Quotes of the Week
MARCO ANDRETTI, IRL IndyCar driver
"All weekend, I haven't truly been passed and I haven't passed anybody," Andretti said after the Iowa race. "It's tough. If it was up to me, I would want less downforce, and that would make it not just easy flat out." (Marco Andretti talking about IRL's 100% throttle no talent required race at Iowa. In fact most IndyCar races are 100% throttle no talent required endeavors.)
06/25/07
JUAN MONTOYA, NASCAR driver
"This is as big as any victory," Montoya said after winning his first Nextel Cup race Sunday. "You could say it's as big as winning the Indy 500 or winning Long Beach. For me winning Long Beach (CART) was probably cooler than winning the Indy 500 because it was my first-ever big race. Winning here is my first-ever big race in stock cars. They're all right up there. I kinda think this is my favorite. It's amazing. We worked hard for it and not only me, but the whole team deserves this."
06/24/07
MARCO ANDRETTI, IRL driver
I've got to thank Dario Franchitti for the setup today. The guy is unbelievable at setting up the car. His cars finished 1-2 (In Iowa).
WILL POWER, Champ Car driver
"He (Paul Tracy) hit everything . . . then he hit the lottery," said Will Power, who seemed to have the fastest car in the field but blew a front tire late in the 89-lap race and had to pit. We had it," Power said of his potential first win of the season after leading a race-high 32 laps. "Unfortunately, a flat tire – I think a valve stem came out – did us in. We had the fuel, we were quicker than the guys up front. We could have taken the points lead."
PAUL TRACY, Champ Car driver
I'm still kind of in shock with how the race went. I got off to a really bad start, got into the mix with Robert and Graham fighting. They both kind of ran wide in turn three. Graham was kind of way out in the dusty part of the track. When he turned to change directions, go the other way, he had to come to a stop in the middle of a corner without kind of half spinning out. I was coming pretty hard. I knew he was going to have to slow down at the apex, but I thought I could kind of cross under him. He basically parked the car right in front of me to avoid spinning out. I ended up running into him. We both went out in the grass.
LARRY McREYNOLDS on Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 car failing qualifying inspection prior to the Friday practice:
As crew chiefs, we always tended to push the envelope a little harder at a road course. We felt like NASCAR maybe wouldn’t go over things quite as closely at a road course. But I look at (Jeff Gordon’s crew chief) Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon could come out here in a covered wagon and run good, so why does he want to push the envelope on something that he knows that’s going to be marginal, especially as closely as they’re monitoring the Car of Tomorrow?
WALLY DALLENBACH on Juan Pablo Montoya:
Juan Pablo Montoya’s got the ability, he’s got a good race car and if he uses his head, I think he’ll be a top-three race car driver. But that’s the key, he’s got to use his head.
JIMMIE JOHNSON on how the penalty of starting at the back due to cheating has affected the Hendricks Motorsports team:
It’s had a big affect on our team. On the No. 24 (and No.) 48 and I think all the way through the garage area. We all have a much better understanding now of how serious NASCAR is with these cars and the bodies. It doesn’t matter if the templates fit or not, there’s areas that they don’t want you to touch and now that message is crystal clear to us.
GRAHAM RAHAL, Rookie Champ Car driver
I can honestly say our finishing position wasn’t for a lack of effort," said Rahal. “The Medi | Zone car was one of the quickest cars out there. I feel I drove a really good race. We were solid and if we hadn’t had the problem at the beginning of the race we would have been in really good shape. It was disappointing at the start because this guy Doornbos was blocking everybody. I went down the inside of Doornbos into Turn 1 and I got an okay launch out of the corner – not great but enough to hold him off. I came through Turn 3 and he came out and tried to put me in the grass. I guess when he did that I had to check up and (Paul) Tracy just punted me. I haven’t seen a reply so I don’t know exactly. All I know is that I got thrown up in the air, and it’s a good thing this car is strong because otherwise we would have been done for the day. I’m happy that we were competitive after that. We were fast and we had a good car.