NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 17, 2013
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CARES CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed, how she approaches the Sprint Showdown, the potential of winning the Sprint Fan Vote and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
DOES IT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE TO YOU WHETHER YOU RACE YOUR WAY IN OR GET THE ALL-STAR VOTE?
“What do you mean? For what reason? You asked what’s the difference between making it in versus racing in? What does it mean? Well, making it in is making it in. That’s great. But personally, of course I would love to race my way in. But the best that can happen is racing in the race. That’s going to help the most for next weekend. So, anyway, I would love to race my way in.”
 
INAUDIBLE QUESTION REGARDING PIT STOP:
“We don’t do that. Only the ones in the race do that. I think maybe one of the most unique things is going to be watching qualifying for the guys that are already in the race. No speed limit on pit lane is going to be kind of cool to watch. I know they used to do it in the old days, but it’s going to be exciting.”
 
THIS IS A SHORTER RACE WITH SHORTER LAPS. IT’S NOT AN ENDURANCE RACE. HOW MUCH FUN IS IT GOING TO BE TO GET OUT THERE AND LET IS ALL HANG OUT?
“I think we see with a lot of our races that when it comes down to the end, things get exciting because it’s all on the line. NASCAR obviously recognizes that it gets good when you put us in a short timeframe. It doesn’t completely change the preparation of the car because essentially you’re still running the whole tire life of them. Or at least for our race, for the race to qualify, it’s 40 laps. You can make a pit stop if you want, but track position is very important. So, 40 laps is still a pretty long run on tires so set-up is not necessarily going to change but every lap is going to be pushing really hard.”
 
DO YOU PREFER THAT PUSHING HARD RIGHT OFF THE TOP OR THAT STYLE ANYWAY?
“Sure. Get it in; get it done; whatever is more entertaining for the fans.”
 
WILL YOU BE WATCHING THE INDY 500 NEXT WEEK FROM HERE?  DO YOU FIND IT FASCINATING?
“Do we watch it? Oh, yeah; we watch it. I will watch next week. I think we are all curious. We’re all in racing and we all watch racing. I think that’s a common thread and it always will be there; and especially with the Indy 500 being such a cool and old historic race. We’ll all be paying attention. Obviously we’ve got qualifying this weekend for IndyCar and next week will be the race. Last year they put on a great show.”
 
HOW WAS THE DOVER TEST?
“The Dover test was pretty good. We had 11 or so cars there. So I know that Stewart-Haas was really good there last year with not a lot of rubber down and then coming back for the race and being really bad and not feeling like they had made a lot of progress with the car and being way out of balance. So, I think that will help pay off. Any kind of testing we can do on tracks we’re going to race on is absolutely going to help for that one, but we’re going to tracks and we’re using the right tires when we’re doing it. So, it was a good test and we made a lot of progress and we learned a lot.”
 
WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE IN THE BIG RACE SATURDAY NIGHT, DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE SOME SCORES SETTLED?
“I think that in a 20-lap segment you push as hard as you can no matter who you are around. I don’t know if there are scores to be settled. I don’t know.”
 
TALKED ABOUT WHAT YOU LEARNED AT DOVER? ARE YOU GOING BACK TO DOVER SO YOU CAN RUN BETTER?  ARE THERE THINGS THAT YOU’VE LEARNED THAT MAYBE WILL HELP?
“It’s going to help, no doubt. I feel like it will help. At least it will get me comfortable with finding a limit with the car. We’ve been loose in every part of the corner at some point and we’ve been kind of tight in every part of the corner at some point in the days we were testing. So, let’s hope that the rubber put down will translate to the same balance when we get back to the race.”
 
HOW WAS PRACTICE?
“Practice was okay. I feel like I didn’t do a great job of getting a lot of time out of the car on the first run, but we were relatively consistent and I felt like to me, that was making progress because the tires and the heat of the track and sliding around out there, it doesn’t get any easier as the tire life wears on. So, my runs were fairly long. I feel like we made progress. I don’t think we were the fastest car by any means but hopefully we’ve got ourselves a car that will be consistent enough to put those 40 laps together.”
 
WHILE CLARIFYING THE RULES THIS WEEK, YOUR NAME CAME UP A LOT WITH THE MEDIA. IS THAT FAIR TO YOU?
“I don’t know in what light they were talking about.”
 
SOME PEOPLE CALL IT THE DANICA RULE
“What rule?”
 
ON HAVING OR NOT HAVING TO BE ON THE LEAD LAP AT THE END OF THE SHOWDOWN
‘From my understanding, that was a mistake on NASCAR’s part earlier in the week. So, outside of that I have absolutely no idea what the rules are from the past or what they’re going to be or what they have been. It’s all-new to me. I had no idea that qualifying was like a three-lap pit stop thing. So, it’s all new to me.”
 
(GREG) ZIPADELLI (ZIPPY) SAID THAT YOU GUYS WERE MAKING PROGRESS AT STEWART-HAAS RACING BUT THAT EVERYONE NEEDED TO BE PULLING IN THE SAME DIRECTION TO GET BETTER.  HAVE YOU NOTICED ANYTHING IN THE TEAM MEETINGS AS YOU GUYS ARE KIND OF WORKING ON THAT?
“Well, I feel like we all have the same feeling about the car and we all have a similar opinion of what the car is doing and more importantly what it’s not doing.  And when that happens, it’s time to go to work to figure out how to get that out of the car.  And I feel like once we do we are going to be better for the struggles that we have had.  But we do need to figure those out and I think we are all in agreement that we need to make a lot of progress and I feel like sometimes that is half the battle.”
 
YOU RAN THE 600 HERE LAST YEAR AND YOU HAD TESTING IN JANUARY.  DO YOU FEEL ANY MORE COMFORTABLE HERE THAN OTHER PLACES YOU HAVE BEEN THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, and I always go back to it.  It’s really dependent on the car.  I mean essentially I had better results in my Cup races last year than I have had this year other than Martinsville and Daytona.  So we have had a couple of really good highs but the rest of them have been not so good at all.  So I don’t think I unlearned things from last year, it’s just a matter of getting the car to a place where it does what we all want it to do as drivers on the team.  So I feel comfortable, yes.   There is a lot of stuff that I don’t worry so much about and I can just get in the car and go.  But things I am more familiar with are looking at a tire sheet, or understanding what happens to a car in the corner and being able to translate to Tony Gibson.  But it really all comes to being comfortable with the car that you have underneath you to be able to go do the job you need to do.”
 
DO YOU FIND THAT COMFORT WHEN YOU ARE RACING AT NIGHT AND PRACTICE DURING THE DAY AND THE TRACK CHANGES DRAMATICALLY.  DOES THAT REALLY HELP YOU IN FEELING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THIS TRACK?
“I feel like there is so much experience on the crew chief’s part about the transition from day to night that they have an offset that they know already.  So what we learn today will help us later as long as we get that right offset from daytime to nighttime. Which is something pretty well known by the crew chiefs.”
 
IS TONY (GIBSON, CREW CHIEF) MORE ADJUSTING AT THIS TRACK TO WHAT YOU WANT?
“The track changes when its sunlight versus shade and versus dark.  So as long as they know it gets tighter or looser and
the offset for that, and then all the changes are still applicable.”
 
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO RACE YOUR WAY IN THE ALL STAR RACE, HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU WILL WIN THE FAN VOTE?
“I don’t know. I feel like I am very lucky to have so many great fans and all my partners and everybody involved are doing a good job of promoting to the fan vote.  Hopefully that is there, but again, I would rather just focus on racing my way in and if I needed the fan vote then I will cross my fingers.”
 

MEMBERS OF TEAM PENSKE met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Full transcript:
 
97th INDIANAPOLIS 500 PRESS CONFERENCE
Team Penske
Friday, May 17, 2013
 
            MODERATOR: OK. Good morning, everyone. I’m Bob Jenkins, and it’s my pleasure to host this news conference, which I have done in the past but haven’t in the last few years. But glad I can do it again.
            We have the members of Team Penske up here. From on the far end of the line is, of course, the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves. Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance. Will Power. AJ Allmendinger. And the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Rick Mears.
            Tim, I know you have something to say regarding Roger (Penske), who is unable to be here with us today.
 
            TIM CINDRIC: I just wanted to on behalf of Roger send his regards. He’s a bit conflicted this week for sure, as he had promised Mille Miglia. At the Mille Miglia in Italy this week. When he made that promise, he wasn’t quite sure how it all conflicted with pole weekend. So anyway, it’s in the midst of it next they’ll or four days competing in the Mille Miglia with Mario Illien. So he started that process last night, actually ran in to a bit of a mudslide, so he called me actually at 10 o’clock here. So he’d just gotten to the hotel for the first round of that. So he’s having fun. It’s good to see the boss do something a little different than work. But he certainly misses being here at this place, but obviously he’ll be here next weekend.
 
            MODERATOR: Start with the junior member of the team, AJ Allmendinger. Dinger, is –
 
            CINDRIC: Dinger, that’s a good name for you.
 
            A.J. ALLMENDINGER: Thanks, Bob.
 
            MODERATOR: Glad to do it. So was this on your bucket list, seriously?
 
            ALLMENDINGER: Yeah, I mean, back when I was in Champ Car and growing up through open-wheel racing, this was the pinnacle. I always wanted to be here and, you know, as the split happened and Champ Car wasn’t here, and I never got the opportunity to run here, I mean it was always disappointing. The Memorial Day weekend, it was always difficult sitting at home watching it and not having a chance to run it, especially being a Indy-car driver at that point, and obviously over the last seven years being in NASCAR, just to watch it on TV was kind of always a thing Sunday morning before the Cup race, I’d sit there and watch Indy 500 and just always wanted to be here. Always did, and, you know, happy to have the opportunity to be here with Team Penske and for Roger to give me the opportunity to kind of live out a dream and to be here with no better team than Team Penske. It’s kind of a dream come true. And having to deal with Will and Helio a little bit for two weeks straight gets a little much. Today Helio was singing Taylor Swift to me. It was rough. It was hard. (Laughter). But other than that, it’s been a lot of fun so far.
 
            MODERATOR: Is there anything similar from the ChampCar that you drove to these things nowadays?
 
            ALLMENDINGER: No. Not that I remember. The problem was, since I’ve got back into this race car, I’m just trying to remember, was it this hard to drive a Champ Car? You know, seven years of a Sprint Cup car, it’s — everything that I’ve learned back in my open-wheel racing that I’ve gotten used to, you know, it took a couple years switching to stock cars to really feel comfortable in the car. And it’s kind of — the roles have gotten reversed since I’ve come back here. Try to get used it to again and understand what this car likes and how hard you’ve got to drive it to be fast, especially on the road and street courses.
            It’s been a tough challenge. I really enjoy it, though, and I feel like the first two races I’ve had decent speed in the race car, decent race pace. Haven’t had the finishes to show it, but Will and Helio have helped me out a lot since I have come back to really just bring me into the race team and, you know, make me feel like actually a member of the race team, not just a part-time, third-time car. You know, it makes me feel like part of the team, and hopefully there’s little things that I’ve brought to the team that hopefully help them, my energy level, my excitement. My charm and good looks. (Laughter).
 
            MODERATOR: There you go. Of course, Kurt Busch was here and did the rookie orientation, a lot of speculation as to whether he might do the double. Is the double something that you might want to do some day and think you can?
 
            ALLMENDINGER: I think I could, but it’s got to be the right situation. This year wasn’t the right situation to try it. I think it’s something that — it’s — there’s so many things that have to line up perfectly to be able to make it happen, and do it the right way, not just to say do it. And that’s the big thing.
            You know, one day, you know, one year maybe, maybe the right opportunity is going to show up and everything falls into place at the right time and that’s the right year to do it, but I hope we’re all celebrating after Indy. I wouldn’t be worried about the 600.
 
            MODERATOR: Now, Rick, you are in a great position of being experienced, needless to say, on this racetrack. What do you teach these guys? Or can you teach them anything?
 
            MEARS: Can’t teach these guys anything. Obviously all three of these guys know what to do, they know how to get around these joints and how to drive race cars. I think with A.J., obviously, it’s more of a matter of laps. Like he said, getting comfortable, getting back in the swing of things, getting comfortable with the team, working with the guys. With these cars working on the timing on the racetrack as far as traffic goes, that kind of thing. That’s just laps. That’s all it is. He obviously knows how to drive a race car; all three of them get around this joint pretty well.
            So I just kind of stand back and watch if anything pops up that I might be able to help with I try to help. That’s the main thing.
 
            MODERATOR: Now, if Helio is leading on Race Day, and he’s got a full lap on the field, and you’re seeing him as a member of the four-time winner club, will you throw a bottle on the track or anything to keep him from joining your club?
 
            MEARS: I haven’t decided yet. (Laughter).
 
            MODERATOR: Helio, what do you have to say about that?
 
            HELIO CASTRONEVES: I say that Rick, he didn’t win four, he actually won six and a half. (Laughter) Because he’s — he’s been there since my first one. And certainly without him and the Team Penske I would not be able to do what I did
. So hopefully, at the end of the race I will get another one, and it will be a dream come true.
 
            MEARS: I’d go for that.
 
            CASTRONEVES: OK. Good. I dream every night, obviously. But we’re working very hard to make that happen. We have three fast cars, very competitive fuel. The course today is a different day, we’ll focus on qualifyings, increasing the boost level. So speed’s going to increase, and it’s going to be interesting.
 
            MODERATOR: Do you still get the chills when you get out there for the first time?
 
            CASTRONEVES: When I walk into this place, I get the chills. It’s just amazing. We went to the museum the first night and to see all the history of this place, it’s incredible. It’s never the same. Always there is something different. And obviously in the situation that we are right now, we’re certainly feeling very confident, but we know what we need to did, as well, there. So now we’re looking strong.
 
            MODERATOR: By the same token, is it different the night before the race here? Do you have a little more trouble sleeping or relaxing?
 
            CASTRONEVES: Certainly you don’t rest as well as you wish. Because first you got to beat the traffic, which is always a good thing. And second, you know, you’re thinking about a lot of things. We’re talking about 500 miles; there’s a lot of circumstances that could play in your favor and could go against you, as well. And I have to say every time in any race but especially this one, when you start playing the national anthem, and the Indianapolis song, everything. It’s just kind of like “(Back Home Again in) Indiana,” thank you. (Laughter) So I knew it was something like that. I didn’t know how to say it. (Laughter).
            So basically that’s when the butterfly goes in your stomach. And it is awesome. Especially when you have the crowd there, oh, my God, guys, it’s the best feeling in the world.
 
            MODERATOR: All right, Will. I think the very first time I talked to you was on pit lane after you qualified, and one of the questions I asked you was, where in the world is Toowoomba? And you might refresh our minds as to where that is and how big it is.
 
            WILL POWER: Toowoomba is west of Brisbane, about an hour-and-a-half drive. It’s in the state of Queensland in Australia. It’s an awesome town. It’s got probably over a hundred thousand people.
 
            MODERATOR: Really?
 
            POWER: It’s not as small as you think. People come to Toowoomba. He doesn’t know how to pronounce the name. He calls it Chambawamba. (Laughter).
 
            MODERATOR: Do the residents really get behind you this time of year?
 
            POWER: Yeah, I think so. I don’t go back there very often, but I do there’s a big “Will Power” –
 
            MODERATOR: So how’s the month gone for you so far?
 
            POWER: It’s been interesting. You know, I think just trying to work out a good race car. Obviously qualifying such a different — different thing because you have a different boost levels, so probably going 6 or 7 miles an hour quicker.
 
            ALLMENDINGER: Really? That fast? You didn’t tell me that, Rick.
 
            MEARS: Surprise.
 
            POWER: So you probably won’t being as good as you were. (Laughter) But yeah, I mean, we’re just trying to get good car in traffic. I can tell it’s a very competitive field this year. You can’t really see anyone that’s sticking out as being the quickest. So it’s going to be interesting, I guess, come qualifying day to see when everyone’s on the track by themselves see where they stack up. But we’re still working away and, you know, just hope to have a good solid race car and see if we can qualify up front somewhere. Pole would be nice.
 
            MODERATOR: Tim, elaborate if you will on this boost increase and how you deal with it in terms of setup and so forth.
 
            CINDRIC: It is a bit challenging. I think it’s difficult sometimes for the fans to understand as well because there’s an anticipation typically of the speeds building through the month, and then on Friday you have this large buildup in terms of the speeds. And the teams, it’s difficult for us to actually work on qualifying setups throughout the week until today. Today we have a weather situation where you might have rain from 3 o’clock on. It kind of amplifies the day. But today’s the day when the pressure really starts to mount in terms of for the drivers and really trying to understand how to get ready in a very short period of time. And understanding how the speeds will then affect the balance of the car. It’s a lot to ask of these guys to have that increase in speed, this 5- to 7-mile an hour difference, where they’ll get — you know, if it rains today two or three hours of that today and then right into qualifying tomorrow morning.
            So it’s very challenging and, you know, I think that it’s good in terms of the overall impact to the sport to continue to go faster on qualifying day. It’s just difficult to do that in a very short period of time like we have. But I’m certainly an advocate of trying to set new track records here, so I think we need to continue to work towards the right balance of safety and speed.
 
            MODERATOR: So 230 is likely, you think?
 
            CINDRIC: I think you’ll see 230 in terms of the times in practice and tomorrow morning. In qualifying, I think it really depends on the engine manufacturers, and I think that’s yet to be seen. But I guess last year I think it was a low 227. So I think 230 might be a stretch. So I don’t want to put that expectation out there, but I think we’ll see those laps with some draft.
 
            MODERATOR: OK. Let’s open it up to questions.
 
Q: I’m going to take a shot at each one of you, a question I asked the Ganassi guys already. Each of the drivers — well, in fact both of you, both Rick and Tim can weigh in, too. What is it about your love of the Indianapolis 500 that keeps bringing you back? What makes it special to you personally?
 
            ALLMENDINGER: For me, I mean it’s the prestige of the race. You know, it’s one of those races, and it may be the biggest race in the world when it comes to, you know, if you’re not even a race fan, you don’t really know anything about racing, but you say you won the Indianapolis 500, they know that’s pretty special. And for me, that’s something that the first time I signed with Penske last year, you know, you walk into the main o
ffice and the Borg-Warner Trophy is there with the helmets of everybody that’s won the race. You know, for me, it’s like as soon as I walk in, being a NASCAR driver, at that point that’s special right there. You see what that means. And to me, just to — it would be special to have my face on that trophy, have that trophy in your trophy case. And, you know, once you become an Indy 500 winner, that will never be taken away. You’re part of a special club. And that to me is what makes this race so amazing is the fact that, it doesn’t matter who you say it to, if you say you’re an Indianapolis 500 champion, that’s pretty special.
 
            MEARS: Pretty much the same thing. For myself it was, you know, we had heard about Indy, listened to it on the radio early on. Then finally when they came out with a little bit of the live coverage growing up. But for me it was way out of my league. There was no way. I never dreamed of coming here because it was way out of my league. You know, we were just racing around home for fun as a hobby and recreation, and I never realized — even thought about coming here until about six months before I actually got into an Indy car.
            I didn’t dream about because I didn’t think it would ever happen. There was no question. So to be able to accomplish that and hook up with Team Penske and the right organization and have the tools to be able to accomplish what we have here is just incredible.
 
            MODERATOR: Will, Tim, Helio.
 
            POWER: Much the same as Rick and A.J. said. You know, it’s just — I didn’t realize how big the event was until I’d actually been through the process of the month. And it’s just — couldn’t believe the media coverage, and Race Day is the biggest eye-opener when you walk out into pit lane and just the amount of people. It’s phenomenal.
            And apart from all that, it’s a challenge of getting it right because, you know, it’s such a hard place to get right in the car. And when things aren’t working, you don’t even want to be out there. It’s just so hard. But when they do work, you have a good car and you’re passing people, you know, it’s the best feeling in the world. So it’s a very unique place, nothing like it in the world.
 
            CINDRIC: For me it’s pretty simple. I grew up watching all the history being made. And to be part of and have the opportunity to work with these guys and Roger, it kind of all puts it full circle and perspective for me to understand how difficult it is. I watched my father try and win this race with an engine for 30 years and he never got that done. And to have the chance to be part of five of those is a big deal.
            And, you know, Rick, I tell the story all the time about the time when I was kid he went back and got me a hat. And I never forgot that. So, you know, to work with him and these guys, it’s a big deal for me.
 
            CASTRONEVES: Well, several things. History, challenging of going for 500 miles in this place, when you’re able to accomplish that, it’s just an amazing accomplishment. And drinking the milk. It’s all about, do you want to be there. I guarantee everybody’s thinking I want to drink that milk. Those are the things.
 
Q: Helio, if you want to comment, has there been a change, sort of a transition in mentorship between you having Rick your rookie year and then now seeing somebody like AJ coming in, have you kind of taken over that role of kind of being his mentor and teacher here? I know he’s not a rookie to the Speedway itself but to these Indy cars?
 
            CASTRONEVES: It’s amazing. Helping Jr. here, it’s not — it’s been quite challenge, you know (Laughter). Certainly Rick would be my mentor. I don’t know if I’m Jr.’s mentor, but I’m certainly trying to keep him in line, but he doesn’t need much to be honest, of — you know, it’s easy to say because he’s out there, seems to know exactly what he wants, and it’s good. It’s good to have another guy on our team again to — like he said, his energy, and we just got to keep controlling him a little bit better unless he goes all out of control. So, it’s cool. It’s very nice. I feel awesome.
 
Q: This is for Rick and all the current drivers. I know weather is a key factor, but every time you take a lap on this oval, what are one or two things that you always have to remind yourself and be aware of?
 
            MEARS: Well, you say weather. One of the key things for me around here was always the weather. Just worry about the weather coming in and setting your strategy when you need to get what done. But as far as the track, we were talking the other day, every time you roll out of pit lane here, like during practice today, the last thing I did as I rolled off was look at the flag, see which way the wind was blowing, what it was doing. Because you always have to figure that into the equation of the change you made on the car. How much of it was the change, how much of it was the wind. So weather as far as all four corners is always changing on you with the wind direction. Temperature changing, they’re very critical and sensitive to that. So weather is a key factor at this place.
 
            ALLMENDINGER: I think for me it’s just every day is like starting over, just kind of a reset. And talking to all these guys about coming here. And I guess in a way you never want to get too comfortable. You want to — for me it’s just going out there and I kind of just reset my mind, and those first laps are always a little — kind of got the nerves built back up just because, you know, I watched this race for many years, and talking to everybody, it’s about, you know, you got to respect this place every lap. Because I think as soon as you let your guard down a little bit, like “OK, I got this place,” that second will bite you.
            And as Rick talked about the wind, I’m starting to become familiar now as an Indy driver because you wake up, and a couple days ago opened my hotel room window and the trees are blowing, I’m like, “Oh, crap.” So it’s something that you just got to — for me just got to — I’ve got to start over every day, just a little bit, just kind of work back up to it.
 
            POWER: The wind is so bad around this place, especially this car, more than the previous car because it’s a little bigger. And, you know, the wake that’s left of the car in front is a massive deal. I mean you totally change the balance, so it’s really hard to get the car working around that. But that’s something you’ve got to always be aware of when you go out.
 
            CASTRONEVES: Yes. Same. Weather is always — plays a big factor in this place.
            And like junior said, you got to reset every time you come out there.
 
Q: Question for Tim and for A.J. Tim, I would like to ask this question to Roger but maybe Tim can answer. For the next years in IndyCar will stay with the Dallara chassis. Nevertheless, nothing is impossible in motor racing. Given the circumstance of coming to the right place at the right time, do you think Team Penske will ever build its own chassis like they did in the past? And question for A.J. and (inaudible) which way you want to be
both together.
 
            CINDRIC: I think the answer to your question really is obviously to determine on which way the direction of the series goes in terms of what is allowed. At this point in time it’s not an opportunity, it’s not something that’s really in our short-term future. I don’t think it’s in the short-term future of INDYCAR at the moment because of the agreements that they have.
            But we do feel like this place was really based on innovation. And there’s a balance between having 33 participants at this race. And if you were to open up a complete innovative scenario like what it used to be, I think you’d really struggle to fill the field. So there’s a certain balance where that can be. But I think it’s somewhere beyond where we are now. But to the extent of Penske building an Indy car, I think that’s probably a ways away.
 
            ALLMENDINGER: Yeah, I mean I think for me it’s — you know, I just — it’s the same as this year, I just kind of look at whatever the best opportunity is for me. I don’t have in mind one series over the other of what I’d like to be in. And for me to be a part of this organization, to be with Team Penske and be one of Roger’s drivers, it’s very special. And I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, honestly, to have a second opportunity at it.
            And it’s — it’s as I told Roger, if he wants me here, I’m not going to think about it. I’m going to be here, no matter what it is. And he’s taken care of me and I feel very special to be a part of his family, and to be here to be just called one of his drivers, whether it was a NASCAR driver or IndyCar driver, sports car driver, whatever it is, to be part of Roger’s organization, for me it’s the best thing in the world. So if that opportunity’s there, I’m going to be here.
 
Q: Helio, can you take us through your first three wins a little bit? I know each of them are different, but this is kind of looking forward to maybe getting number four. Is there anything you can take from those first three as you look back and say, “OK, I need to do X, Y and Z in order to get number four?”
 
            CASTRONEVES: Well, I look at those, and certainly those are the ones that may have happened, but I look more at the ones that didn’t happen, why? Because the recipe was there. You know, we know we can do it. And I look more at the place — at the races that we didn’t do it. You know, 2003 I have a very fast car, and unfortunately we got caught in one of those scenarios where we finished 3/10ths behind my teammate. 2005, I think we finished third. It was ‘5 or ‘6, when rain came out unexpected, and people took a gamble and just went with what we could tell. I mean I look at those more than actually why. Especially last year, for example, why we didn’t have a better performance than we did. So it was — the rest of it, the other ones that we won, for me the first one was just knowing a little bit and understanding and listening a lot of what we had to say. The second one was an opportunity to put ourselves in and be able to took a chance and gamble. And the third one, it was — the car was extremely well. And we took advantage to make a move at the right point and keep going.
            So it’s all about putting ourselves in that situation, and the key to this place is when. That’s the toughest part to find.
 
Q:  When or wind?
 
            CASTRONEVES: When to make it happen.
 
            MODERATOR: We’ve got time for two more questions.
 
Q: Helio, you touched on it a little bit, but talk a little bit more about what it means to have three wins here and have a fourth. And do you feel fortunate? Is it — how do you sort of explain being able to do this given the frustrations that so many race drivers have had here?
 
            CASTRONEVES: I feel blessed to be in this opportunity, to be in this elite group, I feel blessed. Certainly there was, as you said, there’s a lot of guys, lot of races, and being in very good position, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. But again, this place is more about there was so many things that can go wrong, and so few things that can go right. So that’s why this team’s won fifteen times because they found a way to look for those moments that it makes right.
            But for me, certainly I’m happy. But I still have a great chance to keep going. And until this team and myself have the fire inside to go and try everything we could, we’re going to keep trying.
 
Q: For decades, when you’re trying to deal with — whether it was Paul Page or Bob Jenkins or Marty Reid, when you try to tell the millions watching on television, you know, what you’re thinking, that we don’t know, if you’re coming off Turn 4 and you’re about to win, Will or AJ, your first Indy 500, Helio, your fourth, TK says if it happens for him we all know he’ll be thinking about his dad, the promise he made to his dad. But for you three, coming off of Turn 4 about to win your fourth and joining a very elite crew, or you guys about to win your first, where do your thoughts go? Who do you think about? Who’s the first person in your mind that you think about that’s so special that makes this day?
 
            CASTRONEVES: Get off Turn 4. Complete Turn 4. (Laughter) We seen before that did not happen, unfortunately. But you got to be focused. It’s a tough question. For me, you know, I only look at the checkered flag. I want to make sure I see that checkered flag first and then just thank God. For me it’s just, “Thank you, God; you first put me in this position and to do what I love to do.”
 
            ALLMENDINGER: I think for me — and I’ve gotten asked the question already, what — what’s that — do I look ahead to that moment, and it’s too far away. Way too far away. This is kind of a step-by-step process day by day, and for me right now lap by lap. And, you know, I don’t allow myself to think, you know, what’s it going to be like when I come off the corner to win the race. It’s there’s so many things that got to happen in this race to have an opportunity — even have an opportunity to win the race let alone actually have it happen. And, you know, it’s just — I don’t want to let — I don’t even want to allow myself to think like that, you know, what happens. You know, I want that moment if it does happen to just be in the moment. You know, and I don’t know what it’s going to be like. I don’t know if I’m going to be — there’ll be so many emotions that run through, but I won’t allow myself to look ahead. You know, that’s something that, as it happens, it happens. We got a way too long of a time before we get to that point.
 
            POWER: Yeah, I mean, it’s — I couldn’t imagine. I just couldn’t imagine the feeling of winning this race. It’d just be — you know, it’s a life-changer. So, yeah, like AJ I haven’t really — just haven’t thought about it. I mean it’s such a process to have that happen. So many things have got to go your way. I mean things — it’s just got to be your day. It’s such a funny race that you could never predict who’s going to win. You know, you just kind of — if someone moves quick all month, you know, you just can’t tell. So, that’s what makes it pretty cool, makes it great for the fans. If you happen to accomplish winning the Indy 500, I m
ean it’s the biggest race you’ll ever win because it is the biggest race in the world, AJ.
 
            ALLMENDINGER: You will get that billboard in Toowoomba?
 
            POWER: I might get that. I probably could get the billboard. Maybe even Australian of the Year (Laughter).
 
            ALLMENDINGER: Adam Scott won the Masters; you ain’t getting that.
 
            MODERATOR: Thanks to Helio, Tim, Will, AJ and Rick. Best of luck with the rest of the month, and there will be an opportunity for one-on-ones.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 17, 2013
 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed last year’s All-Star Race win, his thoughts on the format for this year’s All-Star race and other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
THIS IS THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR FIRST SPRINT ALL-STAR WIN AND IF YOU WERE TO GET A FOURTH ALL-STAR WIN YOU WOULD HAVE SOLE POSITION OF THE ALL-TIME WIN RECORD.  TALK ABOUT HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND TRYING TO GRAB THAT FOURTH ON SATURDAY:
“I’m pumped.  I’m happy to be home. Happy to have the support from Sprint they have done such an amazing job of supporting our racing series.  To have this weekend and all that goes on with our All-Star event it’s just really cool.  I’m thankful for what they do for myself and all of us in this room and all of us in the sport.  It’s going to be a cool night.  They put an extra million bucks up.  We will see if somebody can ring that bell.  The format has changed.  We will see how that plays out.  Clearly you want to start as close as you can to the front in that final segment and have a shot at winning.  We will all be trying real hard through each and every segment to get that done.  If I am the lucky one to win and fortunate one to win, I will be very happy to beat two guys that I have idolized by whole career, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. on wins in this particular event.  We will see what happens.”
 
HOW DOES THE WAY THEY HAVE CHANGED THE RULES CHANGE HOW YOU APPROACH THE RACE? DO YOU THINK IT’S REALISTIC THAT ONE GUY CAN LEAD ALL FIVE SEGMENTS?
“Yeah, I think there is a good chance.  It’s not going to be easy.  Last year’s format whoever won that first segment had a free pass for the rest of the night.  If they didn’t turn it into a test session they would have been foolish to not handle things the way we did.  We played the game right and it paid off.  We left with a million dollar check and a cool trophy.  That is our job as teams and drivers is to figure out how to beat the system.  I remember one year, Jeff Burton was going to take the checkered on pit road after he finished a pit stop.  It’s fun to have those opportunities to think like that and to find an advantage that others don’t.  Some maybe upset with the way we won last year, I take great pride in it.  We worked the system and did a good job.  That’s not going to work this year you’ve got to run hard.  I think there is a chance. I think that it’s a long shot.  With the competition that exists in the All-Star Race it’s going to be a long shot, but it’s worth it and it will bring some excitement.  If somebody does ring that bell it will be a hell of a party.”
 
DO YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT THE FORMAT FOR THE ALL-STAR RACE OR THINK ABOUT OR HAVE EMOTION ABOUT THE FORMAT? TALKING ABOUT THE GUYS JUMPING OVER PIT ROAD AND HOW YOU MAY STOP DIFFERENTLY I WOULD LIKE TO ASK ABOUT THAT AS WELL:
“The format I think every team looks at it and says ‘alright the million bucks is after that final segment. I need to start as close as I can to the front.  How do I do that?’ Depending on the year there are different formats from inversions. When there is an inversion and it’s a fan vote you know they are going to want to see a big inversion so there is always a group of guys fighting for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth on the race track. They do away with the inversion or it’s a random and then you’ve got to take a guess at it.  But you are assuming the winner of that final segment or whatever it is, is going to get the pole position.  The last year was far different and we played that game perfectly.  This year’s game is go fast.  You have to go fast to have a shot to win this thing.  Ideally starting on that front row is key.  So, that is going to be the game we play and everybody is going to work real hard to maintain track position and try to win segments.
 
“Pit road and no qualifying speed, I remember watching it and it was exciting just watching it.  Now I’m going to be a part of it and man I hope we get a chance to really practice it.  Getting off of the banking at that speed and I assume accelerating again to get down pit road and how slick pit road is, it’s going to be exciting (laughs).  I remember watching on television and (Jeff) Gordon came off and slide right to the edge of the grass and was on the throttle. Then tried to slow it down and all of his crew guys, I think (Chad) Knaus might have been on the team too.  Standing there on the pit wall waiting for the car to come to a stop and it just blew right on by, four or five stalls past.  I would assume we will see a little bit of that tonight with guys getting real aggressive and trying to get to their pit box.”
 
IS 15 MINUTES ENOUGH TO PRACTICE GETTING ON AND OFF OF PIT ROAD, LIFT POINTS, BRAKE POINTS, ALL THAT SORT OF THING OR WOULD YOU LIKE A LITTLE BIT MORE TIME TO WORK ON THAT?
“I would like some more time.  The biggest reason is 20 cars trying to go through that is going to be chaotic.  Trying to find a clear opening, if it was 30 minutes you could kind of wait until things calmed down and then get out there and try again.  The amount of time is fine, it’s just the space that we have to work in is confined with a lot of vehicles.  Maybe if they let three or four guys go at a time over 15 minutes you could all get two or three clean attempts and learn a lot more from that than I think a free for all like what we are going to have.  The spotters will earn their keep today in that 15 minute practice session trying to find clean holes so we can get it done.”
 
IS MONEY THE ONLY MOTIVATION THIS WEEKEND? OR IS WINNING PROVING PEOPLE WRONG WHO SAID YOU WON THE FIRST SEGMENT WRONG? OR IS THERE MORE YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH IN TERMS OF GETTING ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR?
“I think there’s an order. First and foremost, there’s that big check. That’s top of the list. And then from there, you work down. And it still is a race against the toughest guys in the field, so a second-place finish isn’t a bad thing. It can help for morale right on down through probably Top-5. You can justify it as a good night and you learn something. There are other people that might not consider themselves (as) a favorite and have a shot to win, so they’re going to experiment and use this weekend as a test session. Even some of the big teams; I know we always try a thing or two here to see if it will work and if we want to bring it back for the 600. And then, the last piece is just laps on a track that we race at with the right tire and with all the competitors here. It just makes the teams better and stronger. So, there are a lot of layers to it, but it’s just kind of in order; and teams do that, you know? If you win, awesome. If not it’s like well, okay. We learned this, and right on down the line.”
 
I KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN A FEUD OR DISPUTE. BUT IF YOU WERE, WOULD THIS BE THE PERFECT PLACE FOR PAYBACK BECAUSE THERE ARE NO POINTS ON THE LINE AND YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TOTALLY TRASH SOMEBODY’S SEASON IF YOU CHOOSE TO GET EVEN?
“It really depends. If somebody harmed you or did you wrong in a points-paying situation, you want to pay him back in a fair manner, which would be during a points-paying event. So, it depends. Everybody has their own motivation and a way that they like to handle things. Nobody is going to give each other a lot of slack here. And if you do get caught-up in a racing accident, you’re more willing to be caught-up and okay with being caught-up in a racing accident here because the points aren’t on the line. So it kind of buys you some slack in a few areas;
maybe not as much. You can’t send a message as strong as you want to in others. But at the end of the day, when we get ticked in the car when something happens, you don’t think about those things. So, if that switch had flipped on whomever it is, it could still happen. There really isn’t a clear-cup path or code to it all. But the smart guys, they wouldn’t do it here. They’re going to wait until points are on the line and it has the same impact on that guys as it did to them.”
 
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE SITUATION BETWEEN KASEY KAHNE AND KYLE BUSCH THE LAST FEW WEEKS, YOU WENT THROUGH A STRETCH WITH KURT BUSCH WHERE IT SEEMED LIKE YOU GUYS WERE RUNNING INTO EACH OTHER EVERY WEEK. DOES THAT GET IN YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU SEE HIM ON THE TRACK AFTER REPEATED RUN-INS WITH THE SAME GUY?
CAN TWO GUY’S DRIVING STYLES CONFLICT TO THE POINT THAT THEY STRUGGLE TO RACE ONE ANOTHER?
“After talking to both of them, they’re both frustrated. Kasey has come out on the losing end of it three times and is more frustrated than Kyle. But it’s not like Kyle has an issue with him. There has just been stuff. And we’ve all been through it. I’ve had it with Kurt. I’ve had it with Sterling Marlin in like ’03 or ’04. And it’s really no fun when it happens and you kind of have a magnet for whatever car it is and it goes on and on. The way I’ve been able to break the cycle is you just consciously have to get away. After one wreck and it wasn’t on purpose, you’re like okay. No big deal. Second one happens and you’re like oh man, really honestly, I really didn’t mean to do it. And then if it goes to a third time, you’re like okay. If I see you coming, I’m getting the hell out of the way (laughs). You go by and I’ll go over here. And you just have to try to make it stop that way.”
 
IN TERMS OF AGGRESSION, DO YOU NOTICE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT HOW DRIVERS RACE THIS RACE?
“Yeah, you’re not going to point a guy by if he’s faster, especially with the average finish of each segment counting towards the final starting order, there will be no pointing guys by and working with one another. It will be door-to-door and you’re going to have to do a slide job or something to clear somebody and get by. So that part will pick-up. But if you’re racing for 10th, it’s going to be a little different than if you’re racing for the lead. You don’t want to tear-up cars and run a half-a-track behind for 10th or something. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. But track position will be very important and it will encourage more side-by-side hard racing.”
 
YOU HAVE A HUGE 44 POINT LEAD OVER EDWARDS AND 59 OVER KENSETH AND YET THE JOE GIBBS RACING CARS HAVE BEEN CONSISTENTLY FASTER THAN THE HENDRICK CARS FOR MOST OF THE SEASON. WHAT DO YOU LOOK AT MORE: THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE A BIG LEAD OR THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE BEEN FASTER?
“They definitely have some speed on the 1.5-mile tracks. I feel like our short-track stuff has been real good. Our plate stuff has been awesome. And we’ve got some mile tracks coming up. Dover has been really good to us and I hope to run well there. But if I were to pick an area we need to improve on, it would be the 1.5-miles. We’re not bad. We’re still getting good finishes. But we don’t have that magic right now. I’m very happy to have this big points lead and would love to lock early as you can imagine. But I don’t know if I’m just making this up for my own good and helping my cause, but I’m glad I’m not peaking-out. We always point that out about the team that gets on a roll and are they peaking too early. I’m not saying those guys are, but I’m glad we don’t have our best stuff right now and we’ve got some time to get there. Hopefully we do.”
 
THERE WASN’T LOT OF OVERLAP BETWEEN YOUR CAREER AND THAT OF DICK TRICKLE. DID YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIM AND DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT HIS DEATH?
“I’m shocked and saddened by it. I didn’t race a lot against Dick. His stories were legendary throughout the ASA and short track racing that I did in the Midwest. I raced a little bit against him in the Nationwide Series. And then where I got to know him the best was racing in the IROC Series. Those practice days were so laid back and relaxed. And with Dave Marcus and Dick being there, we’d all hang out and talk about cars. Hop in your car and run a little bit. Leave the track for lunch and run down to a little spot to eat and come back. And those are the memories that I really have in getting to know Dick and spend time with him. I certainly don’t know the whole story in what’s gone on, but I’m just saddened to hear that he took his life. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones that are left behind.”
 

Rookie Carlos Muñoz Sets Fastest Lap of Week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
 
INDIANAPOLIS (May 16, 2013) – Rookie Carlo Muñoz didn’t let the warmest temperatures of the month slow him down. Rather, the native of Bogata, Colombia posted the fastest lap of the combined six practices held so far for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500. Behind the wheel of the No. 26 Unistraw Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, Muñoz posted a lap of 225.163 m.p.h around the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
Other familiar Team Chevy faces in the top-five of the final speed chart were: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Helio Castroneves and E.J. Viso.
 
Joining the top-10 quickest were Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers JR Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter and Oriol Servia.
 
1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier made his first on-track appearance today to bring the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 roster to 17 for this year’s 200-laps/500-mile race. Lazier concluded his “installation” laps today, and will participate in a special 30-minute refresher session on Friday morning.
The final day of practice, Fast Friday, is scheduled to see cars on track from noon to 6:00 p.m. as teams make their final preparations for Pole Day for the Indianapolis 500. Qualifying is set for Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. when, in addition to the pole sitter being crowned; the fastest 24 cars and drivers locked into the field.  NBC Sports Network will broadcast pole qualifying live from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and again from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Verizon FiOS 90/590, DirecTV 220, DISH 159 and AT&T UVerse 640). In addition, qualifying will be broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211 and

Tony Kanaan, No. 11 Hydroxycut KV Racing Technology SH Racing Chevrolet, and teammate Simona De Silvestro, No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KV Racing Technology Chevrolet met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Full transcript:
 
 
97th Indianapolis 500 Press Conference
Tony Kanaan and Simona De Silvestro
May 15, 2013
 
            MODERATOR: Welcome to Economaki Press Conference Room with another of our 11:00 o’clock press conferences with two very popular drivers obviously.  Simona De Silvestro is going into race four and Tony Kanaan has been a fan favorite here for a long time.
            TK, welcome back to Indianapolis, as always it’s great to see you.
 
            TONY KANAAN: Thank you.
 
            MODERATOR: Tell us about how things have gone this.
 
            KANAAN: Smooth.  The best field days have been more of a weather challenging as far as being cold and windy, but you know, we’re keeping our head straight with the program that we decide to do, doing some race stuff.  So far so good.  It’s early days to say anything, to predict anything.  I think a lot of the times that we see are being posted on huge draft, so the reality is still not there.
 
            MODERATOR: And that’s fairly obvious, we’ve watched that unfold.
            Simona, I would think for you this has to feel like just a great opportunity for you.  Coming into your fourth 500 with a solid organization behind you.  I can imagine your confidence has got to be pretty good.
 
            SIMONA DE SILVESTRO: Yes, definitely.  Coming here with KV is a very special feeling.  Definitely also having the Chevy engine behind us, it’s going much faster around here so it’s way more fun.  For us it’s been going pretty well.  Going through the motions every day and sticking to our program, going step by step, and that’s been really important.  Working with Tony, too, it’s been a lot of fun, you know, so I feel like as a team we’ve been doing pretty well and going through the motions, and I think it’s the right path right now.
 
            MODERATOR: Tony, I was thinking about this coming in.  Simona’s an accomplished race driver, that’s quite obvious.  But you have been in this sort of position it seems to me a lot occasionally with drivers, sort of taking them through their paces and understanding Indianapolis and the whole cadence of the event, that seems to be a role that you find yourself in a lot.
 
            KANAAN: Yes, I guess they picked the old guy to teach the young kids all the time, I guess that’s what it is. (Laughter)
            It was a role that I got.  Not that I wanted it, but back in the Andretti days, and it’s been following me every since.  I don’t mind at all.  I think if I can contribute to the team’s success, obviously thinking on my own.
            But with Simona, it’s different; it’s definitely a lot of fun.  I think we knew each other before she was my teammate; we got along even before that.  We had a couple accidents in separate occasions, but we caught fire and did similar things that we both went through.  I think, you know, last year she had a very, very tough year, which I appreciate.  I was watching from far, and the way she handled herself was remarkable.  I don’t think I could have done that myself.  You know, so she deserves what I can do and she’s extremely fast, so I got to worry about her.  (Laughter)
 
            MODERATOR: Very good.  Let’s open it up to questions.
 
            Q:  I’ve got a question for both of you.  How’s your hand?
 
            KANAAN: My hand is OK.  It hurts, but I guess — Jimmy Vasser told me in Brazil if I’m going to hurt my hand and go that fast every time he was going to hit the other one. (Laughter)
            It’s hurting, it’s going to take a while it heal.  Here in Indy I’m doing treatment at St. Vincent with the guys, and Dr. Trammell and all the guys are here in town, so I get a chance to see them every day.  But it will take at least eight months to be back to normal.  As long as I can drive — there are a couple things that I can’t do, but it’s not in the car.  (Laughter)
            So my wife will be able to help me out.  Don’t get bad ideas, guys. (Laughter)
            Typical things — but it sound wrong. (Laughter)
            So Simona, how’s your hand?
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Mine are fine.  They have been fine since like a year now so it’s all good.  I don’t have to wear any funky gloves anymore for s, you know, burn or anything, so we’re all good.
 
            MODERATOR: OK.
 
            Q:  Simona, last year was a frustrating season in the Lotus engine.  Is there anything positive that you can take over in 2013 with KV?
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Yeah, I think it is.  Especially here at the Speedway.  Last year was kind of a difficult month but, you know, after I crashed in 2011, I was pretty skeptical about the oval stuff.  Maybe last year actually really helped me kind of not having any pressure, just going through what I had to do, get comfortable out there, and I think that’s really helping me this year because I got this the car, felt confident with what I learned last year, and that’s been kind of pretty rewarding to myself.  You know when you take a big hit like that; it takes a little bit of time to get the confidence back in yourself and in the equipment around you.  So I think actually last year helped me a lot on the ovals, to be honest.
 
            Q:  Question for both of you.  Tony, first off, I’ve heard you say among other drivers that the Speedway picks you, you don’t pick it.  But there’s a lot of fans out there that feel like this place owes you.  How do you feel about that?
 
            KANAAN: I don’t feel this place owes me anything.  I have had great times here.  Although some people would say I’m making an excuse or I’m sounding like — but the experiences that I had which I can only say every time I’ve been here I put myself in the position to win this race.  That’s all I can do.  There’s a man sitting right beside (points to Scott Goodyear) you that knows exactly what I’m saying.
            The way the fans treat me, you know, and the privilege that I have to be here every year.  I’ve led in nine of the eleven tim
es — eight out of the ten times I’ve been here.  So I don’t think it owes me anything.  I love the way the fans think like that, because I think they know how much I work for it.  But it will be really unfair for me to say I deserve to win this thing because there’s other 33 people there looking for that as well.
            So to me the best memories I have, it’s every time I drive my golf cart out there I can hear my name big time.  The year that I started that last, we went all the way to the lead and we ended up finishing 11th because of a strategy at the end.  I got out of the car; the entire place was screaming my name and Dario had won the race.  If I never win this thing, I think I got the feeling like from the people around here how is it to win.  Obviously it will be a lot different if I would have my face on the trophy and stuff like that, but I don’t take it like that, I don’t think it owes anything.
            I am not going to go away years from now if I never win regretting or being a little bit bitter about it.  I mean, I had great time.  My name in IndyCar, it’s a lot bigger right now because of the fans of Indianapolis and because I have not won it yet than actually probably if I had won already.
 
            Q:  Simona, for you, obviously over the years, a slightly smaller brunette was vying to become the first woman to win here.  Realistically, which — where do you place your chances now that you’ve got your best ride, your best opportunity ever and the speed that you’ve attained so far this week.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: I think anybody that qualifies has a chance to win it.  For me it’s always been hard for me to put a result you know as a goal or anything like that.  But I feel like if we really do all the work we need to and be as prepared as we can and get a chance to win it for sure, you know, we’re going to take it.
            But right now, it’s kind of going through every day and kind of not, you know, expecting too many things.  That’s how it went in my rookie year and went really well because I went through the motions and then a pretty good result came out of it.  So now with a better team and a better engine and everything, you know, things can work out.  You know, I’m working hard towards that goal and hopefully it will happen.
 
            Q:  Two questions for you, Tony.  Number one, it was already said, you have much more experience than Simona in IndyCar.  Nevertheless, is there anything you can learn from Simona? And Question No. 2, last year you were driving together with your friend Rubens (Barrichello).  Are you still carrying on to convince him to make a return to IndyCar?
 
            KANAAN: Well, the first question is obviously I definitely can learn a lot from her.  More in the street courses right now because I think I can contribute a lot more to her oval experience.  But we’re exchanging information every day, her feedback, it’s remarkable.  So I think I definitely learn every day with her, and you know, I think it’s a learning process for both of us to understand the way we like cars and how we can migrate from one car to the other.
            The Rubens question is, I don’t think Rubens needed any convincing.  He wanted to do it, but for somebody like him that came from Formula One and the name that I think he brought it a lot to IndyCar by doing the switch, we didn’t do a good job getting him to stay.  When a guy like that put a lot out of his own pocket, almost $5 million to invest in his career after 19 years in Formula One, just because he wanted to keep racing, it was remarkable of him, but to ask him to do it again the following year I don’t think was fair.  Not blaming anybody, it was just a situation that we all face right now with the economy.  You know, it’s pretty hard to everybody.  It’s hard for big names in America already to find a meaningful sponsorship to keep racing.  It was just a matter of trying to put the two and two together and he felt that he couldn’t find that amount of money, got another offer to do stock cars in Brazil down there, and he’s doing some TV.  That was it.  I don’t think it was a choice, just the consequences of the financial situation right now.
 
            MODERATOR: Any questions?
            Let me ask you one, Tony, based on something you just said.  That is, there’s always this balance between what the engineers say the car is and what the driver likes and what the driver wants.  When you’re in a team, you’re the senior member; you give some feedback about what you want.  I don’t mean by age now, Tony, come on. (Laughter)
 
            KANAAN: Can I have a wheelchair? (Laughter)
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Who’s got the gray beard?
            Then you have Simona who’s new on the ovals and she has a feedback about what she feels or like.  How does the team work that out? How does that all sort of get dissected and understood?
 
            KANAAN: I would say me my engineer, as you call me, I’m an older man.  He doesn’t fool me anymore.  He will do what I say because I have been around.  Simona actually, when we find stuff that I don’t want to try.  I said, she doesn’t know any better. (Laughter)
            Let her do a couple laps, and if it works give it back to me.  I had that in the past with Zanardi, I remember, I used to ask Alex all the time, why do I try all those things? Because I don’t want to.  (Laughter)
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Simona that’s still going on.  (Laughter)
 
            KANAAN: That’s the difference.  When you’ve been around a lot, there’s things or days you say I’m not running today and you can see the rookie going, oh, I want to do it.  I want to go out.  You know.  All right.
            Like today, I can’t get into much details but we had a decision to make last night about setups and stuff.  And the young lady picked — there is stuff I didn’t want to do.
 
            MODERATOR: So you understand, Simona, he’s the senior member of the team.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Yeah, he is.  I tell him sometimes and I always get in trouble for it.
 
            KANAAN: And she understood last night when she was on her way home what happened to her car, so she knows.
 
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Everybody kept asking me if I got pranked by Tony yet and until yesterday I was fine.
 
            KANAAN: You still haven’t.  Just the beginning.
 
           
DE SILVESTRO: Well, a little bit.  I tried to get in my car and I think he put all kinds of like — well, I don’t even know what it was.
 
            KANAAN: It was grease.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Grease on my door handle.  I almost fell over when I tried to get in my car.  (Laughter)
              I told him thanks and he was, like, you’re welcome.
 
            KANAAN: I was going to leave you a note and a couple napkins so you could clean your hand.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: I had to do the walk of shame back to the truck and get some napkins and clean my door handle.
 
            MODERATOR: That’s what senior guys do.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: It is.  I think they have to try the difficult stuff –
 
            KANAAN: Should we tell about today?
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Oh, yes.  No.  I wasn’t even — I didn’t even know about this until he threw me under the bus.
 
            KANAAN: That’s not true.  Anyway, we want to find Simona a boyfriend.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: We don’t but apparently Tony is convinced.
 
            KANAAN: I want to go to dinner with me, my wife, you and your boyfriend.  So I launch on Twitter that people could send me pictures and their phone numbers and we’re going to pick the top five. (Laughter)
            But she’s not going to know them.  Me, my engineers and her engineer will pick the guy and I’m going to take them to dinner and she’s going to meet him.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: Great.
 
            KANAAN: And if she’s nice enough and he’s nice enough, she is going to come to the banquet with him on Monday night next week.
 
 
            DE SILVESTRO: He planned all this, I had nothing to do with it.  I just got dragged into it somehow.
 
            MODERATOR: We’re going to look at all the data, telemetry; we’re going to make the appropriate decision.
 
            KANAAN: We might get a new sponsor.  Maybe he has a lot of money.
 
            DE SILVESTRO: That won’t be bad. (Laughter)
 
            MODERATOR: Well, we need some updates on this one.
 
            KANAAN: Don’t worry, you’ll get it.
 
            MODERATOR: Other questions for these two? Thanks a lot.
 

Team Chevy Drivers Continue to Show Speed in Practice for Indianapolis 500 as James Hinchcliffe Takes Turn as Fastest of the Day
 
INDIANAPOLIS (May 14, 2013) – Changing track conditions with higher temperatures, and stronger wind did not deter Team Chevy drivers from making use of every valuable minute of track time today as qualifying for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 inches closer.
 
James Hinchcliffe, behind the wheel of the No.25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet normally piloted by Marco Andretti, set the fast lap of the day at 224.210 m.p.h.
 
Hinchcliffe was followed closely by fellow Chevrolet IndyCar V6 powered driver JR Hildebrand in the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet. Andretti, was third quick of the day back in his No. 25 Chevrolet.
 
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske Chevrolet was fourth on the speed charts followed by defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet who put up the fifth fastest speed of the day.
 
In all, nine Team Chevy drivers occupied the top-10 fastest at the end of Practice Session Four with E.J. Viso, Carlos Munoz, Oriol Servia and A.J. Allmendinger all turning in strong laps.
 
Pole Day for the Indianapolis 500 is set for Saturday, May 18, 2013 when not only will the pole sitter be crowned, but also the fastest 24 cars and drivers locked into the field.
 
Practice will continue Wednesday, May 15, 2013, from noon to 6:00 p.m. EDT.
 
CHEVROLET DRIVER QUOTES – PRACTICE DAY THREE:
 
POST PRACTICE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET:
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET:
 
TALK ABOUT THE SPEED ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HAS HAD OVER THE SEVERAL DAYS OF PRACTICE:
 
HINCHCLIFFE: “I guess we are good at playing tow wars.  It is what it is.  Every day you get guys going out there and getting a little bit of I don’t know… did you genuinely do a 223?”
HILDEBRAND: “Of course.”
HINCHCLIFFE: “So, now I’m a little nervous because Marco’s (Andretti) angry not only did I like rock the big tow, which he is famous for, I did it in his car.  Marco ‘Towdretti’ is a little upset with me right now (laughs).  No, obviously it’s going to be up there, but at the end of the day those numbers don’t mean a lot right now.  It’s about the work you do on the race car and making sure that you are going to be good not over one lap, but over 200 in a couple of weeks.”
 
THERE IS BIG MONEY AND PRESTIGE OF WINNING THE POLE. THAT IS IMPORTANT, BUT I WILL SAY THIS EDDIE CHEEVER USED TO ALWAYS SAY ‘WHY SHOULDN’T WE PRACTICE LIKE WE RACE?’  WHEN YOU RACE YOU ARE IN TOWS SO THAT STILL SEEMS TO BE PRETTY IMPORTANT:

HILDEBRAND: “Well, I think especially with qualifying sort of Friday/Saturday situation with added boosts and blah, blah, blah being the way that it is.  I think that is why you see a lot of that over these first few days.  Besides just generally making the car better and kind of trying to go into Thursday/Friday with some idea of what is going to happen when you qualify it all totally changes.  We basically spent the entire day just trying to run around in some form of traffic.  Not trying to put big laps up, but just trying to understand how the car works behind, one car, two cars, three cars, four cars and different speeds of cars. It was nice for us at the end of the day to kind of be able to join in the midst of the Andretti tow battle that goes on daily.  At some point because at the end of the day you want to figure out how your car is kind of going to work with other cars that you think you might be able to race with. That is where a lot of the speed comes from.  That is where the focus I think generally is going to be.  You saw a lot of it yesterday, today and probably mostly tomorrow.”
 
WHEN YOU RUN SO MANY LAPS OUT THERE IN RACE SIMULATION YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED 32 SETS OF TIRES FOR THE MONTH OR 33.  HOW DO YOU MANAGE ALL THAT?

HINCHCLIFFE: “We work backwards at the start of the month.  We set aside what we need for the race.  We set aside what you need for qualifying day and bump day depending on because you don’t know how your weekend is going to go.  You can’t assume anything.  I think that is why you see normally everybody kind of goes out at the end of the day and does one full run, maybe two if you have budgeted two that day.  It kind of works out to one or two sets for the end of the day for that kind of thing.  You try and do it in the most realistic conditions for what you think race day is going to be.  Obviously, today is the hottest day that we’ve had which was good.  We needed to get a hot, nasty, slick race track and we are starting to get that.  We don’t know what it’s going to do on race day yet.  We have obviously done some running in the cooler weather now.  If we do some running and can work on the car in the hot weather then we can be prepared for whatever Memorial Day throws at us.”
HILDEBRAND: “I would say the same thing.  You look at what your tire budget basically is.  The time of the month you eat up the most tires is when you are getting ready for qualifying because you are not running a set of tires for more than a run or maybe two at the maximum.  I think depending on what the conditions are like and how fast we are actually going on Friday and Saturday is probably just going to be one run per set of tire type of thing.  Days like today where you are doing a lot of race running you are actually not, even though there is a lot of laps being spent you are not really going through more tires than you would be on a standard day.”
 
SO IF YOU FIGURE 12 SETS FOR THE RACE AND THEN ANOTHER 7/8 YOU WOULD FIGURE ON BUMP AND POLE DAY.  SO THAT LEAVES WHAT 13 SETS THAT YOU CAN KIND OF GO OUT THERE AND BURN UP DURING THIS WEEK?

HILDEBRAND: “Yeah, I mean you are sort of looking through like 12 to 15 sets of tires that you use at some point for some reason.  You try to hang on to some if you think that you can obviously.  Yeah, it also depends on where there is kind of … it’s not a game, but there is a bit of a mix of where people are at on engine mileage and so that plays some role into how many laps you are actually trying to do or not.  I would imagine, for teams that have multiple cars they are probably all slightly different on mileage and that is a big piece of how you play it for sure.”
HINCHCLIFFE: “Yeah, exactly right.  The engine mileage certainly plays a role and if you have a really bad change that means you have to go back to the garage and change your run plan for a day.  It means the next day you have an extra set of tires.  It’s kind of a fluid situation, but call it two sets a day plus or minus depending on how your program is going.”
 
ALL THE STUFF YOU ARE TRYING DURING THE PRACTICE RUNS HOW MUCH IS THIS RELATED TO THE WEATHER?  LET’S SAY DURING QUALIFYING OR RACE IT WILL BE EXTREMELY COOLER OR HOTTER CAN YOU THROW EVERYTHING AWAY AND START WITH ZERO AGAIN?

HINCHCLIFFE: “I guess, kind of yeah, unfortunately this track is a cruel mistress and she is very temperamental and very sensitive to weather.  Obviously, we have been battling a lot of windy conditions on top of the varying temperatures which definitely throws a bit of a curve ball.  I mean today was a completely different direction.  It’s pretty nerve racking.  That is where I think experience comes into it.  Not only on the driver’s side, but on the team side because the teams that have a massive book of data from tons of years and lots of different cars you can look at trends in weather and what the track does.  I think
that goes certainly a long way and maybe the teams with a bit more experience will be better suited for qualifying day if all of a sudden the conditions are vastly different.”
HILDEBRAND: “Yeah, when you look at it, when you talk about weather, you talk about basically the wind is kind of a factor that you can’t account for much one way or the other.  Besides gearing strategy you are not making set up changes based on it being windy or not.  Otherwise in terms of how hot it is you are looking at track temperature.  A day like today it definitely started getting a little greasy out there.  The track was feeling a little bit slicker particularly in (turns) one and two.  Otherwise the big angle is how hot it is changes the air densities that changes what kind of downforce and drag you are looking at.  That is something that at the end of the day we have a lot of data about what different temperatures how that relates to how much downforce the car should be making when we go back out.  You saw a lot of teams when it was colder out doing their race runs with a lot less wing in the car and things like that.  That is to try to simulate the downforce that you would be making if it gets hotter out with more wing in it.  Those are all things that at the end of the day they are just estimates on how the car is going to feel.  Our engineers would like to tell us I think that they are totally dialed in and feel great.”
 
WHAT WEATHER WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE PERSONALLY?  HOT OR COLD OR MEDIUM TEMPERATURE WISE?
 
HILDEBRAND: “I don’t know I would prefer like a nice kind of 70 degree day.”
HINCHCLIFFE: “Yeah that would be nice.  70-74 degrees, a little breeze, some cloud cover, but nothing, generally sunny.  Partly cloudy I guess.”
HILDEBRAND: “Winds down the straights not down the short shoots.”
HINCHCLIFFE: “Yeah.”
 
WHEN YOU GUYS ARE IN THE TOW THIS YEAR IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CLOSING RATE NOW THAT YOU HAVE A YEAR UNDER YOUR BELT WITH THE CAR THIS YEAR COMPARED TO LAST YEAR?

HILDEBRAND: “To be honest with you it is very difficult to tell until you are actually in the race to really know what is going on.  I mean I know last year… because you are dealing with, you are rarely in a group of cars that is the like speed that you are going to be at.  When you are running around in practice there are a couple of cars in front of you that are a mile and hour and a half slower than you.  Then there is somebody that is a lot faster than you.  That creates kind of weird situation to figure out how the draft is going to work.  I think the fact that the speeds generally are a little bit faster will make the race better.  It will be less of kind of like musical chairs.  You know you can’t pull away, all that kind of stuff.  It will be more of a real race at that point and less of a kind of lottery up at the front of the pack.  But, like I said, we don’t really know that until we get to race day. I thought the cars all around watching you guys running around in a draft ourselves.  I think they feel pretty racy which is nice and it gives the driver something to kind of work on as far as how to make it work at one end of the track or the other.”     
HINCHCLIFFE: “Yeah, I think maybe compared to, I know when we first got our hands on these things here last year we were talking about quicker closing rates than the old car.  I think part of that fast forward a year right now I think guys are running at much lower downforce levels than we were at this time last year.  Just because we didn’t know the car yet, we were kind of building up to it.  So when you are running around with a bunch of drag, yeah sure, the closing rates are a lot higher.  I completely agree with JR (Hildebrand) that it’s going to be a lot less kind of the musical chairs approach and good cars are going to find their way to the front.  Those are going to be very easily identifiable I think on Sunday.”
 
ARE YOU GUYS FIGURING NOBODY IS GOING TO REALLY BE TRYING QUALIFYING RUNS OR QUALIFYING SIMS UNTIL FRIDAY?
 
HINCHCLIFFE: “Thursday/Friday you know it’s one of those things.  Like JR (Hildebrand) says when you are running at that trim you can really only do one run safely on a set of tires, maybe two.  So, I think Thursday you will see the first run on every set of tires be a qualifying simulation.  Then go back to your race set up and pan around for the rest of the life of the tires and repeat.  Obviously, until we get the engine modifications nobody is really testing the actual limits yet.  That is kind of the only time it makes sense to really go for it.”
 
BACK UNDER THE OLD SCHEDULE WHEN IT WAS TWO WEEKS OF PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING IT’S ALMOST LIKE WHAT EVERYBODY WOULD DO THE SECOND WEEK THEN WHICH WOULD BE RACE RUNS THEY ARE NOW DOING MOST OF THIS WEEK BEFORE QUALIFYING.  IS THAT PRETTY MUCH THE WAY IT SEEMS TO YOU GUYS?
 
HILDEBRAND: “Yeah, I think basically at some point you kind of start to trim and figure out what the car, what the tendency of the car is going to be.  Last year frankly, I didn’t think that with the boost increase that didn’t drastically change the way that the car worked.  We were still basically at maximum trim level before we had the extra boost and then afterwards.  Depending on how much faster the cars go we might cross over that threshold.  Certainly at some point we will.  If we roll out and the cars will go 230 (m.p.h.) certainly that changes the situation.  But, to your point we basically just won’t know that until Friday.  I don’t think that anybody will spend too much time being overly concerned with it until then.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “I think today went well. I’m quite pleased with how things are going for us so far. Working with the car in the heat of the day can be challenging, but we made a lot of progress to get where we are. We are going to continue to look at things and try to be faster by race day.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO 3 SHELL V-POWER PENNZOIL ULTRA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “It was another good day today for the Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Chevrolet, we feel we’ve identified the places where we can improve and so now we have to continue working. Finishing near the top yesterday and today shows we hopefully have the consistency that it takes to win the race in the end.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  “It’s certainly getting interesting now with the heat and the wind. Conditions are changing every day so it’s keeping the team on our toes, and we’re just trying a lot of different settings now. We have five cars so we have a lot of options and, I think, as we work through the week we’ll work ourselves into a good car. But it’s a work in progress.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “We put in another steady day of work on the Verizon Chevrolet. We feel as though we are making progress on our set-up. It was a good day at the office and definitely a beautiful day here at Indy. Hopefully we get more of the same tomorrow.”
 
CARLOS MUÑOZ, NO. 26 UNISTRAW ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “It was another good day of practicing a few different race simulations; I learned a lot on each of them. The conditions were hotter today then that last few practice sessions, so I had to adjust with each of the new tests. The track had a lot less grip, but that is something we need to keep working on in the upcoming days. There are still a lot of days left to figure out which run is going to work, but my team is working really hard to find the best one. I’m feeling more and more comfortable with the No. 26 Unist
raw Chevy, and I think our team is doing a good job, but we need to take it day-by-day. Each time I go out on-track I’m gaining more confidence, especially on the race runs with my teammates and other drivers.”
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Very long day for me today; I completed 134 laps – it’s enough to get the engine swapped. Anyways, it was a very good, productive day. We went through some tests…which we found some good answers. We did a couple of long runs with the rest of the Andretti Autosport guys, and we are still finding new answers every time we go on a run together. Today was a little bit hotter than the other days, and the weather predictions say that race day is going to be even a bit hotter than today. So I think the running that we did today was pretty productive to gather some data.”
 
A.J. ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Today was the first day it has been warm outside which was something I had not experienced yet. The track changed throughout the day, getting slicker than it’s been on the cooler days but we were able to make adjustments to the IZOD Team Penske Chevrolet that helped us put down some pretty good laps. I was able to learn a lot with a lot of cars on the track today, which obviously critical for me as we get close to the race. Productive day in all but I still have a lot to learn.”
 
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 22 MECUM AUCTIONS PANTHER DREYER AND REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:  “It’s starting to get interesting out there. The track was very hot – up to 130 degrees at some points. It makes things a lot more difficult but that’s how race conditions are going to be. We lose a lot of downforce when it gets hot like this and it just gets tougher to get a good set up. It still was a great day. We were running in the top five most of the day so I’m very pleased. Third day of running for us and we have excellent notes. I’m very happy with where we are.”
 
TOWNSEND BELL, NO. 60 SUNOCO “TURBO” PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET: “It’s just great to be back out here with Panther Racing, we’ve got so much support from Sunoco and Turbo and they’ve all given me a great opportunity to be in good equipment. I was in Laguna Seca this weekend, and the Panther guys handled every little detail so we were ready to roll when I got back. In a lot of ways it was like I never left – it’s still John Barnes running the organization and they still have a lot of great people. I just love coming (to Indianapolis) and luckily this is my seventh time and it starts to feel pretty normal after awhile. Although the first outing I don’t think I took a breath for a good three-and-a-half minutes, but the car feels really good so far.”

Marco Andretti Puts Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Power on Top of Speed Charts at Conclusion of Third Day of Practice for Indianapolis 500
 
INDIANAPOLIS (May 13, 2013) – Optimum conditions drove speeds higher on the third day of practice for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 as Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet turned the day’s fastest lap of 225.100 m.p.h.
 
Also breaking the 225-barrier was Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves with a lap of 225.075 m.p.h. behind the wheel of the No. 3 Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Chevrolet.
 
Team Chevy drivers occupied the top-five in the speed charts. Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet was third quick; Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, turned in the fourth quickest time and JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet was the fifth quickest around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
A.J. Allmendinger, James Hinchcliffe, Carlos Munoz and Tony Kanaan all posted top-10 speeds behind the wheel of their Chevrolet V6-powered Indy cars.
 
Practice will continue Tuesday May 14, 2013, from noon to 6:00 p.m. EDT.
 
CHEVROLET DRIVER QUOTES – PRACTICE DAY THREE:
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Obviously it helps when you can simulate a mini-race, so we had that luxury and we’ve been taking full advantage of it, and personally I feel like that’s how the Ganassis beat us last year. It was the first year for me that pole was in reach, so I got too fascinated with just how fast would the car go instead of getting the proper car underneath you for the race. And everybody’s like ‘Last year you were really strong in the race,’ and this and that, but the car was a handful in the race and obviously it bit me there in the end, so we knew we needed to make some gains and we have so far, but obviously we know how Indy goes, it’s early.”
 
WHEN WILL WE SEE TEAMS WORKING ON QUALIFYING SETUP? “It just depends on how much progress we get done with the race car. If we are pleased, and we get a lot of stuff checked off the list, why not?”
 
DO YOU THINK ABOUT WINNING THE INDY 500? “We have the dream, but there is a lot of work that needs to get done in between. We are just focused on the task at-hand. We are taking it day-by-day.”
 
THERE ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE FUTURE OF THESE CARS IS TO PUT BACK IN DRIVER’S HANDS WITH LESS GRIP AND MORE HORSEPOWER AND TAKE DOWNFORCE OFF. WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THAT DEBATE? “We need more power. I think we can take downforce off now, we just don’t want to. (Putting a cap on the minimum downforce) it would make it harder to drive. We’d like more power, any driver does.
 
“Just to add to that, I don’t think, in my opinion, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. We are putting on great shows. Last year at Indy, I don’t know how many lead changes, but there were passes every lap. They don’t often get that here every year. The only thing that gets kind of hairy in our hands are the restarts. It gets crazy the way these cars tow-up, so people are five-six wide, four rows back. That part of it can get kind of hairy, but once that settles in, it makes for a good race I think.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO 3 SHELL V-POWER PENNZOIL ULTRA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “Every time you come over here to Indianapolis, it is a great birthday, so I am happy to celebrate here. We are kind of managing mileage on the engine as well, so yesterday we did not run. We are sticking to the plan. I didn’t want to run yesterday, but now Team Penske is working to make sure we hit the schedule and keep on track.”
 
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT GOING FOR FOUR WINS? “Right now we’re trying to follow the schedule. We’re not worried about the result. Rick Mears always says that (Indy) is two races and right now we’re worried about the first race, which is qualifying. Plus there is the weather and things like that, so we’re not thinking about the result. I dream about it. About becoming a four-time winner, but right now you have to work before you achieve your dreams. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
 
THERE ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE FUTURE OF THESE CARS IS TO PUT BACK IN DRIVER’S HANDS WITH LESS GRIP AND MORE HORSEPOWER AND TAKE DOWNFORCE OFF. WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THAT DEBATE? “10 years ago, we change a little bit the format going flat-out all the way around an oval, and when they started in 1998 to go flat-out, it was absolutely very difficult to do because we had so much more power. I believe now that is the way we should go back as well. The car is always very difficult to drive, and this place is always very difficult to drive no matter if you are flat or not. Again, when you have that kind of scenario in other places I believe, I am very in favor of the same suggestions. So hopefully we can make that happen.
 
“I’m not talking about this place (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) because this place you can go as much as you can on the wing. But for the other places, something related to that. He (Marco Andretti) drove at Pocono, I didn’t, but sounds like it is going to be fun. If we cannot achieve that, we should go to small circuits; small ovals that where IndyCar seems to do very well.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  ““I think it was another good day of practice, we’ve been trying some changes – some work, some don’t – and that’s all part of testing. Had another opportunity to run with the teammates and it’s really good to see all of Andretti Autosport working together that way. We’ll put our heads together tonight and continue to make the DHL Chevy stronger.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “We had a good day in the Verizon Chevrolet. Everything went according to plan as we worked through our process. Towards the end of the day we turned a decent lap and we will work to improve on what we learned today.”
 
CARLOS MUÑOZ, NO. 26 UNISTRAW ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – FASTEST IN PRACTICE: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “It was another day of testing for the No. 26 Unistraw Chevrolet. We are just crossing different programs off of our list to practice before we head into the weekend. There are still a lot of days to go and different runs to try. This afternoon’s run with my teammates was a learning experience; I still need to prove myself. We have to continue to work on our practice checklist and figure out what is going to work best for the team.”
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Another day at the track just preparing and slowly trying to hit all the points in our to do test list; little by little we’ve been accomplishing them. Today we had some things we had to check in the engine which is why we couldn’t run at the end of the day. Anyways, as a team, we’ve been progressing. As of now, we’ve all been doing our jobs which is bringing the best information together so we can make some clever decisions and continue to put a good setup together. Tomorrow is another test day and we’re planning to keep following our (to do) list.”
 
A.J. ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “The No. 2 IZOD Chevrolet was good today. It was another day in the car and as more downforce was taken away from the car, the more comfortable it felt. It’s really about logging laps and becoming confident behind the wheel. We ended up seventh on the charts and were able to gain more information regarding the set-up of the car. Looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET:
ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Solid day. We purposely were limiting miles a little bit, but on the runs that we did I think we
accomplished what we wanted to, and got some more good running in the pack this afternoon with the guys. Everybody is getting more comfortable and sort of blowing the dust off of running in a pack here which is very unique to running in a pack to anywhere else. I say good day for the GoDaddy crew and we’ll just keep progressing like this; if we do that we should be in a good position by the end of the week.”
 
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 22 MECUM AUCTIONS PANTHER DREYER AND REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET: “The position means nothing. It’s all about how much tow you get and we’re not playing that game yet! I’m just very happy. Yesterday was a perfect first day, today was a perfect second day. We’re actually in a much better position than we were last year at this time. We have learned a lot about the car and the team has done a great job preparing it. Every time we go out we have a plan of what to try and the plan is working out well. Also, we have to other cars – JR and Townsend – we’re starting to get to a similar set up so that only helps. We have a very good pace and we’re very happy with the progress so far.”

Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Driver Carlos Muñoz Fastest on Day Two in Indianapolis 500 Practice
 
INDIANAPOLIS (May 12, 2013) – Andretti Autosport’s Indianapolis 500 rookie Carlos Muñoz turned the fastest lap during day two of practice for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500. The 21-year old native of Colombia recorded the day’s top speed of 223.023 mph behind the wheel of the No. 26 Unistall Chevrolet IndyCar V6.
 
Defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No, 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, was second quick in the final order after the six-hour session.  His teammates E. J. Viso (No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA Citgo Andretti Autosport HVM Chevrolet) and Marco Andretti (No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet) delivered the third and fourth fastest times respectively.
 
Another rookie, A.J. Allmendinger (No. 2 IZOD Team Penske Chevrolet) rounded out the top-five fastest on the day.
 
Other Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers in the top-10 fastest today as teams continue to prepare for qualifying and then the May 26, 2013 running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” were Ed Carpenter, and James Hinchcliffe.
 
Practice will continue Monday, May 13, 2013, from noon to 6:00 p.m. EDT.
 
CHEVROLET DRIVER QUOTES – PRACTICE DAY TWO:
CARLOS MUÑOZ, NO. 26 UNISTRAW ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – FASTEST IN PRACTICE: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: -” It’s really nice to be on top. It just wasn’t a tow, but maybe a little bit better tow than my teammates. Its a long week, long race too. Still learning, but I have a great car and need to be confident. My teammates help me a lot, and let me know when I do wrong. “
 
ON RUNNING IN GRASS IN TURN ONE – ” It was just a misunderstanding. Inside the turn I went into the dirt, it was close. In the race I’m going to have those situations. I had 2 tires in the grass, so I was lucky to continue. After that I was more comfortable behind the guys.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  “It’s just so great to be back at Indy. The feeling of the first day back on track is pretty special. Andretti Autosport has had a good season so far. We have certainly had a strong run, but all that has nothing to do with Indy. It is kind of like you start over here. We really don’t know where we stack up yet compared to everybody because we haven’t had a full-field out there yet. Today was a good day just to check some things out. We went through some of the bigger changes trying to understand a few things that we were looking at in the winter. Then, we had a chance to run with the teammates. That got interesting at times, but it was fun though. It was fun just getting back in that rhythm of running in traffic at Indy. This place is so special for so many reasons, and it really drives like no other race track. It was good to get back in it; shake a little bit of rust off at Indy, and ready for the week.”
 
ON HOW THE TEAM TRIES TO FORECAST AND PLAN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK: “With these cars, the way IndyCar is now, you have no idea who’s done what in the offseason. To tell you the truth, what we saw last year from Ganassi and Honda, you had no idea that was going to happen on Race Day. I think qualifying will be one show, then the race, you have no idea what anybody has until you get there.
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Well, first day on track… back to historical Indianapolis; very happy to be here. This is my second home during the year and I’m very proud to be part of the team. I think the job we’ve done as a team has been impressive. These guys have put together a fast setup for us for this year. Today we realized we actually went pretty fast; we had a good car on our own and a good car in traffic. I think it’s going to be a flawless and smooth month and I’m really looking forward to it.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “So far the RC Cola car is not quite on pace with my teammates, but I’m not too worried being this early in the month. We put in some good laps, and got a lot out of today’s practice. We’re working a lot on trying to find a good setup that will put us up front – a lot of improvements have been made since last year’s DW12, so I’m pleased with where things are going right now. “
 
A.J. ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Another day in the learning process today and we got a couple different things tested in the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske Chevrolet that should be helpful as we move on. We did a couple of short runs and a full tank run so I could see how the car would feel and I am getting more comfortable with it. To a certain degree I also got to see how the car is going to react in traffic and I thought that was really good. Obviously the cold conditions are a little different than what we will probably have for the race. But to do a race run the car felt pretty good and I’m happy with the progress we made.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET:
ON RUNNING WITH ALL FOUR OF HIS ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT TEAMMATES (ANDRETTI, MUNOZ, HUNTER-REAY, VISO): “The last time we all ran together on an oval was last September, so to get out there with all the other guys was a good starting point. It was really just, more than anything, blowing some of the cob webs off ourselves as drivers running in a draft at a place as tricky as the Speedway. I think it’s a good starting point. There’s obviously a lot of work to do; we’ve got some things we want to try and I think you’ll see us running together a lot over the week.”
 
ON THE MINDSET DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RUNNING ON A ROAD COURSE VERSUS AN OVAL: “I think you’ve got to have a lot of respect for each other and the racetrack when you’re here, certainly. Because the speeds we are going are just so much greater than on a road course. Also the nature of the racetrack – it’s just one groove and it’s a very sensitive place to race. We’re showing each other a lot of respect out there right now, but we’ve got to keep doing it and working to make sure we can be aggressive as we need to be on Sunday (race day).”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  “Yesterday (Saturday) we had a good day and got through everything we wanted to.  Today (Sunday) we had a couple of issues we had to work through.  They are not a big deal, but they got us sidetracked off our game plan a little.  I still feel decent about where our Fuzzy’s car is at right now.  At the same time, we were hoping to get a few more things done on our planning list today.  But we can make it up on Monday.  I want to wish my mom (Laura) and my wife (Heather) a Happy Mother’s Day.  We have spent a lot of Mother’s Days here at IMS over the years and I want to thank the ladies for their continued support here.”
 
JR HILDREBRAND, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “We just opened our account. It was nice to get out here and run some laps, but this was mainly just a shake down for us. The National Guard car felt fine out there and weobviously weren’t being very aggressive with the car. It’s always nice to get back out to the Speedway and we’re excited about continuing our program this week.”