Indianapolis 500 Post-Race Quotes
May 29, 2011 | By
TAKUMA SATO (No. 5 Monavie-KVRT – Lotus, 33rd): “I couldn’t see that the car was inside of me, and by the time I got into Turn 1, it was full speed and the car was there and I had to lift. I am very disappointed, and it is quite unfortunate that I am not a part of the race. I wasn’t supposed to be hanging on that way, and it is very disappointing. I really wanted to finish the race.”
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 06 Sprott Newman/Haas Racing, 29th): “It was a disappointing day. A disappointing end for the Sprott car because we rebounded pretty well. At that point, we were driving on borrowed time after what happened with Viso and I forget who else it was on that restart. He got into us, we got hit and had to come in and save the car from going into the wall on that one. I'm not quite sure how we managed that, so we were sort of driving on borrowed time. We were just trying to be a bit conservative. We got lucky on a yellow and got in around the top 10. We were just about to pit; the tires were just starting to go off. Bertrand got a good run on me, and I was really just trying to let him go. I backed off early and was giving him the corner but unfortunately got a little bit in the grey. With how worn the tires were, at that stage of the stint I was just a passenger.”
E.J. VISO (No. 59 PDVSA-KV Racing Technology-Lotus, 32nd): “I was running with Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe, and I believe that James Hinchcliffe missed a gear and he lost his momentum out of Turn 4. Graham Rahal went on the inside, and I went on the outside. Then when we were approaching Turn 1, I got hit on my rear left tire and it spun me.”
JAY HOWARD (No. 88 Service Central Schmidt-RLL Racing, 30th): “I was having a great race. I've got to thank my Service Central guys, Sam Schmidt and Rahal Letterman Lanigan for giving me an opportunity here. Everyone worked really hard. I had a great car. I was loving every minute of it. We were making our way through the field. I think I got as high as 12th or 13th. The car felt really good. I'm not sure exactly what was wrong, but I lost the right rear wheel. I don't know if it was an issue with the nut gun. I'm not sure what happened.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy HVM Racing, 31st): “I made contact with the wall in Turn 1, and it bent the upright and the rear suspension. It didn’t feel real good, and we realized that the upright was bent. A big thanks to HVM Racing for all they have done for me this week and to Nuclear Clean Energy. The car felt really good until I made that little mistake in Turn 1.”
TOWNSEND BELL (No. 99 Herbalife Schmidt Pelfrey Racing, 26th): “It’s a shame. The Herbalife 24 car was competitive here, running up front. I've got to see the replay, but it seems like somebody hit me in my left rear, I think it was Ryan. I saved it in Turn 1 and whammo, it got me again and pinned me in the wall.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 IZOD Team Penske, 27th): “I saw Townsend brush the wall in Turn 4. Everyone was going down the inside. I was just following through on the inside into Turn 1. I just think he didn't know I was there, and he just came down and pinched me. As soon as we made contact, the wheels interlocked. And that was it.”
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 07 Team REDLINE Xtreme – Circle K, eighth): “I had to work hard for what I had today. I pushed hard on the restarts, and that’s how I gained positions. A big thanks to REDLINE and all the people who put their effort in this, Circle K. We struggled a bit on straight-line speed, but we made up for it in other places. We made up for it with a consistent car.”
VITOR MEIRA (No. 14 ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing, 15th): “It was a long day. We had great pit stops. We picked up a lot of positions after every time. It’s hard to predict. As windy as it is and as hot as it is today, we didn’t have any practice in conditions like this. In hindsight, we may have done too much qualifying work and not enough race work. That was just how the weekend was with the rain and everything. We couldn’t really plan well. We did everything we could. It’s hard to guess on these things. I think we got a good result. We brought it home. Let’s go to the next one. It’s not the first, and it’s not the last. It was just one of those days where you flip the coin and see what happens. In the end, it wasn’t the day for us. We are definitely not pleased with this. We were expecting a top 10. It just wasn’t the day for us.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Team GoDaddy, 10th): “That’s what you have to do here at Indy; you have to take that chance because it’s win or bust here, for the most part. While it’s great to have top-five finishes every weekend, Indy is about winning. And I was just saying, ‘Every time I come here and see someone else win, I hate it more every time.’ So the more times I come here the more I love it, the more I want it. I have to say thanks to the fans for coming out. It was a packed house today. Everybody was great. The sun was shining. It was a good Memorial Day weekend.” (On leading the race): “I was thinking, ‘OK, I kind of know that I’m doing this on strategy right now.’ But I did know that there were lots of yellows coming out around pit stops. So I thought, ‘Just keep your head down, keep running.’ And I picked up a vibration. We tend to pick up a vibration at the end of every tire life, so it was kind of throwing me off a little bit. But you’re just hoping for that break. Whenever you’re trying something, to make that jump up to the front, there’s always a downside.”
TONY KANAAN (No. 82 GEICO-KV Racing Technology-Lotus, fourth): “We had a problem on a pit stop because of somebody else. We had a good car. We drove hard all day. It was a lot of fun. I am surely happy for Dan (Wheldon). He’s been through a lot. He got thrown out the window. A lot of people said that he wasn’t good enough. I’ve been through that at the end of last year. I didn’t have the car to win. It was a good race for us. I’m happy for the KV guys. You have to remember, five days before the race (season opener in St. Petersburg), we didn’t have a team.”
ANA BEATRIZ (No. 24 Team Ipiranga/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 21st): “The conditions were pretty difficult. We made a mistake on our fuel calculation and had to stop a little bit earlier than everybody. That cost us a lap. We got left behind and couldn’t really recover. It’s a shame. The car was pretty good. Hopefully we can put it together next year. I mean, it’s tough. It was very competitive, and we just couldn’t get the yellows where we wanted so that we could get our lap back. We can’t really accept mistakes anymore. We need to understand how to get it right. If we do that, maybe we can have a chance at getting a win at the Indy 500.”
ALEX LLOYD (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America, 19th): “It was a difficult race. We didn’t quite have the car we needed. We tried our best; we had a shot at the top 15 near the end and tried to turn it into a top 10. We took a gamble on fuel and it didn’t work, so we landed outside the top 15. We didn’t have the speed; we haven’t had it all month. It was a difficult day, but the big thing was getting this car in the show. We almost missed it. The crew got us in the show. We ran a clean race, and we did the best we