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IRL: Jeff Ward Dover Practice Notes/Quotes

31 July 1999

Notes - Jeff Ward is driving Dallara chassis No. 10 this weekend. This is the same car that he drove to second-place finishes at Phoenix and the Indianapolis 500 this year.

The Yahoo! car was fast right off the transporter this morning. After two warm-up laps, Ward turned a lap at 177 miles per hour just three laps into the first practice session.

Quotes - (on the bumps at Dover) I didn't mind the bumps last year. I thought it was great. Maybe it was my motocross background but it really didn't affect me. Plus I had a great setup on my car to compensate for the bumps. The track is a lot smoother now. That will help the guys that run their cars lower.

The smoother track will also be easier on the cars. With less vibration, there's less chance for something to go wrong.

(on the race) Starting up front will be important. It's going to be hard to pass. You've got inches between you and the next guy. The corners come up so quick here that the guy on the inside will need to give way to the guy on the outside or we're going to have problems. That's the most difficult part of my job. On the positive side, everyone is going so fast that there really isn't anyone lagging behind. The top 15 guys are separated by a quarter of a second.

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