Firestone Freedom 100 Top Three Press Conference - May 21, 2009

PAT SULLIVAN: We anticipate that Mario will be making his way down in just a matter of seconds. He's doing some other things, as well. We do have J.R. Hildebrand, and he's proudly wearing that second-place finish hat. Said he'll take it. Didn't look like he was thoroughly satisfied but not thoroughly dissatisfied, either. Tell us about it.

J.R. HILDEBRAND: Well, do you guys really need me on the mike here?

SULLIVAN: It goes all over the Internet and everywhere here.

HILDEBRAND: Great. It's obviously a long race for us, or it's a long race, seems like a long race for us. It's quite short in relation to what these guys going to do in a couple of days. For us when we're on the straightaways so long, our cars get up to terminal velocity on the straight, and it's tough for anybody to pull away. At the end of the race, I was well aware of that, that I was kind of getting run on into (Turns) 3 and 1 every corner, or every lap I should say. I kind of sat there, I was lucky to have a few cautions that allowed me to stay up front when guys were starting to catch up. I just set my car up to try to run in the lead basically. I used my roll bars, used my [?] way tracker to get the car so it could be as quick as it could be up front. You know, Wade has got a lot of miles around here, and I knew that if there is going to be one guy that was going to time that pass just right, that it was going to be him. I seemed to be able to hold off pretty much everybody else by either running high or running low underneath somebody at both ends of the track. But Wade got the run, and there was no way I was going to be able to keep him behind me. So I just sort of tried to let him go without getting passed by anybody else and was able to do that. But just didn’t have enough laps to get back around him. He was doing a really good job. His car was really fast on the bottom of the racetrack. Once he got around me and I was sort of back in traffic after having been in clean air for so long, you know, I didn’t have – I didn’t quite have the car to keep up. I picked up a lot of understeer when I was behind him, and I think he knew how to get around the track to give me that bit of extra understeer. Got a good run on him in the last lap. I think maybe if we had another, maybe if the start/finish line was on the back straight, would have gotten around him but just doesn’t quite work that way. I’m really happy for the team, everybody has done a great job, everybody has worked hard all month to get ready for this race. ARPRO and all my sponsors have helped out and we’re back out here. And we’re back up in the points lead, and that’s where we want to be now, and are looking forward to Milwaukee next weekend.

SULLIVAN: Mario, one of the great stories of the race is you. 18th to 3rd and fighting up there with all of them at the end of the race. One heck of a job, congratulations.

MARIO ROMANCINI: Yeah, I'm very happy, happy for me, happy for the team. They did a good job from yesterday to today. We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out what happened on qualifying that we were starting so much at the back. But that's important, we knew we had a strong car for the race. We knew that from the beginning because on the practice when I was running on traffic, I knew that the car was good, and that's what I was trying to tell them. I mean, we need to improve when we are running by ourselves, but for the race I think we will go good. I was able to make a very good first lap. I think I passed seven cars, I don't know exactly. This helped me a lot. So, yeah, but the car was really good on traffic, especially when I was running side by side on the high line, I was able to pass them on the first turn, which is important. In Kansas we struggled a little bit with that. I couldn't pass them on the high side. So, yeah, I'm very happy and just speechless, I don't know what to say. I want to thank them.

SULLIVAN: Very good. Joe, tell us what we're up to here.

JOE BARBIERI: Firestone, when we took over the series, we instituted a program called the Lucky 3. So we're going to have these guys that are on the podium draw some numbers. The numbers in here are from positions, not car numbers but positions 11 through 22. Whatever numbers are pulled, we're going to give that team, that car, some additional money to help them since they finished so low on the finishing order today. We're going to start with Mario, he's going to pick a number out here.

ROMANCINI: 18.

BARBIERI: So the car, finish position 18 will win an additional thousand dollars from Firestone.

SULLIVAN: J.R., let's see who your friends are here.

HILDEBRAND: 15.

BARBIERI: Position 15 will get $1,500 from Firestone. When Wade stops in, he'll pick one more, and we'll end up giving that position $2,500 from Firestone.

SULLIVAN: Thank you very much, Joe.

HILDEBRAND: Wade might be headed straight to the party, I don't know. (Laughter)

SULLIVAN: We'll track him down. How about questions for these two gentlemen?

Q: Mario, I was -- you know, we spoke the other day, and I was a little almost flabbergasted by how confident you seem to be, almost brash. You were talking about going to Homestead the first time and doing the test on the oval, and then you qualified 18th, and I was thinking, well, no, but you really blew me away today. I'm kind of curious about a couple of things. Since most Brazilians seem to have an adjustment period to the oval, but you've taken to it like a duck to water. I would like you to comment on your oval experience and why you seem -- why you think you feel so comfortable with it. The other thing is I noticed toward the end of the race, you know, like J.R. and, you know, you were making your runs and then you would get up and then you would fall back. Was that because you were getting into dirty air or losing air or maybe you can comment on that, too.

ROMANCINI: Well, first, about the ovals, I don't know the first time I was on an oval in Homestead in February, the first test. The first laps I thought: ‘What am I doing here? I can't handle this car, it's just too fast.’ But after some laps I was getting up to speed, and I was feeling comfortable, and I think what really helped me was the race in Kansas because that was my first one and we finished on the podium, too, and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the car. That's just confidence. I trust the car and I trust the guys. More important, I didn't want to risk nothing. I'm really thinking on the championship this year, so I just wanted to finish this race in a good position to score points after the problem that we had in Long Beach. But now I think we are starting to be more, how can I say this? More confident to -- I'm feeling better working with my engineers, with my mechanics. I know the guys better now, so this is helping us, too. And, yeah, about the last laps I think the guys in front, they are quicker, which means it's more difficult to pass. So this was the main key, I think. When I was at the back, my car was quicker than the others, so was easy for me to pass them on the outside. When I got -- Hildebrand was difficult, we were running side by side, but I couldn't do what I was doing with the others, I couldn't pass him. So I tried to stay with him and didn't let the guys behind me catch me because I wanted to finish on the podium after the position that we started.

Q: I seen a couple of weeks ago you were representing Team USA in the A1 Nations Grand Prix in Brands Hatch.

HILDEBRAND: That's right.

Q: Can you tell us when you compare the A1 Ferrari to this car, is it similar or does it help you bring additional seat time to this car? Also, it was a road course in Brands Hatch.

HILDEBRAND: Yeah, I mean, I'll take seat time anytime I can get it. The car is just, in sort of no particular fashion in terms of better or worse, whatever. They're quite a lot different. Even having had a little bit of seat time in the IndyCar, the A1 car is quite a bit different from that, even. It's not just the power or anything like that. It's much more sort of your European-style formula. It's smaller wheel with the big sidewall tire and just the way you work on the setup and the way the car works, because of that is quite a lot different than what I was used to driving over here. So -- and then you can get into any race car and you've just got to give it hell, and that's sort of what we did. I sort of -- it was a little bit of trial by fire in terms of getting used to it and figuring out we need to make the thing fast. I have to say I was a little disappointed because I think we had the speed to be even quicker over there. So I'd say that's where those little differences that we had caught us out a little bit. The series is quite a lot different in terms of how you qualify, how you practice. The tires allotment that you get, how the races work, all that kind of stuff, pit stops. First time ever doing real full-speed pit stops, that was a little bit crazy. So, but, you know, sort of getting back to how it affects what we do here, I think for the ovals, you know, I don't know that's really going to help me much to get around here. But certainly for just kind of keeping those reflexes close and, you know, making sure that you're mentally prepared for everything you come up against. I think every time that you're given an opportunity to drive a different car, that it gives you the ability to adapt a little bit better to just different circumstances in general. So whether that be, you know, oh, my car, my Lights car is understeering or oversteering or acting a certain way or I've got a track like this or that, maybe a different car that I've driven, I'll be able to pull on that experience to be even better at it. So I was really happy to be able to do it, and hopefully we'll be able to do it again next year.

Q: Mario, I talked to Brandon Wagner, who started ahead of you in the field, and he said he was frustrated with all the yellow flags because he could never make a run through the field. Did that actually help you because you were able to cool off your tires and continue to make another run?

ROMANCINI: Well, to be honest, I think it helped everybody because since from the first practice everybody was having troubles with the right rear tire, and that was one of the things that I was trying to do on the yellows, I wasn't scrubbing the tires, I just tried to cool them down because I knew that I was going to need them for the last laps. And that's something that I talked to my engineer yesterday to, I think. I said to him: "We need an understeering car. We cannot have enough oversteering on this race because of the problems that we are having with the right rear tire." And that's what I tried to do. I was playing with my bars, always trying to keep the car a little bit understeering so then they can last the whole race.

Q: Being the 100-year anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, by the way, gentlemen, congratulations on your finishes. Congratulations. Being the 100-year anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, what does it mean to you personally just in a nutshell, could you answer that, please?

ROMANCINI: As I said, I'm speechless. Means a lot, especially starting from the back. I mean, it's a pleasure to be here, to be representing my country, to be making good points for the championship, but especially for me to give back the work that the guys from the team are making for me. They are working really hard, and the only way that I can give them back is with results, and that's the more important for me. Because I think they are very happy now to be with a car in the podium here in Indianapolis is the most important race of the year. So that's for me, that's the most important.

HILDEBRAND: For me, I'd say the same. Indy is huge. It's what our series revolves around, whether it's Indy Lights or the IndyCar Series. So to be able to have a good run here on such a big stage in front of such a huge crowd -- I mean, this year's crowd compared to last year, obviously it was raining last year at this time, but I mean, it's crazy how many people are out there. So this is like a Race Day, and we're the big show. So it's really big for us to be able to have a good run here and being that it's the centennial of the Speedway just makes it that much more special. So I think that in the big scheme of things we're all looking to be on the top step on the level up, but I think that it's great to have a good run here this year.

Q: Mario, this is what, I think your third oval. In the last couple you've been hot, this one, obviously. How have you adapted so quickly to an oval track when you really apparently hadn't done a whole lot to start with?

ROMANCINI: I really don't know. I mean, last year I was doing the World Series by Renault. The car has a lot of downforce, which means that when I was running on fast corners, I really had to learn how to make that happen because with so much downforce, you really lose the front of the car. So that helped me a little bit. But ovals are different. I mean, I really don't know. I just have a good car, a good car that can keep a good pace behind the others, and that's it. Just trying to be consistent and don't risk too much. I just want to finish races.

SULLIVAN: Other questions?

Q: Have you gotten used to on ovals having J.R. in front of you, cars alongside you at the speeds you're traveling? Are you getting used to that or are you still a little nervous?

ROMANCINI: No, I'm used to that. I mean since the first test in Homestead, the second day we took the day to just run in traffic so then I could get used to it. The race in Kansas helped me because I was running side by side with Cunningham almost 15, 20 laps which gave me confidence to know if you trust the guy running side by side with you, you've got to trust it, he's thinking the same way you are, that you both need to finish the race. So who has the best car will win.

Q: Mario, before I forget, I'm just curious about this differential between your qualifying speed and what you did out there today. What did you guys do to race trim to bring this car alive?

ROMANCINI: We don't know. That's what we'll try to find out for the next race.

HILDEBRAND: I know how that works.

ROMANCINI: Yeah, it's true, we knew we had a good car for the race since from the beginning, but we knew we weren't quick enough to qualify well. I don't know what was --

HILDEBRAND: I can sympathize with Mario here, the last year we had the exact same thing happen. So qualified 21st, so what the heck, you know? And then the race, boom, right back to normal.

SULLIVAN: When things happen for you, you don't question.

ROMANCINI: You just accept it.

SULLIVAN: Anything else? Gentlemen, congratulations and thank you for coming in.

HILDEBRAND: Thank you. Thanks, everybody.

SULLIVAN: Well, the winner of the Firestone Freedom 100, Wade Cunningham. Wade, we chatted briefly yesterday and down behind your garage, and it was interesting because you said, "I have a car to win the pole," and you felt like you should win the pole position. And I got the read from you that, like a good race driver and former champion, you felt like you ought to win the race; and you did it, and it wasn't easy.

WADE CUNNINGHAM: No, it definitely was not easy. I felt like I got out of a bar fight and had a few glasses smashed over my head. It was very tough. I got a great start. I have to give kudos to my team. After Kansas, we struggled on the restarts with gearing. We just got hosed really by AGR and Saavedra, in particular. And my guys were amazing. I'm not sure if you could see the nuances on the track, but my first restart and all my subsequent restarts when I wasn't leading, we made serious ground. That goes down to my engineer, Doug, who did a fantastic job with that after Kansas. But the whole race in general, there was a bit of to and fro-ing the whole time. The way our gearbox and our ratios, you can't have the ideal ratio around here for running out front. So I got to the front early on, and it was obvious I knew I couldn't lead 40 laps. I knew right then that I didn't want to be leading at the end. So I gave up position very early, very easy. I never fought J.R. or Sebastian and I let them go, and I just maintained third place because it seemed like we were going to pull away from the field a little bit.

But it didn't quite work out that way with the yellow flags midway through the race and then the long yellow. I think everybody got a little antsy in the cars, and then it got pretty hectic with Mario very, very high just like Kansas the whole race. When I got shuffled back to fourth, it was difficult with three cars in front of us. You're trying to find some clean air on corner entry and you're really struggling.

So my first concern was to get to second because that was the best place to be. As you saw, I leapfrogged Mario on the third to last lap and pushed J.R. in Turn 1 and boxed Mario outside and he couldn't get back in. So that gave me my second place and the opportunity to do what I needed to do to try to set J.R. up. That for me was probably the winning move, because if I had fought J.R. into Turn 1 and instead of trying to do something to slow Mario down, the field would have still been bunched up and I wouldn't have had the room I needed. So that was planned on my part. And then J.R. really struggled with understeer through 2 on that second-to-last lap, and I saw my opportunity into 3. We had a slight headwind, too, so it was a little bit slow than he probably would have like with the gearing, and he just hit that wall, that headwind, and just slowed down a fraction and I was able to put my nose inside him a little bit before halfway down the back straight actually. And I boxed him out into 3, and I got that two-, three-car gap that I needed. And he just wasn't able to maintain the throttle that he needed after the last lap, and then he had to worry about the people behind him for once. So it was great and, you know, that last lap was nerve-wracking. I thought they were going to be coming. I was looking the whole time, probably more than I was looking forward. So when I hit the finish line, it was just a sense of relief and joy.

SULLIVAN: That's a great description. What I was wondering when I saw it, because I wondered about the strategy near the end, did you at any point think you made your move and got to the front too quickly or did you have any other choice at that time?

CUNNINGHAM: I didn't have a choice because the way the momentum of the track works, we had a slight tailwind down the front straight, and with the way the gearing worked, if you tapped out on the limiter too early going down into 1, you might not have the chance because you've got to go, yourself and the guy in front of you, you have to breathe and he doesn't. So when I was able to carry the momentum through 1 and 2, I had to take him going down into 3. I delayed my turn-in a little bit into 3 on that lap when I passed J.R., and he just got caught out a little bit and that gave me the room I needed.

SULLIVAN: Pretty impressive. Questions for our winner?

Q: Wade, you won this race, you've been a champion in this series. Do you feel like you're having to reprove yourself again? Because I know you think you deserve to be up in the big leagues.

CUNNINGHAM: I feel like I've got the maturity and the ability to do everything required to be in an IndyCar. I understand the economics of it: There's not many rides going around, and there are a lot of good drivers sitting on the sidelines; a lot of veterans who have done really well like Oriol Servia, who came second in CART or Champ Car a few years ago, and he doesn't have a ride. I know the dilemma facing me. But the only way I saw it to get that opportunity again was to be back in the series and prove myself again. It seems that every year they said the new champion is bigger than the last, it's just human nature. I'm here, I want to stand at the top of the ladder again and be the first driver someone thinks of they want to put someone in if the opportunity does come up.

Q: Wade, the question is concerning Scott Dixon. Is there any help or advice you get from Scott?

CUNNINGHAM: At this track in particular, not really. Our cars are so different. They're able to do so much more with the technical regulations than we are with downforce and rocker packages and damper packages are kind of set for us; we don't have the freedom that they do. But there are general things you can ask, track conditions, for instance. Are they having a lot of problems with mid-exit understeer just in corner 1? That seems to be something pretty similar with the IndyCars, as well. So when you can cross-reference stuff like that, you know that maybe it's not a setup issue, it's just a track condition or an issue on the day that you're facing.

Q: I'm just curious about what was going through your mind. I saw you pump your fist and you were standing in the car and taking pictures. What ran through your mind when you talked yesterday about being in racing purgatory and what you've been through, and what's been going through your mind at that moment out there?

CUNNINGHAM: This is a very big race, especially for Sam Schmidt and the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team. When you get into the Lucas Oil car, there's a lot of pressure to perform. Probably not as much pressure as I put on myself, but it is there. So questions are asked when you're done. We had a very, very rough start to the season at St. Pete, a track that I haven't done well in the past, and I got second and a host of other problems, and then Long Beach, so we were sitting 18th in points. I'm sure Sam was wondering why he put me in the car. We got to Kansas, and that was the start of the turnaround, and we got pole there. We got beat fair and square in the race; we weren't quick enough. I was in the team shop talking with the manager and the engineer, and we worked very hard between Kansas and now to improve our package. I think it's shown because not only were we the quickest in qualifying and outright speed, but I think today we were the quickest car on the track because I look at the amount of time it took other people to pass the leader, and when I had the opportunity and I was planning to do it, I felt like I was able to make those passes easier than other people were. So I think we've got a very, very strong race pace now that we didn't have in Kansas.

Q: J.R. was just saying that in his mind he had to be second and that was the place to be. When he got out in the lead and saw you behind him, you didn't pass and he said, "Uh-oh, I think I'm in trouble." He also said your experience really paid off. Do you feel that you've got plenty of experience and knowledge of the tracks now that you can pretty much handle any situation that you might get yourself into to be able to pull off a win?

CUNNINGHAM: I definitely have more experience than the other drivers, but I'm always learning. For whatever reason, the outside groove of this track the last two years has gotten bigger, and the grip has improved. So I was seeing two-wide racing, which we didn't have back in 2006 when I was running, you just couldn't do it. So no, I'm always learning, I'm always taking sense of the surroundings around me. But I knew in the first four laps that I didn't want to be leading that race, and so when J.R. and Sebastian were passing me, I was lifting off from the start-finish line and just getting back in line and trying to hold position. I knew from last year that being in third was a lot more difficult than second because following two cars is monumentally harder than following one with the loss of downforce on the front wing. So it was a fight for second for me. I know J.R. found himself in the lead and with six laps to go, what can you do, you're not going to give the lead with six laps to go because what if the yellow, just like he was in the lead when it went yellow? And so a lot of things can happen. J.R. was doing everything he could to hold on to it because that was the hand he was dealt at the time. He drove a decent race, but I think he had that little too much understeer those last few laps and that's contributed to him not winning.

SULLIVAN: Any other questions for Wade?

Q: Yeah, you just said that the track is wider. I've heard a lot of guys say you can't run side by side through the corners, and I'm standing up watching this race; yes, you can. Do you think the IndyCars can do the same thing?

CUNNINGHAM: No, we're over-downforced for this race as part of the regulations. It provides exciting racing, and I think, too, we don't have enough ratios like the IndyCars, they can gear to about 25 RPM difference, and we can only do it to 100 each way. So we just don't have the options to run the ideal gearing, and that's I think what makes it exciting because the car that's in the front isn't running the best gear for the condition. He's pushing a two gear, and it's slowing him down. So exciting racing, that's what we're getting here. And I don't know what it looked like on TV, but I know how it felt like in the car, and I'm glad it's over.

Q: When you walk out of here, first person to win this race twice, is there any part of you that will say: What more can I do?

CUNNINGHAM: No, I try to have a positive attitude. I'm inherently a positive person. I try to be optimistic all the time. I'm racing in the series because I think if I do a good enough job for long enough and I prove myself against four years of new drivers coming through, that when the time comes and they do need a replacement driver, for whatever reason, sickness, injury, my name is going to be the first one to think of. That's what I'm working toward. But so, no, I don't have bad feelings because I'm still here. I look at Jeff Simmons, who he drove the old Indy Lights with CART back in 2000, and he finally got his chance. So I look to that. He drove eight years, I think, or over a period of eight years in Indy Lights and occasionally did the ‘500.’ So I see what he did and he finally did get his chance with Rahal Letterman, that's what I am looking for.

SULLIVAN: Other questions for Wade? Wade, congratulations.

CUNNINGHAM: Thank you very much.