At Indy it’s more luck than skill sometime
When you get three Indy 500 wins, do you quit kicking yourself over the ones that got away? You say, “Hey, I got three," and think that's awesome in itself?
In the famous Green Room before the 500, I tend to sit off to one side and try to get my head in gear, and maybe Tony [Kanaan] will come and sit next to me or I'll be pretty much on my own. But before the 2011 race, A.J. Foyt came and sat next to me. Now, I look up to A.J., but just before the biggest race in the world, it's a bit… “Wow"…to have one of the four-time winners come and sit next to you. And he said to me, “You know, I've won a lot of these." I say, “Umm, yeah, I know…". He continues: “There were a lot more I could have won, and there were ones I won that I shouldn't have won. At Indy, when it's your day, it's your day." And after that race, A.J.'s point really sunk home.
There are ones that I think got away from me, and there are others that I won that other people think got away from them! In 2010, we dominated, but in '07, '11 and '12 there were two or three of us that I felt could win. So I don't want to say, “I should have won this one, I should have won that one," because you can't change it. It's cast in stone, the results sheet says it all and I'm very happy. You look at someone like Tony or Michael Andretti and…it's incredible how they haven't won there. Tony, I think, can still win at least one. Michael never won one and it had nothing to do with talent or speed; it just never happened. I mean, I also think it's amazing that Mario Andretti and Parnelli Jones only won Indy once. That kind of sums the place up: when it's your day, it's your day, like A.J. said.