Q: Dan and Danica, the last restart you got the great run, and then you had to hold her off instead of making a run on Helio. Did either of you have anything, if the circumstances didn’t arise, if one of you had a clean line?
Patrick: I don’t know what Helio was doing. What speeds was he doing out front, does anybody know?
Q: 220s.
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Patrick: Oh, no. (Laughter) I was doing 218 and a half, and I’m like, “Yeah, this is pretty good, flat-out without lifting. “ If he was doing 220 in the lead, I have a feeling I would have had the same thing to, say Dan did; he was pretty fast. So, obviously, I felt like I had a pretty good run on Dan, and he went low, and I wish I would have went low before he got low because if it was side by side going into the corner with me on the inside, it would have worked, probably. But when you’re side by side going into (Turn) 1 here, it’s not likely because I wasn’t sure if they had a chance to clean the top line into one. It’s just got a good idea. It’s not a two-lane track, really. Paul Tracy makes it a two-lane track out there, obviously. (Laughter) I had the excitement of seeing him on many restarts at the beginning. The guy was amazing, passed three or four cars. So anyway, I don’t know if he was doing 220s on his own, that’s pretty stout.
Q: Danica, you said that having Paul Tracy around is always very exciting. Can you get a little more into that, please.
Patrick: I can’t get into what’s going through his head, that’s for sure. But no, he’s very good out there. He’s very good out there, he makes things happen, you know. He doesn’t wait around for things to happen. He makes them happen. He had amazing restarts, and he was passing guys. He was going on the outside around a lot of cars, and he did it to me. And I went into (Turn) 1 and side by side and side by side through (Turn) 2. He was hanging it out there. So, you know, a guy like that, you know, another tough competitor, you’re glad he’s not around all the time because he’s really good. But I respect PT, he’s a driver that I used to watch when I was younger and coming up the ranks and always used to think, “Wow, my God, if I’m ever that fast, you know. “ So, you know, to be out there running with people like that is really cool for me.
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