TRACK: Didn't they remeasure the track last year? And it was one mile then? So, they remeasure the track again, and it becomes .946 miles? I didn't think the winters were that bad in Pennsylvania.

RACE: Just as I feared: the rain delay, the green track, the cold temperatures, and we ended up with nearly everyone chasing setups and crashing out of the race.

TEAM GANASSI: This is scary. The only weakness in this team the past two championship winning seasons were the short ovals. Now it's not anymore. This is scary.

VASSER: Do what you have to do to finish races and grab the wins when you can. This is why Vasser is a championship contender for the third year in a row.

ANDRETTI: I originally was going to write: Michael, squeeze the throttle, squuueeeeeze the throttle. But as it turned out, word has it that post crash inspection showed that the tire in fact picked up debris and was cut, and thus deflated just before he spun. But this has not been confirmed.

CARPENTIER: His qualifying run is proof that a two car team is much more effective than a one car team for information gathering.

MOORE: Major kudos to Forsythe Racing in being able to get not Moore's backup car, but Carpentier's backup car ready for Greg Moore when they had a lot less time than usual after the morning warmup failure. And kudos to Moore to not allowing it to bother him when he barely made it to the grid in time and finishing a strong third.

GORDON: What a debut! Sixth fastest Friday morning, 13th fastest in the afternoon, a glitch in the setup in qualifying messed that session up, but then 3rd fastest in the morning warmup. Then, in the race, he quickly moves from 24th into the top ten. Later, he's in third. Sure, he's got a lighter fuel load, but guys with far superior equipment were not catching him and in fact he was closing in on Herta. Remember, he had a Toyota in that car. The same engine that Max Papis, no schlep himself, couldn't do anything with. Say whatever you want about Gordon, but there is one fact you cannot deny -- this man can drive a race car. Period.

NEVES: What started out as a great weekend went very sour. However, give Helio credit. He pretty much admitted that he was simply handed a lesson from the veteran Andretti.

TEAM PENSKE: And everybody thought the 1995 Indianapolis 500 was their most embarrassing moment. Only pulling out last year's car saved them from turning as red as their sponsor's colors had they failed to make the field at their own track. Notice how both of these events occurred the year after they dumped Tracy?

VITOLO: Come on!

VISTEON: Did my brother send "My Thoughts" from Long Beach to his company's main offices? One race after I called Pruett's car the ugliest on the circuit, they appear with a new paint scheme.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Gil de Ferran, after originally being upset with his qualifying time, was then told how close the field was, "Incredible. I mean if you coughed you lost three places."

RUNNERUP QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Jimmy Vasser on his two pit stop strategy after winning the race, "I'm still not sure it was the right strategy."

BRAZIL: Back to one of the strangest ovals you'll ever see and sight of one of the greatest safety innovations since helmets.

Deep Throttle

Copyright © 1998 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.