2010 Indianapolis 500 Post-Race Quotes
May 30, 2010 | By
DAVEY HAMILTON (No. 21 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing): “Tomas Scheckter thinks he can lead the first lap, you know. He's an idiot. And he does it all the time. He just came out of nowhere, and we have no spotters in Turn 2. We were just coming up the racetrack and there he was, and I just went to avoid him and we got caught up.” (What will you say to him?): “Well, I’ll just tell him what I think. What do you say to him? He knows better. It’s very disappointing when you don’t even get to race.”
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA (No. 33 Bowers & Wilkins/TorcUP): “I’m very disappointed. I was being very conservative, and I think I came a little bit too high. I don’t know. I just lost the car. It’s very disappointing because me, Vitor (Meira) and Tony (Kanaan) were going (through) the field pretty fast. And the a few guys were going slower. I thought we were going to get a little gap, and I just lost the car.”
VITOR MEIRA (No. 14 ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing): “The car was good. I was always passing cars. I went to the inside of Simona, and she saw me and minded me and she even got into the marbles on the outside a little bit because she knew I was coming to pass her. She didn’t do anything wrong. She got loose, she lifted, I went to the inside where there were a lot of marbles and as soon as I went to turn in at Turn 2, I had no grip and slid up to the wall and pancaked the right side. I should have known better. It was a shame for the ABC guys; everybody was here. I really appreciated everybody being here. It was not the ending we were hoping for.”
SARAH FISHER (No. 67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing): “We got shoved up high in Turn 4. When you get shoved up high, there’s no place to go here. There’s no room. I white-walled the tires of the Dollar General car, and our day is done. We think it’s a broken suspension, and we’re going to check on it. We were having really good restarts. The boys were flawless, which is key here, and the Dollar General car was on the ball gear-wise, but there’s just no room. It’s disappointing, but it’s racing. I’m ready to put this month in the past and move on to Texas next weekend.”
HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 06 Panasonic Formula Dream): “I’m very, very disappointed because I know the guys have been working very hard over the winter and for the whole month. We had a very good car before, but today it wasn’t the same. I couldn’t find the right balance or get up to speed. I don’t think the problem was entirely the heat; there was something else, as well, but I think the heat made it worse. We tried to fix it but couldn’t find the exact problem. I felt a problem immediately, but I didn’t think it was big enough to retire from the race. Lap by lap, the handling was getting worse and worse, and I was losing grip. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold it. It was a very free, very light car. The team worked hard to improve it, but nothing made a difference. I couldn’t maintain a high speed, and I didn’t want to damage the car or hurt someone’s race. Unfortunately this is just part of the Indy 500.”
JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Team Window World): “We had a good car so it’s unfortunate that we’re out of the race. I want to thank Andretti Autosport for giving me a great opportunity and of course Window World for making it all happen. The King (Richard Petty) is here and the King will probably be gone by the time I get up there. A disappointing day but overall I think it started out good. We were moving up, making up spots and then another driver gets in the side of us and helps ruin our day.
BERTRAND BAGUETTE (No. 36 Conquest Racing RACB): “The car was quick, and I was comfortable with the car all day. I could pass a lot of guys, and I could stay in traffic confidently without any problem. Unfortunately, we lost a mirror during the race and had to replace it, which cost us something like 25 laps. It was really a shame because we had a car capable of doing something great. It’s just a real shame.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Team GoDaddy.com): “I’m very happy with the result, and the reasons we got it were that our pit stops rocked and we had a perfect strategy. We did struggle a little in the early goings. We almost went a lap down. But we were able to get the GoDaddy.com car into the position it should have been in. I focused on making sure I lifted and got a tow from other cars to save fuel as the laps were winding down. I’m really glad that yellow came out at the end because we were cutting it real close on fuel. That’s the roll of the dice, and the team did a perfect job.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing): “For me, it was not much of an exciting race. I was kind of sitting in the back of the pack when we had the pit stop problem. We just never really regained. I slowly picked off cars as I went along. If it was a 600- or 700-mile race, we would have been looking decent. It was a huge day for the team. It was a fantastic job by Dario. He got lucky on the yellow, but you’ve got to give the guy a lot of credit: He led a lot of laps and definitely worked on it.”
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske): “First of all, the Verizon car was very quick today. We could have hung with Dario (Franchitti) no problem, I think. You just can’t make mistakes at Indy and win, and we just made too many mistakes today. I hope Mike Conway is all right, because I just hate to see an accident like that any time. We still have a championship to compete for, so we’ll move on from here and keep pushing for that. As a team, we made too many mistakes today. We had our first stop go wrong. I went long, and then we had a wheel problem in another. You can’t win this race when you keep dropping to the back. We had a bloody fast car. The Verizon car was chopping through the field. It was one of those days. I really hope Mike Conway is OK. I hate to see that happen on the last lap of the race. It was a nasty crash. It was right in front of me. I really hope that he’s OK. We had a fast car. I think we could have hung with Dario no problem. It’s the lesson of this place. You can’t make mistakes. You have to nail everything on a day like today, and that’s how you win this thing. I was exhausted. Honestly, even halfway, I was like, ‘Man, this race is tough.” I couldn’t wait to get out. I was drained. I was just glad to get out of the car at the end there.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske): “It was a very hot day. Congrats to Dario. What an awesome car he had. Ganassi did an incredible job to put him up there. It was the car to beat today. We tried. Unfortunately, silly mistakes put us in the back. I’m very disappointed. I’m more disappointed with the mistake. Certainly, I am very upset for my guys. They did an incredible job the whole month long. They should walk out of here with their heads high.”
TOWNSEND BELL (No. 99 Herbalife Ganassi/Schmidt Racing): “The car was great. I mean, the guys did an awesome job. We just kept notching it up, getting to fifth with 50 to go. You know, we got called for blocking, and I never had a warning. I still left room for guys to go low. I let a guy by on the backstretch, and then I got black flagged for that. I guess I’m confused. It’s a heartbreak. I thought I was well within the protocol of the racetrack today. But you know, we gave it our all doing everything we could today. On the last stop, we tried to take just fuel and it got us a few positions. But then we were just a sitting duck. The vibration got so bad in the car. I’m not sure w