EA Sports 500 - Christian Fittipaldi Notes

Christian Fittipaldi Notes, Quotes: EA Sports 500
‘Bugles Team is prepared for Talladega’

Steering the Bugles Dodge, this weekend Christian Fittipaldi and the #44 team head to the 2.66-mile Talladega Superpeedway for Sunday’s EA Sports 500. Bugles snacks will once again sponsor Fittipaldi behind the wheel of the #44 Bugles Dodge in a continuation of a series of races that the snack food will sponsor. Fittipaldi will also race the #44 Bugles Dodge later this year at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Jeff Green will drive the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge that Fittipaldi normally drives.

In the summer of 2002 Fittipaldi signed on to drive for the legendary Petty Enterprises. An open-wheel star, Fittipaldi, 33, is a two-time CART winner (California Speedway and Road America) and Formula One World Championship driver. Fittipaldi is the first-ever Brazilian native to run full time in NASCAR’s top series and is the only full-time NASCAR driver to have raced full-time in Formula One and CART.

The thoughts of #44 Bugles Dodge driver Christian Fittipaldi heading into Talladega:

“We’ve been very busy this second half of the season doing a lot of racing, testing and research at a bunch of different tracks. Every week I am going to a different track, some that I’ve never even seen before. I want as much track time before we get there as possible. We’ve laid out a lot of test sessions, and Talladega was definitely one high on the list because this is a big weekend for Bugles. We want to do the best for them and we wanted to test our restrictor plate program for this race.

“NASCAR has made some changes for this weekend and when we tested we tried a lot of different combinations with the aerodynamics of the car. We struggled a little bit at Daytona in July, but to come back and get a good test session under our belts, it put everyone back solidly on their feet.

“Restrictor plate races are so much different from any other racing that I’ve ever done. In qualifying, you are so dependent on the car. The driver is pretty limited to what he can do. We just hit the gas pedal and go. The car does all the work and it puts a lot of pressure on the guys back at the shop preparing the car. I think anytime you see a driver do well at restrictor plate tracks, especially during qualifying, it proves that the guys back in the shop worked really hard. Our guys have worked really hard to prepare this Bugles car and it would be really nice to be able to reward them with a good qualifying run on Friday.

“The racing part of Talladega is going to be just as wild as it was at Daytona, and maybe even wilder. Talladega is wider and a little bit bigger than Daytona. At Daytona, the cars are two and three wide all day long, and it is easily possible to go four wide at Talladega - it will be pretty hair-raising. You have to be very aware of your surroundings at restrictor plate races. There is no such thing as a ‘sporadic’ move in a restrictor plate race. There just isn’t any room to make one.

“You’re always looking around, looking for holes, judging the guy’s next move, preparing to make yours. I’ve heard it called a chess match at 200 miles per hour. The spotter has a really important job of letting you know where you are and where you can and can not go. It’s a long day of hard racing. It’s the nature of restrictor plate racing and everyone plays by the same rules. I think NASCAR is trying different things to make it safer and better racing, but whatever happens, it’s the same for everyone.

“I’ve done a lot of racing in my lifetime. I’ve raced on the toughest street courses, have raced over 220 miles per hour wheel-to-wheel with guys on ovals, but to race all day with a pack of 42 other guys stuck like glue around me, well, it’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. It’s a challenge, but one that this team has prepared for. I’ve put faith in the guys back at the shop and I know they’ll give me a good car for this weekend. We are all ready to get this Bugles Dodge rolling off the hauler and onto the track this weekend.”

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