May 20, 2001

Mosport Park Canada - Race Day Notes

Johnny advanced the AutomationDirect/Eaton Cutler-Hammer Jaguar XK8 from 9th to 3rd in a day filled with emotions for all.

His overall race comments: “I had a fantastic car today. It did absolutely everything I asked of it and then some. We almost had a perfect team finish today (teammate Paul Gentilozzi won)…there was just that one car (Tommy Archer Viper) in the middle. My hats off to Paul and his crew. But, boy, that last shock change we made really worked for us.”

“I tried to run every one down, but it became obvious right away that it was a very fast race at the beginning. That pace was tough, Mike Lewis and Justin Bell were battling each other. At that point, I decided to let the race just come to me, and that’s what ultimately happened. Our pit stop (mandatory fuel stop) went great, the guys did a great job. Traffic hurt us on that last restart. I didn’t want to make a mistake or a miscue at that point. Shoulda, woulda, coulda…we’ll take the third today and be happy.”

Johnny’s comment on the pass for third place…”Once I got by the traffic deal, I was able to concentrate on running for third. It seemed to take a while to get past Randy Ruhlman. I was able to get by clearly and didn’t want to slide the tires. We were really quick at the end, but by then, Tommy and Paul had pulled too big of a lead.”

With 10 laps left in the race a red flag condition was called when a serious accident occurred. Mike Gagliardo and Gary Longo were involved. All of the Miller Racing family and sponsors would like to say that Our heart goes out to both drivers and their families. Our prayers will be with them, now and always.