IndyCar - Katherine Legge Conference Call

Indianapolis, Aug. 8, 2012: Earlier today, IZOD IndyCar Series driver Katherine Legge participated in an INDYCAR conference call to discuss her return to the IZOD IndyCar Series at Sonoma. Legge, driver of the No. 6 TrueCar Dragon Racing Chevrolet, has made eight starts in her rookie season in the IZOD IndyCar Series with a best finish of 15th at Texas and Iowa. She will be making her first start at Sonoma later this month and joins Simona de Silvestro as female drivers entered in the race.

Q. Katherine, how excited are you to get back in the car for the test at Sonoma next week?

KATHERINE LEGGE: Very excited. It was really disappointing when Sebastien (Bourdais) and myself couldn't do all of the races each, if you like, like it was planned to run two cars for the full season. Yeah, I'm just really, really looking forward to getting back in the car.

It's been difficult. We're so grateful to Chevrolet because without them we'd be in a really bad place right now. They've been the knights in shining armor, if you want. They came to our rescue.

We're building, improving, and hopefully we can do the same at Sonoma and look forward to next year almost now. That's what we're working on already.

Q. You mentioned you and Sebastien each had full-time efforts and then the team had to reduce to one car after Indy. You haven't been in a car for a road and street course since Brazil. How do you prepare yourself to get back in the road and street circuit mentality?

KATHERINE LEGGE: Yeah, that's a really, really good question because it's tough. I think Sao Paulo was my last race on a road or street course. Luckily we have the test there next week.

But I've just been training physically to get ready for it. I've been driving on the simulator. I've been watching YouTube videos. I asked the team to send me some data. I mean, I'm doing everything outside of the car that I can possibly do. There's no substitute for actually driving the car.

Q. We have seen you at numerous races supporting your fellow TrueCar Racing team members and Dragon Racing, of course. What does a driver do to fill time when you know you're not going to be driving but you want to be at the circuit?

KATHERINE LEGGE: Yeah, it's tough being at the track and not driving because obviously as a racer you just want to be out there, you want to be driving, you want to be competing. But they've kept me busy. They have me doing a lot of other things.

I've been trying to learn as much as I can outside the car for next year because Mid-Ohio, Edmonton, Toronto, they're all places that I think we're going back to, although I'm not entirely sure, so if I can learn anything now for next year, that's good.

Also we have to put on a united front because it's been a very difficult year for everybody in Dragon Racing. As I said, we also want to show how thankful we are to Chevrolet for picking up the pieces for us and helping us out so much because without them I wouldn't be talking to you right now, I'd be in a very different place.

Q. Can you walk us through how the Chevy engine showed up? Was it like they called you up and said, We have an engine? Was it a long-term project?

KATHERINE LEGGE: You know, I don't know all the ins-and-outs of what happened. Obviously that isn't part of my job description - fortunately for me. But I know that we were very much pursuing Chevrolet because going into Indy we were desperate to have a Chevy, and they were very gracious and let us both run Indy. I mean, with all the stress and strain that they're under as well, being the first year, having so many cars, everything else, they did us a huge favor. You can't underestimate the power of that.

Obviously, with Sonoma being such a big one for both myself and Sebastian sponsorship-wise, it's my home race with TrueCar. All the other girls are going to be there. Virgin has come onboard. We have lots of fun media stuff we're doing. On Sebastien's side there's the McAfee thing. And they're based there, as well. For us it's like the biggest race of the year.

I think, again, Chevy are just doing us a huge favor in stretching their own resources to help us out, which is just a testament to what kind of company they are really.