#21 Giaffone IRL Fontana Sunday Race Notes/Quotes

Felipe Giaffone
#21 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
Yamaha Indy 400 - Race Notes/Quotes - Sunday, March 24, 2002
California Speedway - Fontana, Calif. - 2-Mile Oval
Round 3 of 15 on the 2002 Indy Racing League

Felipe Giaffone and the #21 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
finished sixth in today's Yamaha Indy 400 at California Speedway.  Giaffone,
the 2001 Indy Racing League Rookie of the Year, started from the eighth
position and dueled in the closing laps with Helio Castroneves and Gil de
Ferran before settling for his final finishing position.  Giaffone qualified
10th yesterday but moved up two spots on the starting grid - to eighth - as
two cars that qualified ahead of him were moved to the back.  The finish
moved Giaffone from 10th to seventh in the latest driver points standings
with 65.

The car of Robbie Buhl, who turned the fifth-fastest qualifying lap
yesterday before suffering a concussion in an accident one lap later, was
moved to the back with replacement driver Memo Gidley.  Likewise, Jeff Ward,
who qualified sixth, crashed in final practice this morning and had to
switch to his backup car, necessitating his starting from the back of the
grid.

Defending series champion Sam Hornish won for the second time this season,
beating runner-up Jaques Lazier across the finish line by a mere 0.0281 of a
second, the second-closest finish in IRL history.  Rookie Laurent Redon
finished third.

The next event on the 2002 Indy Racing League schedule is the Firestone
Firehawk 220 at Nazareth, Pa., on April 21.

FELIPE GIAFFONE

"It was a long race for everybody, and a great race. I started from the
eighth position and finished sixth, and had some good fights during the 200
laps today race - mainly in the final laps, when I was fighting for the
fourth position with my Brazilian friends from Team Penske ... Gil (de
Ferran) and Helio (Castroneves).  My car had some oversteer, which made it
difficult to overtake.  The biggest problem in the race was some electronic
failure that I had every time I tried to accelerate after a pit stop, which
cost me some important seconds.  Today, we didn't have enough power to fight
for the win.  But I'm happy, anyway, after moving up from 10th to seventh in
the points."