Kanaan-Zanardi Nazareth Pre-Race Notes/Quotes

Contact:  Laz Denes, 310-538-2599
ldenes@monunnracing.com
www.monunnracing.com

MO NUNN RACING - PRE-RACE NOTES/QUOTES
Lehigh Valley Grand Prix - May 4-6, 2001
Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway - 1-Mile Tri-Oval

TONY KANAAN -- #55 HOLLYWOOD/MO NUNN RACING HONDA-REYNARD

-- This weekend marks Kanaan's 58th career Champ Car start and his 19th with
Mo Nunn Racing.  In his Champ Car career, he has one win (1999 U.S. 500),
one pole (1999 Long Beach Grand Prix), three podium finishes, seven
top-fives, and 28 top-10s.

-- Kanaan started eighth and finished eighth here at Nazareth Speedway last
year in the #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard, his
then-best career start and finish on a mile oval.

-- In 26 career starts on oval circuits, Kanaan has one win (1999 U.S. 500
at Michigan), two top-fives, and nine top-10s.

-- Last year on the 1-mile ovals (Nazareth, Milwaukee and Chicago), his
first season with Mo Nunn Racing, Kanaan's average starting grid position
was 7.3.  In his first two Champ Car seasons, it was 19.4.  His best 1-mile
oval qualifying effort last season was third at Chicago, equaling his career
best start on all oval circuits.

-- Kanaan finished seventh in the season's first two events at Monterrey,
Mexico, and Long Beach, Calif.  He started 12th at Monterrey and third at
Long Beach.

TONY KANAAN QUOTES

"The best thing about going to Nazareth, at this point, is to be able to say
that for sure we will race this weekend ... unless, of course, there's snow
on the ground when we wake up on Sunday morning!  (Note:  Last year's
originally scheduled race in early April was postponed until Memorial Day
weekend due to snow.)  I'm glad we got out of Texas in one piece.  Everybody
in the CART community got together and agreed to do something that was very
sensible.  It will be a bit of an uncertainty at Nazareth for us because we
never tested on a mile oval with our current package.  But we've been
competitive everywhere we've gone this year.  I've been in the top four in
every practice session so far this year, so I'm very confident we'll be in
good shape at Nazareth.  It's a cliche, but we're taking life one race at a
time.  Let's see what we can do to really make the team more successful.
And, finally, Alex got back with his luck in practice and qualifying at
Texas, and I think he's going to be strong at Nazareth, too.

"I guess, people in the beginning of the '98 and '99 season said I wasn't
capable of racing on a mile oval, that it wasn't my kind of track.  I proved
them wrong last year when I had the car to do it last year.  At Nazareth and
Chicago and Milwaukee, I had never finished a race in the points on a mile
oval.  But last year, we did well at all three small ovals.  This weekend,
we have to keep our heads straight.  It's not rocket science to find a
setup, but you have to work together as a team."

ALEX ZANARDI - #66 PIONEER-WORLDCOM/MO NUNN RACING HONDA-REYNARD

-- This weekend marks Zanardi's 54th career Champ Car start and his third
with Mo Nunn Racing, which he joined this past offseason after a two-year
hiatus from the series.  He has 15 career wins, 28 podium finishes, 34
top-fives, and 37 top-10s.

-- In 23 starts on oval circuits, Zanardi has two career wins (1997 U.S. 500
at Michigan, 1998 at Gateway), seven podium finishes, 10 top-fives, and 12
top-10s.  His qualifying record on ovals includes poles at Homestead in 1997
and Rio de Janeiro in 1996.

-- Zanardi's best qualifying effort on a 1-mile oval was seventh at
Milwaukee during his CART Rookie of the Year season of 1996.  His best
finish was second here at Nazareth to then-Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
teammate Jimmy Vasser during his second of two consecutive championship
seasons in 1998.

-- At the Long Beach Grand Prix April 8, his second start for the Mo Nunn
team, Zanardi qualified 20th and placed 26th after retiring just over
one-third into the race with overheating problems resulting from earlier
contact with the car of Bruno Junqueira.

-- In his Mo Nunn Racing debut March 11 at Monterrey, Mexico (his first
Champ Car start in 29months, Zanardi qualified 22nd and placed 24th.
Contact with lapped traffic while working his way into the top 10 led to
broken suspension pieces that put him out of the race on Lap 40 of 78 laps
completed that day.

ALEX ZANARDI QUOTES

"There are obviously concerns in the sense that we know that the cars at
Nazareth are not going to work as well as we want because we are going to
run a lot less downforce than what we really need due to the rules that CART
is imposing concerning wings.  So it's left to be seen how different cars
will react to these changes.  Other than that, I am excited about going to
Nazareth and trying to have a good race, and most of all to try to see the
checkered flag, which has been something of an elusive target in our first
two races.  In reality, it was nice to have a decent qualifying in Texas
(sixth), but unfortunately, we couldn't have a race.  The scenario is going
to be different at Nazareth on the small oval, of course.

"We didn't race at Texas.  On one hand, you can say I did my winter oval
testing.  Certainly I thought before the start of the season if I was going
to have problems this season it would be from Texas onward because I didn't
do any testing on ovals over the winter.  But, I went to Texas and my fifth
lap out I could stay flat all the way around the track.  It proved once
again that on the oval it's a question of letting the car do the job and
making the car perform well.  This is what we'll try to do at Nazareth, and
if we're good enough to achieve a good setup, and we have the car running
good, then you're likely to see me smiling at the end."

MORRIS NUNN, TEAM OWNER

-- Team owner Morris Nunn, technical director during four CART FedEx
Championship Series champions while at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing (Jimmy
Vasser in 1998, Alex Zanardi in 1997-98, and Juan Montoya in 1999), won here
at Nazareth from the pole with Montoya in 1999, and also oversaw a 1-2
finish here the previous year with Vasser and Zanardi.

-- Last year, Nunn guided Tony Kanaan to his then-best career qualifying
effort of eighth on a 1-mile oval.  Kanaan went on to finish eighth here for
Nunn's first-year team in 2000.

MORRIS NUNN

"I'm looking forward to going back to Nazareth.  We managed to get Tony
quite comfortable in a 1-mile oval setup there last year.  And the last time
I was there with Alex, he and (then-teammate Jimmy) Vasser brought us a 1-2
finish.  It doesn't get any better than that.  It would be nice if we could
pull that kind of magic with Tony and Alex this year!  Tony's been solid all
year and it's just a matter of time before we get to his breakthrough race.
Alex did a great job getting acclimated to oval racing again at Texas (after
a two-and-a-half-year hiatus).  Overall, the team's working together better
all the time.  We didn't have a chance to get in any live pit stops at
Texas, but the guys have been practicing a lot.  It's all starting to blend
well together.

"The Lolas will be very, very competitive at Nazareth.  I'll be very
surprised if they're not quicker than the Reynards.  But, obviously, we'll
have to wait and see.  People keep asking me what we might have gained at
Texas, even though we didn't race.  Well, it's such a unique track with the
high banking that nothing really will translate to any of the tracks we'll
be going to the rest of this season.  That banking works so well, you could
probably go around there without any wings on your car at all.  That would
be an interesting exercise, wouldn't it?  But that's behind us.  It's time
to go racing at a good, old familar track."

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