paul
Team Owner
http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=4633
MERRILL CAIN: We are happy to welcome to the call today two big Mile High winners from this weekend's action on the streets of Denver. American Jon Fogarty will join us in just a few minutes, fresh off a win from the CART Toyota Atlantic series finale that allowed him to claim the Atlantic Series title on Saturday. But first up on the call today, we welcome Bruno Junqueira, driver of the #4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone in the CART FedEx Championship Series. Bruno, congratulations on last weekend's victory and thanks for joining us today.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Thank you very much. It is a pleasure.
MERRILL CAIN: We know you are down in Miami, so we won't keep you for too long, but we do want to talk to you about this weekend's action. Bruno had a nearly perfect holiday weekend in Denver, the pole position in final qualifying on Saturday and led all 100 laps in the Shell Grand Prix of Denver Sunday to claim his second win of the season and third of his short career in CART. Most importantly, his victory enabled him to move back into second place and he now trails Cristiano da Matta by 52 points in the race for the Vanderbilt Cup, with five races remaining on the schedule. Bruno, it was a great weekend for Team Target in Denver with you obviously taking the win and Scott Dixon, your teammate, grabbing second place. How were you able to conquer the slippery and bumpy circuit there in Denver with so much ease, while so many other drivers struggled to find the setup?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, that was one of the toughest racetracks of the year. Because as a racetrack, we have two completely different tarmacs, one was concrete and another part was asphalt - very smooth but no grip at all. It was really difficult to find a good car. But what we realize at Team Target is that we're never going to find a good car on both factors.
MERRILL CAIN: How were you guys able to get so much speed? Cristiano da Matta pointed it out in the post-race press conference; that he just could not have the speed you guys had. Did it roll off the truck very quick when you got there on Friday, or was it just a matter of you finding a setup you were able to build on through the course of the weekend?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No. This time, at least myself, I had to work hard because I didn't know a lot and it wasn't that good. We had to make big changes, especially Friday to Saturday and then Saturday car was much better. I think it was a good team effort from Team Target because when the car is good right away, it's easy; and we had to work really hard to make this car very good.
MERRILL CAIN: It certainly looked like you guys put in your homework for the weekend. We'll open it up for questions.
Q. It's coming to the end of the season, you've got to be a looking ahead to next year. Stories are out there saying that your team may move in a different direction next year. Your background has been open-wheel and varied surfaces and various tracks. Is it your intent that you would like to stay in CART, or are you under contract that you have to go where you go next year?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No, I'm a free agent at this moment, and I'm looking for some opportunities for next year. I'm talking to Team Target and they haven't decided what they are going to do next year, and I am kind of waiting to see what they are going to do. But I'm talking to other teams, as well. I'll be really happy if I can continue in CART because it's a pretty nice series, and let's see what's going to happen.
Q. How possible is it to catch your countryman for the Vanderbilt Cup in these last few races and what has to happen to keep somebody other than Cristiano from having that championship when you get to Mexico City?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: It's going to be really difficult because he's scoring good results, even when he doesn't win, like this weekend. He was a little bit lucky, especially in Montreal, when I lost second place and then he got the second place and I lost 16 points, and then he opened big lead on me again. But, I mean, I would like to have very good races until the end of the year. So actually in each race, I know that it's not possible to win all of the races, but if I can finish out the races until the end of the year and with strong results, I can catch him. I don't know. I concentrate on myself and see what's happening then.
Q. You guys have run now four consecutive weeks. Do you feel that right now? Obviously, it's great to be in Miami at any time, but does it feel good to relax this week after you've had four in a row like this?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Well, it's really tough, but I think it was really good. Before the mechanical problem I had in Montreal, I had really good results. I was on the pace, and I felt pretty good about that. After four races in a row, with a win, it's pretty nice. Now, for sure, I need to relax a little bit and concentrate for the next race in England. And that race will decide if I can catch da Matta or not. If I can beat him in that race and get close to him on the points, then I will have a chance.
Q. You did really well in Japan. I know when you come home you guys are all going to share the home road advantage when you have the Grand Prix Americas in Miami. I wonder how many of your countrymen may come up - nothing will top the World Cup in Brazil, but the fact that Brazilians could sweep virtually every open-wheel in the United States, 1-2-3 finish in the IRL and 1-2-3 in the CART FedEx Championship Series, talk about what that means to you, and do you get some sense of how proud everybody is back home of what you guys are doing here?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, for sure, the Brazilians are really proud and they love racing. They love open-wheel racing, and I'm sure that the race in Miami, they are going to see a lot, lot of Brazilian fans.
MERRILL CAIN: We saw a lot of fans, a lot of Brazilian fans in Denver this weekend and took you by surprise a little bit to see the amount fans in victory circle there, a ton of them that were chanting your name. Does it surprise you when you see these fans in every market that we go to, how much of a loyal following the Brazilian fans are, that they flock out to support you guys?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, I think that was a big, nice surprise to see all of those Brazilian fans. It's nice. I think the Brazilians, they love racing. I'm pretty happy when I see them, and I try to make some kind of relationship and thank them for their support. I think it's really important.
MERRILL CAIN: They really enjoyed seeing you win on Sunday, I can tell you that much.
Q. Talk a moment about racing against Cristiano, because I know not only the two of you are countrymen, but you are also good friends. Do you guys discuss the championship at all?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, after we did the top three lap after the race, I said, "Cristiano, you are" - I can't say the word - "I wonder, if you are going to finish third, how am I'm going to catch you. Even to make the championship more exciting, I have to catch you, even if you win. But let me get close, let me get close." I think he's doing a very good job and I'm doing a good job, as well. But, I mean, he is in a very good position in the championship. He's been running strong everywhere. I mean, I love the match, I'm going to try to catch him. It's nice that we are friends and all, and it's really good to race against a friend. But when you put the helmet on and get inside the car, there is no friendship. You just want to be number one.
Q. Is it hard to race in a championship against a friend, especially in your position, because in order for you to beat him in the championship, you've got to do extremely well, and he's got to have some bad luck along the way?.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: That's one thing that I don't like. I don't want him to have bad luck. I want him to do well, but I want to do well as well. For sure, if I can think a little bit about the championship, what is going to be nice in my opinion, and I think that's what the fans want to see, is if we can have more head-to-head racing between the end of the year, with me and Cristiano, like we had in Portland and Chicago. But at that point in the season, I was a little bit careful and didn't attack him much. But on these last races of the year, we can have another race like we had - Road America was pretty nice, but unfortunately we had a problem on the strategy. I want to see me and Cristiano fighting for a win in one or two races until the end of the year. That's going to be exciting.
Q. What have you learned in racing for a championship this year?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I've learned a lot I think in my second year in CART, I learned a lot last year, and I'm putting a lot of things that I learned last year in this season. But I know that especially at the start of the series, I could do better than what I did. And maybe I lost some important points there. But I think now I'm really concentrating to score points and trying to finish the race, and I think that's the most important thing for me. I'm second in the championship because I'm racing for points, and when I have a chance I'm going to go and win. When I don't have a chance to go and finish second or finish third, that's important in the championship.
Q. This is my final question. I saw where [Team Owner] Chip [Ganassi] said after the race that he was really glad there was a good talk before the race about racing for the championship, and the fact that [TCGR teammate] Scott [Dixon] at times got so close for you, were there times when you were looking in your rear-view mirror saying, "Okay, Scott, remember I'm racing for the championship," more or less talking to yourself about that?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No. There is one thing that is important to say, there is no team order, there is nothing like that, okay. And what Chip said in the race meeting of this race and pre-race meeting of Montreal was that we are at the time of the season that we have to see that Bruno is the driver of the team that has more of a chance to win the championship, or that can maybe catch da Matta, so let's make sure that we don't crash each other - let's try to keep clean, but especially because I'm fighting for the championship. Apart from that, everything was fine. I think I had like an average ten-second gap on Scott during the race and on the last three laps, he pressured me but he knew he couldn't get by because we were at same speed, you know, and if he tried to get by me, there was a big chance he could crash. It' the same way I was on Cristiano in Portland, but I knew it was so close, if I tried to pass him, we would crash likely, then I would pass him, you know. I think not because I was Scott's teammate, but because Scott was clever and he's better off getting the second place than nothing.
Q. Thinking about Scott Dixon, this marks the first win for the Ganassi since Scott came on board. Halfway through that arrangement, can you better judge if adding the third car has been more of a help or hindrance to your own program?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I mean, at some point, it was a help and at some point it was difficult. I think Team Target showed that they are very good because they handled it very well, but what was really difficult is to add a third guy in the middle of the season. I think the team is more than prepared - if they had a chance to prepare themselves before the season, it would be much greater. But now, after two or three races, they figured out the way to do it and now it's running pretty smooth.
Q. Chris Pook recently indicated he sees CART in its present incarnation as a feeder series into Formula 1. With that in mind, is that something you still have any aspirations for in the future, or do you look at Jensen Button and say, "What if I had gotten the Williams ride?"
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: My dream when I was a kid was to race in Formula 1. If I had a chance to drive for this one, a winning team in Formula 1, I would take it. But it's not something that - because I already drove Williams for such a long time, I'm not worried if that doesn't happen. As I said, I want to have fun here in America. I'm very well, thank you. But if the opportunity came and if it would be a good opportunity, I'll think about it and maybe we'll take it.
Q. In Denver, I'm wondering if your suspension setup and the mechanical grip side was anywhere close to a rain setup to deal with all of the bumps; and on the aero side of things, if you set it up for maximum grip or maximum lift to just take you over the bumps.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, that was a pretty different setup as I said before. All of the cars were really difficult to drive. Not just because of the track, but because it's very high there, and they lose a lot of downforce, a lot of pressure, and then the wings, they don't well as they work on other racetracks. Knowing that, you make some changes to make less bounce, and to work a little bit more efficient than in other places.
Q. Two weeks from now at Rockingham, that's going to be a quite a switch from a slippery road course to an oval. Are you looking forward to getting back to the oval?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I'm looking forward to going to England because I lived there two years. I like England a lot. It's going to be a lot of fun. I hope we can get good weather this year and put on a good show in Rockingham. I think that's a pretty fast oval, with a lot of grip, and I hope we can have a good race.
Q. Do you have setups from last year that you think will work, or if it's dry, you're going to have to kind of start from scratch again?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I'm going to start from scratch - we couldn't practice before I raced last year, and really nobody made any setups. In that race, I felt it was more of a guess than anything because we didn't have practice time. I hope this year we can do some practice and have a good setup for the race.
Q. You're not going to be able to get any test time in though before the actual practice, are you?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No.
Q. Are you going to be visiting old friends or looking for any possible rides over there if something doesn't work out over here?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I don't know. Maybe. If they have a good chance in Formula 1, maybe I'll take it, but it looks to me like all the top-three Formula 1 teams already have drivers. It's more likely that I'm going to continue here in America.
MERRILL CAIN: We've been in this mode here of four road courses in a row. It has to be tough for you to make that switch, and for the team, as well, to make the switch over to ovals, especially when you don't have a lot of information from Rockingham last year. With not getting a lot of track time and getting out early in the race, how challenging is that going to be for Team Target?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: It's going to be really difficult, but, I know that you have a good oval setup to be really fast, in Motegi, Milwaukee and Chicago. And I also try to find a good balance for the car and have a good race.
MERRILL CAIN: Do you feel that this is really your best opportunity? Let's be honest, Cristiano has not had the greatest of success on ovals this year, but with Rockingham and Fontana, you might be able to take advantage of your skills on ovals and hope that maybe you can make up some ground on Cristiano there.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, it's kind of difficult because Cristiano did well in Rockingham last year and he won the race in Fontana, and I think he'll be good, as well. I'm not counting him out. For sure, I'm going to see if I can finish in front of him and get the points a little bit smaller.
Q. I just want to ask your impression, the especially last two weeks in two new cities, Montreal and Denver and the huge crowds especially in Montreal, and three days over 100,000 in Denver. Obviously, people love these urban Grand Prix type races. I wonder if you guys sense the same thing; that you have so many people coming to your races, but all anybody wants to talk about is why there may not be a CART somewhere down the road. Do you find that odd since you are in the paddock seeing all these fans there?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I believe in CART. After someone that was in the Montreal race, you could not believe that crowd. That was the nicest race of the year, I have no doubt about it, I think everybody enjoyed it. I maybe didn't enjoy it because ten laps to go, my car stopped, but I think it was really fun. And you know, the first time that you race there, all of the grand stands were packed, and I believe a lot in Chris Pook. He will find a way to make CART get back next year and get stronger and stronger. I believe so much in Chris Pook that in two or three years, CART will be stronger than ever.
Q. It just seems that this format, we had you out here in Long Beach, and of course we get to see you on an oval and street course where we are, but it seems like no matter what the future of open-wheel racing is, that they have got to look at the huge crowds you had in Canada, what happened in Denver, Long Beach, everything else, it just seems to me like it's a no-brainer; they have got to continue to do these things with open-wheel racing in America?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Actually, I think the sponsors want to see people watching the race, and that's what CART has, you know, live. It's not just something that you can measure, but when you go to the race and see those people screaming your name, supporting you and watching your car racing, that's what the sponsors want and that's what makes you exciting, and I think that's going to make CART stronger than before.
MERRILL CAIN: Thanks for taking a few minutes to speak with us this afternoon. Congratulations on a great job this weekend and we look forward to seeing you. We want to welcome Jon Fogarty of Dorricott Racing. Congratulations on a great run, not only through this weekend, but this season long.
JON FOGARTY: Thanks a lot.
MERRILL CAIN: Jon is a 27-year-old California native who entered last weekend trailing Michael Valiente and moved from fourth to second place early on in Saturday's race. He took the lead on lap 13 and held on to claim his second win of the year and earned the points necessary to win the crown for the highly competitive CART Toyota Atlantic series. What a great effort from you all weekend long. You've had a couple days now to think about it. Talk to us about how everything played out for you just perfectly this weekend, and how does it sound when someone refers to you as the "2002 Toyota Atlantic Champion?"
JON FOGARTY: It sounds great. It still has not fully sunk in. I keep replaying it over in my mind and it's a good feeling. The weekend was - it was fantastic. We went into it on a level playing field, since nobody had ever been to the Denver circuit. It was an entirely new circuit, but my crew has been pretty good at developing the car and we always have a good baseline to show up with. It was looking a little grim. [Michael] Valiente was quite a bit quicker than everybody in the early sessions of the weekend, but we got our program underway and at race time we had everything we needed to get up front.
MERRILL CAIN: It was truly a great weekend for you. I know the banquet was Sunday night, I believe, what was that like? How did they honor you and was it more emotional than you thought it would be?
JON FOGARTY: It was good. Everybody was in good spirits. It was a fantastic night. It was very well done. Really cool. I won a new car, which I wasn't aware of. I'm pretty excited about that. I had a good time. It was just great to be able to be there with my team, and actually great to be there with all of the other teams, who you don't get to spend time with during the season. There's so many quality people involved in the whole Atlantic series. You know, it's like suddenly you realize there's all of these people that you get to know that as a champion, you might not be coming back next year. So it's a little bit bittersweet.
MERRILL CAIN: What kind of car did you win?
JON FOGARTY: I don't know. It's a Toyota, obviously. They are going to call me and let me know. Probably a Matrix or something, although I'm pushing for a Lexus.
Q. When you realized the championship was going to be yours, you just said a moment ago that it's just starting to sink in but, when you realized it on the track, what were your first impressions, your first thoughts, what were you feeling?
JON FOGARTY: It's an interesting feeling. I mean, I was still nervous. My crew had informed me that Valiente had spun and I was in the lead at that point, and I knew that I just had to basically finish the race to get the championship, and at that point it was a bit of a relief. But, you know, anything can happen and I knew I had to bring it home. So there was a lot of focus going on in the car. I didn't want to let that focus down until I got the checkered flag, but once I took the checkered, it was pretty huge. It was tears of joy, just pure excitement, relief. My crew, just being able to do it for the crew, and so many people that I wanted to win the championship for, not just myself, it was just elation. It's hard to describe.
Q. The closing lap after you learned that Michael had spun out, is that the longest stretch of racing that you've ever been involved in? Did it seem like everything slowed down?
JON FOGARTY: It did. This is going to be hard to articulate, but it was kind of like time was standing still. So, the moment took forever. But at the same time, I don't actually remember it taking a lot of time. It's a place I've never been before in my entire life of mind set. The pressure, you know, the desire to get everything done and get the championship. It did take a long time, but thinking back on it, it all seemed to go very quickly. I had a lot of confidence, not only during the race, because my car was so good, but going into the weekend, for whatever reason, and the week leading up to the event, I just had a really positive outlook on it, and I think that was part of the key to success for this weekend.
Q. I had a football player tell me over the weekend after catching a big pass for a touchdown, he said if you can dream it, you can achieve it. Is that your story?
JON FOGARTY: That's pretty much it. You know, in not having that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind really let's you kind of live and it makes the dream possible. I knew what we had to do. I just kept a positive mental outlook, telling myself that it could be done. I won't say I knew it could be done, I knew it was going to happen, but I just had a good feeling about it, for whatever reason. It was kind of odd, but I played out so many different scenarios in my head leading up to the weekend of what needed to happen in order to win the championship, but I knew the easiest way to get it done would be to win the race. So that had been my focus since we left Montreal.
Q. Talk about missing the second half of the Indy Lights season last year with a back injury, could you elaborate on that?
JON FOGARTY: It did not bother me one bit this year, which was fantastic. The whole development is a bit of a mystery, which is frustrating. We ran the first part of the season, we had some good results. I had some minor incidents, one at the Texas Motor Speedway on the oval there, but I didn't have any pain after that wreck there. After that race, we went and did a really extensive test at Mid-Ohio and then the following week we came back to Bakersfield [Calif.] and started to test at our local track. I got in the car, first time I went to the brakes, in the heavy braking zone, something gave, and it ended up being a disk in my neck between, I think my C5 and C6. It was pinching a nerve. I was completely debilitated. I could hardly even move. We met with a lot of doctors, did a lot of things. Surgery was definitely an option but I didn't want to get cut into. I didn't want to have any fusions in my spine. Didn't sound like a lot of fun to me. So we kind of kept our heads up and talked to as many doctors as possible to seek out alternatives. I went through physical therapy. And it kind of took care of itself, thank God. So it ended up, you know, not being a huge deal, but missing the last half of last season was certainly frustrating, because we had - Dorricott always provides me with a good car and I had a lot of missed opportunities. This year, it's been fantastic and I haven't had any problems.
Q. Given that the four Toyota Atlantic Champions before you have not managed to land a Champ Car ride, how optimistic are you of reversing that trend for next year? And assuming that doesn't come to pass right away, are you prepared to spend another season in Atlantics to defend your championship?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, I would be prepared to spend another season in Atlantics. The Toyota Atlantic organization is a great place to be. It's not the ideal thing after you win the championship to come back, but definitely a place that I enjoy, and the competition is good. I know that my skills would continue to improve if I was to come back to Atlantics. However, I think that winning the championship this year, I think it's a good year to have done it. The field was so deep, there were so many talented drivers. A lot of good teams, and CART right now is pretty high on nurturing their ladder series. I think that's definitely to my advantage. I think they want to show that the ladder series works, so hopefully I'll be able to benefit from that. Nonetheless, I'm going to put in a lot of hard work. The season is done, but not over. So there's a lot of work to be done. I have a lot of confidence. I have a good feeling about it.
Q. Have you ever tested or driven at Willow Springs at all?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, I raced there in Formula Vee's back in '95 and in the Formula Dodge two-liter in '96 or '97.
Q. I'm curious, the track was really intrigued by the prospect of some sort of Indy car race or possibly even the Atlantics. From what you know of that track - they will have to upgrade fan accoutrements - but in terms of the track, what do you think about it as a possibility as a future stop on the circuit?
JON FOGARTY: It's an awesome racetrack. The layout would be killer. It makes for good racing. It's unbelievably fast. It would be a good layout. But the problem you have there is every time you go off track - there's room out there, but there would have to be improvements in the runoff, as far as smoothing it out so you don't run into too many rocks and boulders and that sort of stuff. But there's room to do it, so that would be really cool.
Q. Do you think that might be a nice place for a performance test for the celebrity drivers for Long Beach, I think it would be kind of cool, in advance of the Long Beach Grand Prix, like a heads-up race, it looks like it might be a possibility?
JON FOGARTY: That would be cool.
Q. Did you have any problems setting up the car for Denver like the Champ Cars did? It seemed like you all were not flipping the steering wheel all that much out there?
JON FOGARTY: Well, you know, we got about a quarter of the horsepower. That makes for a little bit of that. But it was certainly a challenge. The whole Denver weekend I thought was awesome, very well done and the turn out was fantastic. As far as the driver and engineer go, Bruno had mentioned it earlier, the surface changes were definitely challenging. We focused on getting the car good on the concrete, which I think was most important because most of the corners leading on to the long straightaways were concrete. So we focused on making our car handle there and kind of gave up a little bit on the slicker asphalt surface. Not being turbo-charged, our engines are not able to create their own atmosphere like the CART cars. So we were a little bit worried about what the altitude was going to do to our pour, and at the same time, having the air density so low so we knew we could not make the downforce we wanted. It was a challenge. We definitely went the right way. It was a great weekend, obviously not because we won the championship and won the race, but I think we learned a lot actually about what we can do with the car.
Q. You certainly gave an exciting race, the whole series, and an exciting race there on Saturday. Now after the end of the season, you said your family didn't really quite understand why you got into racing, but I know they were there this weekend. Do they have a better understanding, are they more excited about it?
JON FOGARTY: They have always been excited about it. Neither of my parents have any sort of background in racing. It's just something that kids seem to like to do. They are definitely excited about it. They keep telling me I'm taking years off their life every time there's a race, like the one we had at Denver - I think when the flag goes green, they are about the same color as that flag. At the end of the race, you know, they are happy that I'm doing well. You know, my dad just likes to see competition, whether it's a football game or a race. He's into it, for sure.
Q. Certainly the shots I saw of your mother, she was excited through it and showed as much emotion as anybody else there. What are you going to do now, other than work on sponsorship at the end of the season, go back to work on the winery?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, there's always stuff to do around the winery. Since I've been away, really, quite a bit the last couple of years, my position there has changed and they have found people to fill my role there. So I'll go and see what's happening and help out however I can. It's kind of nice ending the season so early. It's going to give me the opportunity to go to a number of the CART races. I'm planning on going to Miami, Fontana, and if everything worked out, it would be a lot of fun to go to Australia. So I have to look into if that's in the cards.
Q. I thought your father, Tom, raced?
JON FOGARTY: My brother.
MERRILL CAIN: He competes in the Barber Dodge Pro Series; correct?
JON FOGARTY: Yes.
Q. And also you made mention about it being bittersweet memories because you might not return. Have you solidified your plans?
JON FOGARTY: I have not. My goal, of course, is CART. I'm going to do everything in my power to get that done and make that happen. I've had offers from Dorricott to come back if I choose to come back to the series, and it's a great place to be. I love everybody on the team. I would be happy to come back there if something didn't turn up. The future is wide open. I'm going to do everything I can though to end up in a CART car next year.
MERRILL CAIN: Talking about aspirations of being in CART, obviously that's where you want to be and continue to rise up the Ladder System here. You got to spend a little bit of time with a CART team earlier this year when you were involved in the CART mentor program with Newman/Haas racing at Vancouver. I know that you thought you hoped you didn't bring bad luck to the team because Cristiano did not finish that race, but did you learn very much from being with the team? Did you learn how you approached the championship? What did you take away from that weekend with Newman/Haas?
JON FOGARTY: Really, the most important thing that I took away from that weekend was just the contact I established, a relationship with a few of the guys on the team. That's always good to know people. Newman/Haas is obviously a very, very good race team. They are a race team. They are not doing anything magical. They are just all doing their job to the top of their ability and they are doing it very well. It's good to see that there's no huge tricks that you need to win races and win championships; you've just got to be with people doing a good job. It was good to see that and it was good to meet those guys. It was a good group of people. It actually reminds me of what we have at Dorricott racing.
MERRILL CAIN: Thanks again for joining us on the call today. We hope you have a great off-season, get a chance to relax and enjoy yourself a little bit and hope we see you on the track next year, whether it's a Champ Car, Atlantic car, wherever. We hope we get to see you again soon. We also appreciate Bruno Junqueira spending time with us. The Champ Cars will be idle this weekend, but the CART FedEx Series returns to action on September 14 with the Rockingham 500. Thanks to all who participated in today's phone call and have a great afternoon.
MERRILL CAIN: We are happy to welcome to the call today two big Mile High winners from this weekend's action on the streets of Denver. American Jon Fogarty will join us in just a few minutes, fresh off a win from the CART Toyota Atlantic series finale that allowed him to claim the Atlantic Series title on Saturday. But first up on the call today, we welcome Bruno Junqueira, driver of the #4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone in the CART FedEx Championship Series. Bruno, congratulations on last weekend's victory and thanks for joining us today.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Thank you very much. It is a pleasure.
MERRILL CAIN: We know you are down in Miami, so we won't keep you for too long, but we do want to talk to you about this weekend's action. Bruno had a nearly perfect holiday weekend in Denver, the pole position in final qualifying on Saturday and led all 100 laps in the Shell Grand Prix of Denver Sunday to claim his second win of the season and third of his short career in CART. Most importantly, his victory enabled him to move back into second place and he now trails Cristiano da Matta by 52 points in the race for the Vanderbilt Cup, with five races remaining on the schedule. Bruno, it was a great weekend for Team Target in Denver with you obviously taking the win and Scott Dixon, your teammate, grabbing second place. How were you able to conquer the slippery and bumpy circuit there in Denver with so much ease, while so many other drivers struggled to find the setup?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, that was one of the toughest racetracks of the year. Because as a racetrack, we have two completely different tarmacs, one was concrete and another part was asphalt - very smooth but no grip at all. It was really difficult to find a good car. But what we realize at Team Target is that we're never going to find a good car on both factors.
MERRILL CAIN: How were you guys able to get so much speed? Cristiano da Matta pointed it out in the post-race press conference; that he just could not have the speed you guys had. Did it roll off the truck very quick when you got there on Friday, or was it just a matter of you finding a setup you were able to build on through the course of the weekend?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No. This time, at least myself, I had to work hard because I didn't know a lot and it wasn't that good. We had to make big changes, especially Friday to Saturday and then Saturday car was much better. I think it was a good team effort from Team Target because when the car is good right away, it's easy; and we had to work really hard to make this car very good.
MERRILL CAIN: It certainly looked like you guys put in your homework for the weekend. We'll open it up for questions.
Q. It's coming to the end of the season, you've got to be a looking ahead to next year. Stories are out there saying that your team may move in a different direction next year. Your background has been open-wheel and varied surfaces and various tracks. Is it your intent that you would like to stay in CART, or are you under contract that you have to go where you go next year?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No, I'm a free agent at this moment, and I'm looking for some opportunities for next year. I'm talking to Team Target and they haven't decided what they are going to do next year, and I am kind of waiting to see what they are going to do. But I'm talking to other teams, as well. I'll be really happy if I can continue in CART because it's a pretty nice series, and let's see what's going to happen.
Q. How possible is it to catch your countryman for the Vanderbilt Cup in these last few races and what has to happen to keep somebody other than Cristiano from having that championship when you get to Mexico City?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: It's going to be really difficult because he's scoring good results, even when he doesn't win, like this weekend. He was a little bit lucky, especially in Montreal, when I lost second place and then he got the second place and I lost 16 points, and then he opened big lead on me again. But, I mean, I would like to have very good races until the end of the year. So actually in each race, I know that it's not possible to win all of the races, but if I can finish out the races until the end of the year and with strong results, I can catch him. I don't know. I concentrate on myself and see what's happening then.
Q. You guys have run now four consecutive weeks. Do you feel that right now? Obviously, it's great to be in Miami at any time, but does it feel good to relax this week after you've had four in a row like this?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Well, it's really tough, but I think it was really good. Before the mechanical problem I had in Montreal, I had really good results. I was on the pace, and I felt pretty good about that. After four races in a row, with a win, it's pretty nice. Now, for sure, I need to relax a little bit and concentrate for the next race in England. And that race will decide if I can catch da Matta or not. If I can beat him in that race and get close to him on the points, then I will have a chance.
Q. You did really well in Japan. I know when you come home you guys are all going to share the home road advantage when you have the Grand Prix Americas in Miami. I wonder how many of your countrymen may come up - nothing will top the World Cup in Brazil, but the fact that Brazilians could sweep virtually every open-wheel in the United States, 1-2-3 finish in the IRL and 1-2-3 in the CART FedEx Championship Series, talk about what that means to you, and do you get some sense of how proud everybody is back home of what you guys are doing here?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, for sure, the Brazilians are really proud and they love racing. They love open-wheel racing, and I'm sure that the race in Miami, they are going to see a lot, lot of Brazilian fans.
MERRILL CAIN: We saw a lot of fans, a lot of Brazilian fans in Denver this weekend and took you by surprise a little bit to see the amount fans in victory circle there, a ton of them that were chanting your name. Does it surprise you when you see these fans in every market that we go to, how much of a loyal following the Brazilian fans are, that they flock out to support you guys?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, I think that was a big, nice surprise to see all of those Brazilian fans. It's nice. I think the Brazilians, they love racing. I'm pretty happy when I see them, and I try to make some kind of relationship and thank them for their support. I think it's really important.
MERRILL CAIN: They really enjoyed seeing you win on Sunday, I can tell you that much.
Q. Talk a moment about racing against Cristiano, because I know not only the two of you are countrymen, but you are also good friends. Do you guys discuss the championship at all?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, after we did the top three lap after the race, I said, "Cristiano, you are" - I can't say the word - "I wonder, if you are going to finish third, how am I'm going to catch you. Even to make the championship more exciting, I have to catch you, even if you win. But let me get close, let me get close." I think he's doing a very good job and I'm doing a good job, as well. But, I mean, he is in a very good position in the championship. He's been running strong everywhere. I mean, I love the match, I'm going to try to catch him. It's nice that we are friends and all, and it's really good to race against a friend. But when you put the helmet on and get inside the car, there is no friendship. You just want to be number one.
Q. Is it hard to race in a championship against a friend, especially in your position, because in order for you to beat him in the championship, you've got to do extremely well, and he's got to have some bad luck along the way?.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: That's one thing that I don't like. I don't want him to have bad luck. I want him to do well, but I want to do well as well. For sure, if I can think a little bit about the championship, what is going to be nice in my opinion, and I think that's what the fans want to see, is if we can have more head-to-head racing between the end of the year, with me and Cristiano, like we had in Portland and Chicago. But at that point in the season, I was a little bit careful and didn't attack him much. But on these last races of the year, we can have another race like we had - Road America was pretty nice, but unfortunately we had a problem on the strategy. I want to see me and Cristiano fighting for a win in one or two races until the end of the year. That's going to be exciting.
Q. What have you learned in racing for a championship this year?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I've learned a lot I think in my second year in CART, I learned a lot last year, and I'm putting a lot of things that I learned last year in this season. But I know that especially at the start of the series, I could do better than what I did. And maybe I lost some important points there. But I think now I'm really concentrating to score points and trying to finish the race, and I think that's the most important thing for me. I'm second in the championship because I'm racing for points, and when I have a chance I'm going to go and win. When I don't have a chance to go and finish second or finish third, that's important in the championship.
Q. This is my final question. I saw where [Team Owner] Chip [Ganassi] said after the race that he was really glad there was a good talk before the race about racing for the championship, and the fact that [TCGR teammate] Scott [Dixon] at times got so close for you, were there times when you were looking in your rear-view mirror saying, "Okay, Scott, remember I'm racing for the championship," more or less talking to yourself about that?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No. There is one thing that is important to say, there is no team order, there is nothing like that, okay. And what Chip said in the race meeting of this race and pre-race meeting of Montreal was that we are at the time of the season that we have to see that Bruno is the driver of the team that has more of a chance to win the championship, or that can maybe catch da Matta, so let's make sure that we don't crash each other - let's try to keep clean, but especially because I'm fighting for the championship. Apart from that, everything was fine. I think I had like an average ten-second gap on Scott during the race and on the last three laps, he pressured me but he knew he couldn't get by because we were at same speed, you know, and if he tried to get by me, there was a big chance he could crash. It' the same way I was on Cristiano in Portland, but I knew it was so close, if I tried to pass him, we would crash likely, then I would pass him, you know. I think not because I was Scott's teammate, but because Scott was clever and he's better off getting the second place than nothing.
Q. Thinking about Scott Dixon, this marks the first win for the Ganassi since Scott came on board. Halfway through that arrangement, can you better judge if adding the third car has been more of a help or hindrance to your own program?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I mean, at some point, it was a help and at some point it was difficult. I think Team Target showed that they are very good because they handled it very well, but what was really difficult is to add a third guy in the middle of the season. I think the team is more than prepared - if they had a chance to prepare themselves before the season, it would be much greater. But now, after two or three races, they figured out the way to do it and now it's running pretty smooth.
Q. Chris Pook recently indicated he sees CART in its present incarnation as a feeder series into Formula 1. With that in mind, is that something you still have any aspirations for in the future, or do you look at Jensen Button and say, "What if I had gotten the Williams ride?"
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: My dream when I was a kid was to race in Formula 1. If I had a chance to drive for this one, a winning team in Formula 1, I would take it. But it's not something that - because I already drove Williams for such a long time, I'm not worried if that doesn't happen. As I said, I want to have fun here in America. I'm very well, thank you. But if the opportunity came and if it would be a good opportunity, I'll think about it and maybe we'll take it.
Q. In Denver, I'm wondering if your suspension setup and the mechanical grip side was anywhere close to a rain setup to deal with all of the bumps; and on the aero side of things, if you set it up for maximum grip or maximum lift to just take you over the bumps.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, that was a pretty different setup as I said before. All of the cars were really difficult to drive. Not just because of the track, but because it's very high there, and they lose a lot of downforce, a lot of pressure, and then the wings, they don't well as they work on other racetracks. Knowing that, you make some changes to make less bounce, and to work a little bit more efficient than in other places.
Q. Two weeks from now at Rockingham, that's going to be a quite a switch from a slippery road course to an oval. Are you looking forward to getting back to the oval?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I'm looking forward to going to England because I lived there two years. I like England a lot. It's going to be a lot of fun. I hope we can get good weather this year and put on a good show in Rockingham. I think that's a pretty fast oval, with a lot of grip, and I hope we can have a good race.
Q. Do you have setups from last year that you think will work, or if it's dry, you're going to have to kind of start from scratch again?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I'm going to start from scratch - we couldn't practice before I raced last year, and really nobody made any setups. In that race, I felt it was more of a guess than anything because we didn't have practice time. I hope this year we can do some practice and have a good setup for the race.
Q. You're not going to be able to get any test time in though before the actual practice, are you?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: No.
Q. Are you going to be visiting old friends or looking for any possible rides over there if something doesn't work out over here?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I don't know. Maybe. If they have a good chance in Formula 1, maybe I'll take it, but it looks to me like all the top-three Formula 1 teams already have drivers. It's more likely that I'm going to continue here in America.
MERRILL CAIN: We've been in this mode here of four road courses in a row. It has to be tough for you to make that switch, and for the team, as well, to make the switch over to ovals, especially when you don't have a lot of information from Rockingham last year. With not getting a lot of track time and getting out early in the race, how challenging is that going to be for Team Target?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: It's going to be really difficult, but, I know that you have a good oval setup to be really fast, in Motegi, Milwaukee and Chicago. And I also try to find a good balance for the car and have a good race.
MERRILL CAIN: Do you feel that this is really your best opportunity? Let's be honest, Cristiano has not had the greatest of success on ovals this year, but with Rockingham and Fontana, you might be able to take advantage of your skills on ovals and hope that maybe you can make up some ground on Cristiano there.
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Yeah, it's kind of difficult because Cristiano did well in Rockingham last year and he won the race in Fontana, and I think he'll be good, as well. I'm not counting him out. For sure, I'm going to see if I can finish in front of him and get the points a little bit smaller.
Q. I just want to ask your impression, the especially last two weeks in two new cities, Montreal and Denver and the huge crowds especially in Montreal, and three days over 100,000 in Denver. Obviously, people love these urban Grand Prix type races. I wonder if you guys sense the same thing; that you have so many people coming to your races, but all anybody wants to talk about is why there may not be a CART somewhere down the road. Do you find that odd since you are in the paddock seeing all these fans there?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: I believe in CART. After someone that was in the Montreal race, you could not believe that crowd. That was the nicest race of the year, I have no doubt about it, I think everybody enjoyed it. I maybe didn't enjoy it because ten laps to go, my car stopped, but I think it was really fun. And you know, the first time that you race there, all of the grand stands were packed, and I believe a lot in Chris Pook. He will find a way to make CART get back next year and get stronger and stronger. I believe so much in Chris Pook that in two or three years, CART will be stronger than ever.
Q. It just seems that this format, we had you out here in Long Beach, and of course we get to see you on an oval and street course where we are, but it seems like no matter what the future of open-wheel racing is, that they have got to look at the huge crowds you had in Canada, what happened in Denver, Long Beach, everything else, it just seems to me like it's a no-brainer; they have got to continue to do these things with open-wheel racing in America?
BRUNO JUNQEIRA: Actually, I think the sponsors want to see people watching the race, and that's what CART has, you know, live. It's not just something that you can measure, but when you go to the race and see those people screaming your name, supporting you and watching your car racing, that's what the sponsors want and that's what makes you exciting, and I think that's going to make CART stronger than before.
MERRILL CAIN: Thanks for taking a few minutes to speak with us this afternoon. Congratulations on a great job this weekend and we look forward to seeing you. We want to welcome Jon Fogarty of Dorricott Racing. Congratulations on a great run, not only through this weekend, but this season long.
JON FOGARTY: Thanks a lot.
MERRILL CAIN: Jon is a 27-year-old California native who entered last weekend trailing Michael Valiente and moved from fourth to second place early on in Saturday's race. He took the lead on lap 13 and held on to claim his second win of the year and earned the points necessary to win the crown for the highly competitive CART Toyota Atlantic series. What a great effort from you all weekend long. You've had a couple days now to think about it. Talk to us about how everything played out for you just perfectly this weekend, and how does it sound when someone refers to you as the "2002 Toyota Atlantic Champion?"
JON FOGARTY: It sounds great. It still has not fully sunk in. I keep replaying it over in my mind and it's a good feeling. The weekend was - it was fantastic. We went into it on a level playing field, since nobody had ever been to the Denver circuit. It was an entirely new circuit, but my crew has been pretty good at developing the car and we always have a good baseline to show up with. It was looking a little grim. [Michael] Valiente was quite a bit quicker than everybody in the early sessions of the weekend, but we got our program underway and at race time we had everything we needed to get up front.
MERRILL CAIN: It was truly a great weekend for you. I know the banquet was Sunday night, I believe, what was that like? How did they honor you and was it more emotional than you thought it would be?
JON FOGARTY: It was good. Everybody was in good spirits. It was a fantastic night. It was very well done. Really cool. I won a new car, which I wasn't aware of. I'm pretty excited about that. I had a good time. It was just great to be able to be there with my team, and actually great to be there with all of the other teams, who you don't get to spend time with during the season. There's so many quality people involved in the whole Atlantic series. You know, it's like suddenly you realize there's all of these people that you get to know that as a champion, you might not be coming back next year. So it's a little bit bittersweet.
MERRILL CAIN: What kind of car did you win?
JON FOGARTY: I don't know. It's a Toyota, obviously. They are going to call me and let me know. Probably a Matrix or something, although I'm pushing for a Lexus.
Q. When you realized the championship was going to be yours, you just said a moment ago that it's just starting to sink in but, when you realized it on the track, what were your first impressions, your first thoughts, what were you feeling?
JON FOGARTY: It's an interesting feeling. I mean, I was still nervous. My crew had informed me that Valiente had spun and I was in the lead at that point, and I knew that I just had to basically finish the race to get the championship, and at that point it was a bit of a relief. But, you know, anything can happen and I knew I had to bring it home. So there was a lot of focus going on in the car. I didn't want to let that focus down until I got the checkered flag, but once I took the checkered, it was pretty huge. It was tears of joy, just pure excitement, relief. My crew, just being able to do it for the crew, and so many people that I wanted to win the championship for, not just myself, it was just elation. It's hard to describe.
Q. The closing lap after you learned that Michael had spun out, is that the longest stretch of racing that you've ever been involved in? Did it seem like everything slowed down?
JON FOGARTY: It did. This is going to be hard to articulate, but it was kind of like time was standing still. So, the moment took forever. But at the same time, I don't actually remember it taking a lot of time. It's a place I've never been before in my entire life of mind set. The pressure, you know, the desire to get everything done and get the championship. It did take a long time, but thinking back on it, it all seemed to go very quickly. I had a lot of confidence, not only during the race, because my car was so good, but going into the weekend, for whatever reason, and the week leading up to the event, I just had a really positive outlook on it, and I think that was part of the key to success for this weekend.
Q. I had a football player tell me over the weekend after catching a big pass for a touchdown, he said if you can dream it, you can achieve it. Is that your story?
JON FOGARTY: That's pretty much it. You know, in not having that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind really let's you kind of live and it makes the dream possible. I knew what we had to do. I just kept a positive mental outlook, telling myself that it could be done. I won't say I knew it could be done, I knew it was going to happen, but I just had a good feeling about it, for whatever reason. It was kind of odd, but I played out so many different scenarios in my head leading up to the weekend of what needed to happen in order to win the championship, but I knew the easiest way to get it done would be to win the race. So that had been my focus since we left Montreal.
Q. Talk about missing the second half of the Indy Lights season last year with a back injury, could you elaborate on that?
JON FOGARTY: It did not bother me one bit this year, which was fantastic. The whole development is a bit of a mystery, which is frustrating. We ran the first part of the season, we had some good results. I had some minor incidents, one at the Texas Motor Speedway on the oval there, but I didn't have any pain after that wreck there. After that race, we went and did a really extensive test at Mid-Ohio and then the following week we came back to Bakersfield [Calif.] and started to test at our local track. I got in the car, first time I went to the brakes, in the heavy braking zone, something gave, and it ended up being a disk in my neck between, I think my C5 and C6. It was pinching a nerve. I was completely debilitated. I could hardly even move. We met with a lot of doctors, did a lot of things. Surgery was definitely an option but I didn't want to get cut into. I didn't want to have any fusions in my spine. Didn't sound like a lot of fun to me. So we kind of kept our heads up and talked to as many doctors as possible to seek out alternatives. I went through physical therapy. And it kind of took care of itself, thank God. So it ended up, you know, not being a huge deal, but missing the last half of last season was certainly frustrating, because we had - Dorricott always provides me with a good car and I had a lot of missed opportunities. This year, it's been fantastic and I haven't had any problems.
Q. Given that the four Toyota Atlantic Champions before you have not managed to land a Champ Car ride, how optimistic are you of reversing that trend for next year? And assuming that doesn't come to pass right away, are you prepared to spend another season in Atlantics to defend your championship?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, I would be prepared to spend another season in Atlantics. The Toyota Atlantic organization is a great place to be. It's not the ideal thing after you win the championship to come back, but definitely a place that I enjoy, and the competition is good. I know that my skills would continue to improve if I was to come back to Atlantics. However, I think that winning the championship this year, I think it's a good year to have done it. The field was so deep, there were so many talented drivers. A lot of good teams, and CART right now is pretty high on nurturing their ladder series. I think that's definitely to my advantage. I think they want to show that the ladder series works, so hopefully I'll be able to benefit from that. Nonetheless, I'm going to put in a lot of hard work. The season is done, but not over. So there's a lot of work to be done. I have a lot of confidence. I have a good feeling about it.
Q. Have you ever tested or driven at Willow Springs at all?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, I raced there in Formula Vee's back in '95 and in the Formula Dodge two-liter in '96 or '97.
Q. I'm curious, the track was really intrigued by the prospect of some sort of Indy car race or possibly even the Atlantics. From what you know of that track - they will have to upgrade fan accoutrements - but in terms of the track, what do you think about it as a possibility as a future stop on the circuit?
JON FOGARTY: It's an awesome racetrack. The layout would be killer. It makes for good racing. It's unbelievably fast. It would be a good layout. But the problem you have there is every time you go off track - there's room out there, but there would have to be improvements in the runoff, as far as smoothing it out so you don't run into too many rocks and boulders and that sort of stuff. But there's room to do it, so that would be really cool.
Q. Do you think that might be a nice place for a performance test for the celebrity drivers for Long Beach, I think it would be kind of cool, in advance of the Long Beach Grand Prix, like a heads-up race, it looks like it might be a possibility?
JON FOGARTY: That would be cool.
Q. Did you have any problems setting up the car for Denver like the Champ Cars did? It seemed like you all were not flipping the steering wheel all that much out there?
JON FOGARTY: Well, you know, we got about a quarter of the horsepower. That makes for a little bit of that. But it was certainly a challenge. The whole Denver weekend I thought was awesome, very well done and the turn out was fantastic. As far as the driver and engineer go, Bruno had mentioned it earlier, the surface changes were definitely challenging. We focused on getting the car good on the concrete, which I think was most important because most of the corners leading on to the long straightaways were concrete. So we focused on making our car handle there and kind of gave up a little bit on the slicker asphalt surface. Not being turbo-charged, our engines are not able to create their own atmosphere like the CART cars. So we were a little bit worried about what the altitude was going to do to our pour, and at the same time, having the air density so low so we knew we could not make the downforce we wanted. It was a challenge. We definitely went the right way. It was a great weekend, obviously not because we won the championship and won the race, but I think we learned a lot actually about what we can do with the car.
Q. You certainly gave an exciting race, the whole series, and an exciting race there on Saturday. Now after the end of the season, you said your family didn't really quite understand why you got into racing, but I know they were there this weekend. Do they have a better understanding, are they more excited about it?
JON FOGARTY: They have always been excited about it. Neither of my parents have any sort of background in racing. It's just something that kids seem to like to do. They are definitely excited about it. They keep telling me I'm taking years off their life every time there's a race, like the one we had at Denver - I think when the flag goes green, they are about the same color as that flag. At the end of the race, you know, they are happy that I'm doing well. You know, my dad just likes to see competition, whether it's a football game or a race. He's into it, for sure.
Q. Certainly the shots I saw of your mother, she was excited through it and showed as much emotion as anybody else there. What are you going to do now, other than work on sponsorship at the end of the season, go back to work on the winery?
JON FOGARTY: Yeah, there's always stuff to do around the winery. Since I've been away, really, quite a bit the last couple of years, my position there has changed and they have found people to fill my role there. So I'll go and see what's happening and help out however I can. It's kind of nice ending the season so early. It's going to give me the opportunity to go to a number of the CART races. I'm planning on going to Miami, Fontana, and if everything worked out, it would be a lot of fun to go to Australia. So I have to look into if that's in the cards.
Q. I thought your father, Tom, raced?
JON FOGARTY: My brother.
MERRILL CAIN: He competes in the Barber Dodge Pro Series; correct?
JON FOGARTY: Yes.
Q. And also you made mention about it being bittersweet memories because you might not return. Have you solidified your plans?
JON FOGARTY: I have not. My goal, of course, is CART. I'm going to do everything in my power to get that done and make that happen. I've had offers from Dorricott to come back if I choose to come back to the series, and it's a great place to be. I love everybody on the team. I would be happy to come back there if something didn't turn up. The future is wide open. I'm going to do everything I can though to end up in a CART car next year.
MERRILL CAIN: Talking about aspirations of being in CART, obviously that's where you want to be and continue to rise up the Ladder System here. You got to spend a little bit of time with a CART team earlier this year when you were involved in the CART mentor program with Newman/Haas racing at Vancouver. I know that you thought you hoped you didn't bring bad luck to the team because Cristiano did not finish that race, but did you learn very much from being with the team? Did you learn how you approached the championship? What did you take away from that weekend with Newman/Haas?
JON FOGARTY: Really, the most important thing that I took away from that weekend was just the contact I established, a relationship with a few of the guys on the team. That's always good to know people. Newman/Haas is obviously a very, very good race team. They are a race team. They are not doing anything magical. They are just all doing their job to the top of their ability and they are doing it very well. It's good to see that there's no huge tricks that you need to win races and win championships; you've just got to be with people doing a good job. It was good to see that and it was good to meet those guys. It was a good group of people. It actually reminds me of what we have at Dorricott racing.
MERRILL CAIN: Thanks again for joining us on the call today. We hope you have a great off-season, get a chance to relax and enjoy yourself a little bit and hope we see you on the track next year, whether it's a Champ Car, Atlantic car, wherever. We hope we get to see you again soon. We also appreciate Bruno Junqueira spending time with us. The Champ Cars will be idle this weekend, but the CART FedEx Series returns to action on September 14 with the Rockingham 500. Thanks to all who participated in today's phone call and have a great afternoon.