INDIANAPOLIS 500 (INDIANAPOLIS) - POST-RACE COMMENTS

91st INDIANAPOLIS 500 RACE DAY QUOTES – Sunday, May 27

BUDDY RICE (#15 A1TeamUSA/DRR Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I saw Marco (Andretti) get up in the air, and I had to slow way down and avoid the crash. But then someone just punted me from behind. I just couldn’t do anything about it. I guess some of the guys behind me didn’t see the crash. It is a shame because after the last pit stop the car really felt good. I was moving well and looking to make some passes. I feel we had a top-10 finish in the A1 TEAM USA Honda. The crew had some great stops today, and we had a little bit of bad look before the rain delay. We pitted on the green right before John Andretti’s crash. Had we been able to pit under that yellow flag, we would have had a car toward the top five then. We were right behind Vitor (Meira) prior to the crash, and he came out fourth. This Dreyer & Reinbold team is coming together more and more with each race. We learned more about the car and the crew today. It’s too bad we had to finish this way. We’ll move on to Milwaukee now. Get ready for The Mile.”

MILKA DUNO (#23 CITGO Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “After I was passing in Turn 1, one car passed on the inside and another car was in the middle. When I was coming, they slowed down too much, and my car lost all the aerodynamic charge in front and there was no way to control the car.” (About the crash): “You try to control the car, but everything happens so fast. You have no margin for mistake. There really was no mistake. I was just behind two cars, and they slowed down too much. It was a reason, and I wasn’t slow long but in the corner it’s not the same. They slowed down in the corner.” (About remaining schedule): “I am going to Texas; the next race is Texas. For me, it is Texas.” (Do you have more confidence going into Texas?): “Yes, I was feeling very good. My engineer, my guys gave me such a good car. We were running so well. This is a very tough race, but we have a good car. My car was perfect; it was so good.” (About first Indy 500 experience): “For me it was a fantastic, fantastic month. Working hard was great for me. I enjoyed every single moment in Indianapolis. It was a place I always wanted to be here a long time ago. I am here. I qualified, I was part of the group. I was racing. It is difficult to describe with words.”

DANICA PATRICK (#7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "I had a fast car, and it was a good day except for some bad luck at the end. Then the rain came, and I was in the wrong place. Another year of frustration where I really thought I had a chance to win. It's frustrating. I'm glad that in all the mix-up at the end, with fuel stops and the rain, that one of our guys won and not some one else.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (#26 NYSE Group Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I’m going to be bruised, but to come out of that bruised, I’m going to be happy. I’m very lucky, for sure. What’s making me overcome the bruises right now is this (pointing to Victory Lane), I’m so happy for Dario, that’s all I can say.” (What happened?): “I was upside down for a long time. I’m so lucky. My mirror was broke, so I had no idea who was outside me, whoever it was. I think it might have been Dan (Wheldon). I apologize. I’m so thankful Andretti Green came out on top. It’s just one of those days where, for whatever reason, I lost the balance. It rained, we went out, and I was nowhere. The NYSE car was definitely a contender in the beginning.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (#6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "We were pretty happy with the Team Penske car at the end of the race. We had a cut tire before the first storm, which was pretty unfortunate, but at least we got to continue the race after the rain. We battled back from 15th to fourth, so obviously we were fortunate to get another shot. The car was running well. We just didn't have enough for the leaders at the end due to the race being cut short. If the rain held off, the leaders would've had to pit and we didn't need to, so we had a bit of bad luck. It's not an ideal result, but at least we ended up a lot better than how we were sitting a few hours ago. I really have to hand it to everyone at Team Penske. The guys did an amazing job all day on pit stops as well as the entire month. Now we just have to look ahead to Milwaukee and hopefully we can get a win there."

SARAH FISHER (#5 AAMCO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “We had a pretty good car. We just didn’t have everything go our way. As competitive as this sport is, it’s really difficult unless everything goes your way. I thought I caught up to traffic a couple of times, and had some pit stop issues. We have a pretty good car. We know where it’s at, and I think that’s going to be good for us going to Milwaukee. We’ll think about it and try to bring the car and driver together.”

ROGER YASUKAWA (#24 Wellman Corbier/DRR Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was unfortunate that we had to cut short because of the rain. The car was excellent for the first 100 laps, and I was pretty confident going back out there but things didn’t really go our way at the end of the race. I think the competitiveness of the league gets tougher every year. Being able to come here in the second week and do what we’ve done, I think the crew did an excellent job and I’m really happy. I want to thank Wellman-Corbier Custom Homes for their support, and hopefully we can go from here.”

ED CARPENTER (#20 Hitachi Power Tools Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “Marco, when he was upside down, I turned and got into Buddy, and I did like a 360 and drove away. I mean, the car was broke bad, but I was still driving and we knew it was going to rain, so I was trying to make it to the checkered. Coming off (Turn) 2 under yellow and the left suspension broke and broke the brake line, and everything started scaling down and hitting the inside wall.”

AL UNSER JR. (#50 AJ Foyt Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "It was one of those races. I can't remember having such a crazy race in terms of weather. It rained, and then we stopped, and then we got back out there, and it rained again. I've never seen something like this before here at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway."

TOMAS SCHECKTER (#2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "I knew I had the car to be where it belonged. I think a lot of guys up there shouldn't have been up there really because they still needed a stop. It was a little bit of fuel strategy. We had a top-five car. I was just wishing for a green, because I was flying at the end. It was a pity. I'm really happy with a top-10 finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway." (During rain delay, about incident with Hornish): “I’m pissed off. We’ve been told so many times in drivers’ meetings not to block or stop a driver when he’s got a run. Sam’s done that. It’s such a pity. He’s such a good champion, such a good driver but what an idiot, a real idiot. Straight down the front straight, comes straight in. I hope I damaged his car when he hit my front wing. We are lucky that he had just a flat tire and I’ve got a broken wing. Next time he does that to me, I’m definitely not going to lift and will ram him straight into that front wall.”

JAQUES LAZIER (#21 Indiana Ice/Venture Logistics Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “I'm obviously very disappointed right now. It's not the way we wanted it to end. We had a good run going, but all things said and done, I'm very proud of everyone at Playa Del Racing. The Indiana Ice, the car, we had a good run. We even led a couple laps, so it was a good strong effort. The entire month of May, we've been working on our race setup, and it was pretty good for a while. I don't know. I was just turning in to Turn 4, and we were back up into the wall. It's frustrating to end it that way, especially since the team worked as hard as they did. You never want to end it that way before.” (About staying prepared during rain delay): “They pay us to be that way, so you have to be to be 100 percent when you go back out. You know, I think at one point we were running pretty competitive laps, and I actually think at that point we were leading. We led a couple laps, too. We were ready, and we had a little problem where we came in and we ran out of fuel going into (Turn) 3. And we had to coast in and had to start it back up and stalled it again, we went back in and had to do it again. So we lost a lap that way and had to catch up, but I can't say anything negative with these guys. They worked extremely hard, and it's too bad because the last couple of years we've had good runs here, and we just don't have the luck that we need.”

RICHIE HEARN (#91 Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "My car was not very good. We really struggled with the car. All I tried to do was not crash the whole time. It's not the way I wanted to race, but that's what we had. We only had 60 total laps before today, when most of these teams had 600 or 700 laps. I survived it and can chalk it up to experience, but I'm not very satisfied with it except for the fact that I didn't put it in the wall."

DARREN MANNING (#14 ABC Supply Co./AJ Foyt Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I've never seen anything like it. I talked to Al (Unser Jr.) and A.J. (Foyt, Jr.) – those guys have a lot of races around here – and they said that no two races are ever the same here. I think they just proved it today. It rains, it dries, and it rains again. We go around 40 mile per hour aquaplaning. I thought I’d never see that in my life.”

SCOTT SHARP (#8 Patrón Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "A good day for the Patron Rahal Team. You know, it was up and down all day. It kept seeming like we got the bad stick on a lot of the yellows. They just came out at wrong times for us, like, right after we would pit. It happened like two or three times. Traffic was tough. There were a couple of guys that were a lap or two down that decided to give me a hard time. Not really sure why that is. I don't have any problems with anybody out here. This sport has a funny way of what goes around comes around. Eventally, you get by that person. You just smoke them off in about two laps you are a straight away ahead of them. It's like what are you doing. That hurt us a bit. We rebounded well and finished sixth and it is something for us to work off of."

RYAN BRISCOE (#12 Symantec Luczo Dragon Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s a huge team effort. We came in at the last minute to do this race. My pit crew guys had every single pit stop absolutely perfect. Absolutely amazing. They put in so much effort. It’s been so much fun. It was good. When we stopped before (red flag for rain in the middle of the race), we were 10th. I knew the car was coming back, and we deserved better than that. We had third at one point, and I got chopped by Fisher on that restart, and we lost two positions. So it was sort of between third and fifth. I’m really happy.”

DAVEY HAMILTON (#02 HP Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "Man, I tell you what, these guys did a great job with this Vision Hewlett-Packard car. It was all strategy, really. Our car was OK. That last restart, I actually had a good one, but the two Penske guys got by me because I got hung up a little bit. But, man, it was a great day." (What was the racing like out there overall?): "After the restart, my car wasn't quite as good in traffic. It was better by myself. But Rick (Galles) knew that and he had a hell of a strategy. These guys figured out what we needed to do and did one hell of a job to get us up where we were."

TONY KANAAN (#11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): (About regrouping after the rain delay): "I would say I didn't have to regroup. I went straight out of my car, and I didn't want to talk to anybody. People thought that I was mad, but I wasn't. I wanted to get to (Dario Franchitti) before anyone else." (Should today have been your day?): "I think it is Dario's day. I did what I could. My big disappointment will be if we knew we weren't going to finish 200 laps, why would we continue? I have to say that Dario is probably thinking the other way around. It is the Indianapolis 500, but it is just another race, too. Hopefully, we turn the page over and move on. We'll get another chance, and hopefully we'll get (the win)." (How do you use this as motivation for next year?): "You have to wait another year and just come back and do what we can do. This is why this is Indianapolis. How many other guys (fall short)? Look at my boss (Michael Andretti). This is probably his last try, and he didn't get it. He raced over 20 years. It is what it is, so let's move on and see what can happen."

JEFF SIMMONS (#17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It reminds me of 2004, and I think I said that all day long. We were running up there with the quick guys most of the day. There were a couple of guys that were quicker than us, and it would have taken some traffic or something for us to beat them. But I think we should have legitimately been sixth or seventh, but with the rain, it didn’t work out in the end. We fought hard all day, and I just wish we would have finished better for the guys and for ethanol. The car started to come to us a little bit. We made a little wing change early, and that dialed it in. It was good for long stretches of time. I think we showed a lot of people that we can be competitive; it’s just disappointing to end up where we did.” (About Marco Andretti’s crash): “I just saw sparks up on the right. I had a really good run on the cars in front of me, and I was getting ready to make a move, and I saw sparks and I saw Marco upside down coming across the track toward me, and I had to bail out into the grass a little bit. I didn’t want to risk throwing it back up because I wasn’t sure if anyone was over there, so I went down to the warm-up lane. I’m glad that Marco is OK.”

A.J. FOYT IV (#22 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “We ran pretty good. The car wasn’t bad at all. It was actually really good there at the end of the race. I survived and missed a few big crashes, so I moved that position up to where it should have been anyways. I’m just proud of all my guys on my team, and thanks again for Tony George giving me the opportunity to be back here, and I look forward to coming back next year.”

VITOR MEIRA (#4 Delphi Panther Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "That was a very hard race for everybody; a very hard month. The Delphi Panther team did very, very good. We had many adversities this month. We were fourth place at a point, but when the restart came, we lost a lot of grip. I guess it was good when the track had lots of rubber on it, but when it rained, it hurt the car. I'm not okay with tenth but for the month we had, it was a good thing." (The racing looked really tight out there. Did that make the handling more difficult?): "That was a very tight race, actually. The race kept stopping all the time and it never went for more than 50 laps green at a time, I think. We have to work a little more here at the speedway. But, I leave here, not happy, but satisfied."

KOSUKE MATSUURA (#55 Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “After the restart, my car really pushed. I brushed the wall off of Turn 2. Then the car was no good. After that, we adjusted the front wing, and the car was pretty decent. Overall, I just didn't have enough speed, and I couldn't fight anybody."

ALEX BARRON (#98 Lenovo/CURB Records Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was good when we went back out. We came back to the garage earlier, and I was really disappointed because we were 24th, and our pit strategy didn't work out real good. But we went back out and made up nine positions. We picked them up one by one, so we're pretty happy with that. Obviously, at the end of the day, we wanted more, but we're real happy with the result.”

BUDDY LAZIER (#99 Sam Schmidt Motorsports Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “Well, at least it wasn’t like 10 years ago, when we ran a race that took place over three days. Hats off to the (Indy Racing) League, they did a great job getting the track back to racing (condition). I looked out and saw all of those fans, and they were waiting. Those are Indiana fans. I mean, those guys are hardcore. So I think for the fans and also for the competitors, the Indy 500 is not the Indy 250. I thought it was great that they got the race back up and going.” (Describe your race car, through the first 113 laps and then they last segment) “We struggled really hard all day. I was just telling my team PR guy that you could run 1,000 miles with a car that is totally hooked up, and you feel good afterward. Yet you run 100 miles in a car that is not hooked up, it feels like 1,000 (miles). Bottom line is, we really struggled today and never really got a handle on our race car (setup). Ken is great engineer; this is a great race team. But man, there is something about this race car. This team just bought the car just days before the month started. I thought they did a great job. It was really disappointing that we didn’t have a better race car. I know we are all disappointed, but we brought it home 19th. I think that was all that car had in it today, for sure.” (Were you close to any incidents out there?) “Tons, tons, just tons. First of all, my car were an incident waiting to happen about every third lap. My Turn 3 spotter, about every third or fourth lap would say, ‘Great save, great save.’ Because I was saving the car a lot. Bottom line, this is a great race car. This is a great race team, but there is something really wrong it. We just missed something, real bad. We’ll just have to rally the team. They are a great race team, and are sure we will solve the problem with this car. But at the end of the day, I had an evil race car. We fought hard, even though the result is as sad as it was; they kept fighting and making it better. Obviously, once you start the race, you are stuck with what you have. But through tire pressures, wing changes and all the limited things you have to work with, they definitely made it better and better. Just not good enough.”

DAN WHELDON (#10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I’m fine. I’m just I was running on the outside of him (Marco Andretti). Unfortunately, he hit me. Thank goodness he’s all right. It didn’t seem anything we did today worked very well for us. It was just one of those days when we couldn’t seem to do anything right. We were definitely trying hard. But everybody has tried very hard. It’s just unfortunate day for us. I’m very disappointed. That’s the way this place works sometimes. I wanted to win the Indianapolis 500, but now we’ll focus on the championship. We have Milwaukee coming up. Thankfully that’s coming up pretty soon so we can just move on.”