#21 Giaffone Indy 500 May 8 Practice

Felipe Giaffone

#21 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
86th Indianapolis 500 - Practice Notes/Quotes - Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Indianapolis Motor Speedway - 2.5-Mile Oval
Round 5 of 15 on the 2002 Indy Racing League

After not running at all on Tuesday, Felipe Giaffone and the #21
Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force team pulled out their back-up car
today and ran their fastest laps of the week in practice for the 86th
Indianapolis 500.  Giaffone cracked the 226-mph barrier, reaching a fast lap
of 226.998 mph during his 43 laps of practice during yet another
rain-shortened session.  It was the eighth-fastest lap among the 37 cars
that took to the track today, some 3-1/2 hours after the traditional 11:00
a.m. starting time due to heavy morning rain showers.

Giaffone's teammate Tony Kanaan took advantage of an opportunity to drive
Giaffone's back-up car, as well, today, and brought home the ninth-fastest
lap of the day overall and his best trip around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis
Motor Speedway oval this week. Kanaan recorded a fast lap of 226.891 mph in
the #21 back-up car in just a six-lap stint.  Earlier, he reached 224.428
mph in his #17 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force in 27 laps of
practice.

Scott Sharp was fastest today at 228.350 mph, followed by Laurent Redon at
228.046 mph, and Helio Castroneves at 228.036 mph.  Practice resumes
Thursday with Pole Day qualifying on tap for Saturday.

FELIPE GIAFFONE

"This is great.  We've been finding speed every day, and that is the way you
want it to be once you get here.  The guys prepared my back-up car all day
yesterday (Tuesday) and all their hard work really paid off.  We went faster
than we have all week.  It's a real credit to everyone at Hollywood/Mo Nunn
Racing because this is the first time they've been here as a team and with
very little time to run these cars before this month.  All of our days of
practice have been shortened by rain so far, but we're getting the most out
of it.  Man, I've used just four sets of tires, total, since we started
practice on Sunday.  But the cars have been very good, very consistent.
Again, that goes back to the crew and the engineers and to Morris (team
owner Morris Nunn).  We're making improvements little by little.  We found
that everything was good on my back-up car, and since Tony has been
struggling a little bit with his primary car, we decided to give him some
laps in my back-up car.  He got up to 226 right away, so that proves we have
to make his cars like my back-up car.  It was very important for Tony to get
the feeling for how his car should handle around here.  We are a team and we
will keep working as a team.  That's the only way we're going to keep
getting better and to have a shot at a good qualifying result."