Pontiac Excitement 400 - John Andretti Notes

John Andretti Notes, Quotes: Richmond 400
‘A great schedule for a great track’

This weekend John Andretti and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for Saturday night’s Richmond 400. The event will be the first points event held under the lights this year, but kicks off a series of night races as teams prepare for a busy month of May. After Richmond, teams will get a weekend off before heading into Lowe’s Motor Speedway, located in Concord, N.C., for The Winston All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600 - both events finishing under the lights. Andretti is looking to build momentum heading into the night races and will start on a Richmond track where he has one top five and four top 10’s.

Andretti is in his sixth consecutive season with Petty Enterprises with over half of his NASCAR Winston Cup starts coming for the legendary organization. Andretti’s vast racing experience ranks him as one of the most versatile and talented drivers on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. He is one of only two drivers to win in two different major racing series and also win two or more major NASCAR Winston Cup oval races. Winner of the 1991 Gold Coast Grand Prix in Australia, one of CART’s premier events, Andretti was also a winning driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1989 in the series then known as IMSA.

The thoughts of Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge driver John Andretti heading into Richmond:

“I really like what NASCAR has done with the schedule at Richmond. It has made a lot of sense to go to this schedule (practice, qualify, and have final practice all on Friday) since we moved to one round of qualifying. In the past, Saturday was a really busy day. If you had to second-round qualify you had to turn around and get your car ready for ‘Happy Hour,’ and then get just a long enough break to catch your breath before you had to go race. Saturday’s could be a long day for the crews and driver.

“The only problem we have now is what do we do on Saturdays? The race is at night, so what do you do during the day? We have the whole day, and I mean the whole day, to sit around before the race starts. You almost think about going home and then coming back for the race. It would be tough to do that, however, because of the race traffic. You just need to figure out something to do.

“Don’t get me wrong. I think this is a great schedule to have for all night races. It only makes sense. The race calendar, the way it is now, and everyone stretched to their limits, then, yes, we do need some time at home. We need to take advantage of the time we have off. You make changes for a reason, and to take advantage of the change is only the right thing to do.

“Once you get to Saturday and start racing, Richmond is a great track to race on. The length of the track is right and the speed is right, partly because of the sealer. The groove works itself in and the track gets really racy. If I was a promoter I have always said that the first track that I would like to copy is Richmond, but then it would be Martinsville.

“The fans watching these races are fans because they go to local short tracks on the weekends. They like short track racing. It’s not all the rooting and gouging they like as much as the close racing that is really competitive and exciting. It would be nice if we had more short tracks on our series, but don’t ask me if we need another Bristol.

“Richmond is a track that has it all in one package. The place is the ideal length, speed, and everything that you need for Winston Cup cars to be running at a short track. I don’t think you can find anyone in the garage who dislikes Richmond. You can almost find anyone out there that dislikes any certain track, but overall everyone seems to agree that Richmond is a great race track.”

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win