#21 Giaffone IRL Texas Saturday Race Notes/Quotes

Felipe Giaffone

#21 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
Boomtown 500 - Saturday, June 8, 2002 - Race Notes/Quotes
Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, Texas - 1.5-Mile Oval
Round 6 of 15 on the 2002 Indy Racing League

Felipe Giaffone and the #21 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Chevrolet G-Force
finished fifth in tonight's Boomtown 500 Indy Racing League event at Texas
Motor Speedway.  Giaffone started 18th and picked up four positions on the
very first lap.  He worked his way into the top 10 by the 25-lap mark and
ran with the lead pack the rest of the evening.  He led five laps - from
Laps 97-101 - and moved to within one point of third place in the driver
points standings.  He has 170 points to defending series champion Sam
Hornish's 171, while Helio Castroneves (237) and Gil de Ferran (183) hold
down the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the standings after the season's first six
events.

Jeff Ward picked up his first career IRL win in the closest margin of
victory in series history -- .001 seconds ahead of runner-up Al Unser, Jr.
Airton Dare finished third.

The next Indy Racing League event is next weekend's Radisson Indy 225 at
Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs, Colo.

FELIPE GIAFFONE

"I knew I didn't have a car to win the race, so my goal was to finish in the
top five, and that's what I got.  I wish I had some more speed, but I was
able to make the most of what I had by staying close to other cars in
traffic.  That's when my car worked best.  As for the championship, we're in
a very good position after this race.  The biggest problem we had tonight
was that we lost our telemetry late in the race, so we didn't know exactly
how much fuel we needed to get to the finish.  So we had to be very
conservative in the final laps.  That's why we were the first to do the
splash-and-go (on Lap 190).  I was flat 90 percent of the race and the car
was very good in traffic.  I didn't have the fastest car but I had to be
close to the other cars and we had to be very smart out there.  I couldn't
lose contact with the leaders, so I stay as close as I could.  It was much
better than I was expecting.  The final pit stop before the splash-and-go, I
had a flat tire.  So, I came into the pits slower than the other cars, which
cost us some time there.  But it wouldn't have made a big difference, I
think.  Overall, we're pleased with another top-five finish."