Indianapolis 500 Bump Day Qualifying Quotes
May 22, 2011 | By
PIPPA MANN (No. 36 Conquest Racing): “Well, we finally cured the speed problem we had. We’ve cured our handling issues. We made so many changes overnight. This morning we weren’t happy with the car at all. I went out there with no idea of what I was going to have going into that run. I went into and, ‘OK, this will work.’ I wish I had that knowledge going in, and we could’ve been a bit braver. I’ve got all my fingers and all my toes crossed. I know it’s bad sportsmanship, but I really hope it rains so that I don’t have to do that again. I’m sorry, everyone else. I know it’s cruel, but does anyone know a good rain dance? I just look at the sky and think, ‘Come on, give me a break; you haven’t done it all week.’”
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Levemir and NovoLog FlexPen): “We knew we missed the speed a little bit yesterday morning. We got the setup wrong. I had a little bit to learn as a rookie. Having said that, the 83 Levemir NovoLog FlexPen car was going to be quick. We knew it was going to be fast. The whole Chip Ganassi Racing crew has given me a good car all month. We just had to go out and do it. Last night, we got caught short by rain trying to get a practice run in. This morning we had traffic. Then we were in line, and it rained. We finally got to go out and put up the number I know we're capable of. I was talking to Arie Luyendyk, who has helped me all month. He said, ‘Man, (Turn) 3 and (Turn) 4 take forever.’ I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, they do.’ It's a long run long around those last two corners to the checkered." (About qualifying for this race): "When I got out of the car I thought, ‘I’ve qualified for the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500.’ Now it's a dream come true. And to do that as the first licensed driver with diabetes to qualify for the Indy 500 is special; not just for me but for the whole diabetes community out there. I hope I get a chance next Sunday to stop and soak it all in, because it's going to be probably one of the greatest days of my life so far.”
ALEX LLOYD (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America): “We’re slower again. Since Fast Friday, we were OK. We thought we would be 15th to 20th on the grid at the end of Pole Day. And then we lost a mile an hour Saturday and other mile an hour today. I don’t know what’s going on with the car because we’ve been throwing everything at it. We have an issue somewhere. Unless we figure out something big, we’ll be in trouble. We’re losing so much speed. We’re just so slow, and we are running out of time to figure it out. Last year we had speed; this year, we never had great speed but better speed than we’re showing now. We’re flat out every single lap and going slower.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6T IZOD Team Penske): “The track was pretty good. The wind changed a little bit for my run. It actually died down. We’d been setting it up, and I had been getting prepared for my adjustments for the wind. The conditions were really good. We did a consistent run in the mid 224s, and it felt solid. We made improvements on the car overnight. I just can’t tell you how good it feels to get those four laps in. Hopefully, we don’t have to be too stressful the rest of the day. I have a great car. I have a great setup. For some reason this T car hasn’t been pulling the speeds we’ve been expecting with what we were seeing with the primary car. Unfortunately, with my crash yesterday, we can’t get that back together. We’re racing with the T car. We ran it on Opening Day, and it felt great. So I’m just looking forward to the race. We’re going to have a great race car. I’m starting in the back, but we’ll be able to get to the front. I’ve got a Roger Penske calling my race, and we want to bring one home for IZOD.”
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda): “We can’t get any speed out of the car. It’s been like that all month, unfortunately. Our team has great race cars – I’ve been saying that – and if we get in the race, we’ll be a contender, but we got to get through qualifying. Hopefully the weather will hold off, and we’ll get to work on it a little bit and get it back in line. The last run was just loose. It was sliding around in the rear, eating up all the racetrack. I don’t know, we’ll see. Luckily there’s still some time left. How much? We don’t know.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Team GoDaddy): “I don’t think there’s a really great answer for why I was faster in qualifying today. I was disappointed with how slow I went at the end. That’s Indy. I’ve always said that this place is its own person. It reads you when you’re nervous. It reads you when you’re not confident. It reads you when you are. It throws a lot at you, but that’s why this is the greatest racetrack in the world.” (On what was going through her head before qualifying): “It kind of seemed like everything was just not going the way it needed to go. I just kept going up against things, whether it was not explaining the loss in speed yesterday or going through the tech line and not passing and having to go back through, losing my spot, which was second. It was right where the cutoff was for this morning for the very first round this morning. I would’ve at least been done and known how fast I was. And then to get in line again after the rain had cleared and have it come with only me left to go, it just kind of seemed like maybe it’s just not supposed to happen this year. That’s just the roller coaster you ride here. It makes you value the good days even more and it makes you want to try like hell to never have these days ever again.” (On how she feels after her run): “I feel like I need a drink. That’s really how I feel. I might know after about two of those, maybe even one because I haven’t eaten much this weekend. I’m mad. I’m mad because I really thought we had a fast car. I really thought when we started out that we had a fast car that was fast enough to be in the top nine, even. Friday came and that kind of went away a little bit, and then to have it go the way it did, I’m relieved. I’m relieved that I’m in the race. I’m frustrated with some of the process that’s happened and some of the things that have happened. I’m excited for everyone that we can go to sleep tonight and know that we’re in the race. It’s a lot going on, but I’d say I’m between angry and happy. I’m on both ends of the spectrum. I think it’s just a lesson that we need to learn why we’re fast and why we’re not. We need to figure it ou