Quotes

ROBBY GORDON ­ "Certainly, we would have liked to qualify a little
higher, especially on this tight of a course.  We're still having a hard
time putting the power down.  I guess it's more complicated than just
saying that, because there are a lot of reasons for having trouble
getting power to the pavement when your car weighs 1,500 pounds and your
engine produces close to 900 horsepower.  But that's what we're fighting
right now, on top of my having a little bit of the flu.  I woke up this
morning knowing I was coming down with something, so I'm trying to lay
low and conserve energy for tomorrow.  Based on where we're starting, I
need about 15 hours of sleep."

MIKE HELD (Co-owner) ­ "I thought we had the makings of a good weekend
after yesterday's first practice, but since then we haven't had much to
build on.  The car has gotten faster, but once again, it needed to get a
whole lot faster.  We take a step forward and they take two at the top
of the grid ... it's hard to swallow.  Passing is going to be very hard
for us tomorrow, so I think it's probably wise to take a hard-charging,
yet patient, approach to the race.  We need some guys to fall out and we
need to make some smart calls form the pits, but most of all we need to
press forward as much as possible.  It's not going to be easy.  Lets
just see what happens out there and hope Rob feels good in the morning."

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