Danica Patrick: “They feel very different, and I like the sensation an IndyCar gives”
Oct 12, 2007
Indy Car
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s a pretty fast track. We came here with ideas about what the gears would be, and it’s pretty much one higher or two everywhere. It’s faster. There’s quite a bit of grip out there. I can imagine if we were ever spending a significant amount of time here it would get very grippy, because there’s not much rubber down right now. It’s very nice. As far as safety goes, there’s a couple of things that I’m sure we would make adjustments with to make it good enough for racing. At this point, it’s purely a place for us to try things back to back to see if it works, to see if it makes the car actually faster or feel better, so at this point it’s serving that purpose. It’s always nice to go fast, but it’s not critical today. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you can feel the changes and you can tell the engineer whether or not it worked that’s really the only thing that matters today. But, that doesn’t stop us from trying. ” (About NASCAR) It’s an option. It’s something out there, especially the last year and a half when I was dealing with my contract negotiations for when I went to Andretti Green. I love IndyCar. I love driving these cars. I’m sure any of the NASCAR guys could tell you that have driven an open-wheel car versus theirs it’s the difference between a Lamborghini and a Taurus. It’s not really comparable. They feel very different, and I like the sensation an IndyCar gives. I like the racing. This is what I grew up watching with my family. This is where my heart is right now. Maybe one day it will take me elsewhere or else the options will just be of a degree that I’ll want to try something new. At this point, I’m really happy with where I’m at. IndyCar is exciting, and I think that anybody that watches NASCAR and then watches IndyCar, especially live, you can really see the difference in speed, and you can hear it. It’s so much different. There’s not as many of us out there, but it’s pretty technical. ”(About possible race here): “Just by judging how many people are out here today when, to be honest, I didn’t really think there would be anybody that’s fun. It kind of reminds of me of Mid-Ohio when we went there for the test in the summertime before the race. We had 100,000 people or something that weekend. It was a huge event, but it was really foreshadowed in the test because so many fans were out there so excited. There’s definitely a lot of them here, and there’s only seven drivers. I think that it’s something that could happen in the future. We will go anywhere where we feel like we’ll be a successful event. We can put on a good show anywhere. I think as far as logistics go here at the track there are some safety things that would have to be adjusted track-wise to make it safe enough for us to go out there. While we’re going fast, we’re not at 100 percent right now. We’re not racing side-by-side, we’re not bumping, we’re not throwing anybody into any gravel traps or walls. I think there would be some things that would have to change. Pit lane isn’t wide enough for us. We need some more room. Things like that. If you guys show us that there’s be a good turnout here, and that we would be able to have a successful event, I’m sure that it would definitely be considered. ”
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s not a point of being the quickest. With such limited testing, we’re trying to accomplish things we don’t have a chance to do during the year. It’s an extra test day. We made some big changes like probably every team did, because this is the only chance to do it. It was an exciting day, nice to be back in the car. A couple of weeks ago I was in Iowa as well, but it’s always exciting to be back on a road course like this. Nice place. I think there is some room for improvement, but I had fun. ” (What does this track compare to? ): “I would say Sonoma is the only place that testing here helps. Tracks are very different. ”
DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “They said the track officials wanted our opinions in what we would do to change the track to race here. Honestly, I don’t think they need to change a thing. They said it’s too narrow, but it isn’t any more narrow than anywhere else we race. It’s a beautiful facility. I’m impressed. If it’s up to drivers if we race here or not, then I’m all for racing here. Let’s do it. ”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE Group Dallara/Honda/Firestone): (About prior experience at Barber Motorsports Park): “Unfortunately, it didn’t help much when I was here (before). It was about five years ago when I was here in a Skip Barber car, so basically it just told me the direction of the circuit - which way it goes. It’s good fun. It’s a very technical track. It’s very hard to be consistent, hard to be flowing. It’s hard to get in a rhythm because there are a lot of blind corners. It’s very tough to get right - car placement and such. It’s a challenging track for a driver, which is always good. Testing-wise it’s kind of tough to get consistent information. But, we go to racetracks like that, so it’s good testing for that. ”(About the track): “Turn 1 you don’t know where the car needs to be until you’re already there, so it’s also the corner where you get it right or not at that speed it’s quite dangerous there, no margin for error. If we were to race here, we’d have to make some corners tighter. It would be heavier breaking, which gives you the opportunity to pass. Turn 5 is our only heavy breaking point. Otherwise, it’s really fast entry everywhere, so you’re just using the break to stabilize the car you’re not really hard on it. That’s a corner where we’re really working on the cars, working on traction to get added in for the street courses. I think this would be an awesome motorcycle circuit, which is what it is really. For IndyCars, it’s very narrow, and we’d need some safety updates to race here. There’s no margin for error. To race, we do need tighter corners for passing or else you’re just going to see follow the leader. To drive, it’s good fun. It’s very challenging. ” (About adding road courses): “I love road courses. More than five (on our schedule) would be great. Maybe less of those bigger, bigger ovals, but short ovals and big ovals are part of it as well. As a driver, it’s really tough to place the car where it needs to be every lap, so it’s hard to get in a rhythm. You can’t go out and do five real consistent laps, because either you’re going to get it right or you’re not, so that’s what we’re dealing with right now.
VITOR MEIRA (No. 4 Panther Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was good. We actually found a couple of very good things. Mainly what we were trying here was to change the philosophy of the way we approach things, and it really did pay off. This is a very good track to do this. Honestly, this is the best test track we’ve been to, because it has everything - smooth, slow speed, banking. Not only is it a beautiful facility, but it is one that serves you. I would say Daytona - it is very good for the league, but it is not very good for the cars. It doesn’t serve much there. It’s a different track that you have to approach differently. It’s a unique track. This one you can practice and you can test a bunch of things that will serve you for a long time in many other places. We did accomplish a lot. You always want to be faster, but honestly that’s as close as we’ve been to the AGR and Ganassi and Penske - three-tenths (of a second). That’s pretty good. We’re making progress. That’s what counts. ”
