Q: Scott is returning to the Indianapolis 500 in the No. 16 Tequila Patron Panther Racing entry. This will be Scott’s 14th Indianapolis 500. He has five top-10 finishes in the race, including his last three in a row from 2005 through 2007 with a career best sixth-place finish in 2007. He also won the pole in 2001. Scott is the IndyCar Series career leader with 146 starts from 1996 through 2007.
Scott, welcome back to the IndyCar Series. Tell us about the decision to come back and compete in the Indy 500, joining a team like Panther Racing that’s had success there as well.
SCOTT SHARP: Yeah, obviously very excited to be able to get back for the race. Certainly to be having all the support of Tequila Patron, and Muscle Milk is another one of our sponsors, and to be able to come do it with Panther. We talked a few different times in the past. They had a great run last May obviously, had a really good Indy month. So I’m super excited. I think it’s probably the best opportunity I’ve had coming to May. I can’t wait to get on track next week.
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Q: Obviously you haven’t been in the IndyCar Series for a little over a year, racing in the ALMS. Do you think there’s going to be an adjustment to get back in the car or is it kind of like riding a bicycle, you just get back on and go?
SCOTT SHARP: I hope there’s not much. I don’t think so. You know, I’ve been around there a lot, fortunately. Had the opportunity to do the race as many times as I have. I simply love and cherish every lap around that track.
I’ve dreamt about it so much over the years, I think I could do it in my sleep. So I’m pretty hopeful once I get out there, it’s all going to come back pretty quick. I was listening a little bit there with Paul’s interview. We’re going to try to run a little bit of ROP as a refresher sort of as a casual way to get back up to speed. I’m expecting that to all come pretty quickly, so…
Q: I’m sure you’ve been watching the series from afar. It’s obviously very competitive, maybe more competitive than it was your last couple years. How tough do you think it’s going to be to qualify in the top 11 on pole day?
SCOTT SHARP: I think it’s going to be pretty tough, for sure. No doubt the series is really competitive. It looks like a lot of the teams have closed up on the top couple teams. Maybe some of the advantages they’ve had in the past are a little more widely available now. And I think certainly I imagine that five through 15 type spots are going to be really, really tough. It’s going to be a tenth of a mile an hour over four laps that’s going to be the difference. I’m expecting it to be competitive. There’s nothing like qualifying at the Indy 500. Something I’ve always gotten really pumped up for. I think it’s going to be great to be part of it.
Q: You come as a one-off. You join a team in Panther Racing that has Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indy 500 champion. In a situation like that, how closely do you work with Dan when it’s a teammate really for just one race like this? Have you talked already or what’s the plan there?
SCOTT SHARP: Well, I think the way Panther plans to do it, certainly everything is open, everybody is working together, one big team. Dan and I have always gotten along really well, so no issues there. I have a lot of respect for him. He knows his way around that place really well. It’s just a matter of I think, you know, adjusting our cars every little bit we can to get the most out of them. I imagine we’re going to work pretty well together. With us both having a lot of experience, I’m pretty hopeful it’s not going to take me long to get up to speed and I can be contributing pretty quickly. I think it’s going to work really well.
Q: I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves down the road, but how much do you think about the future years? Do you see this as an opportunity to come back for several more starts in the 500 or have you given that any thought?
SCOTT SHARP: You know, racing’s all about opportunity. I’ve always said that. We’ve had a good run with Tequila Patron in ALMS the last couple years. You never know. You never know what’s going to come along. I’m excited to be back this year. If the right things can all come together and we can look at doing more races, certainly look at running another 500 or two, that would be fantastic.
Q. Paul was talking earlier about the difference, he’s not coming back here just to be in the Indianapolis 500, he’s coming back with the idea of winning it. I assume that’s your mindset as well, that there’s no other reason to be doing this other than coming into it with the idea that you got a realistic chance to be a factor in the race.
SCOTT SHARP: Frankly, absolutely. All across the board I think for everyone involved. Panther doesn’t need to run another car just to run one. Patron is probably only going to get a really great return on investment and solid exposure if we’re running well and having a chance. For me, I feel so fortunate. When someone said this is going to be my 14th Indy 500, it’s like there’s no way. To think I’ve been able to do it so many times. With that being said, I’ve had enough going on, just had a baby last week, got an ALMS race in the middle of this month, there’s enough happening, I don’t need to come do the race just to run around 12th. So certainly, like I said earlier, it’s my favorite race, my favorite track. I think I’ve always felt like I’ve gotten where I wanted to be at some point in the month, whether that was in practice, whether that was in qualifying, certain stages of the race, but never was able to, for varieties of reasons, get it all together when I needed to for maybe the last couple stops and be able to really go challenge for the win.
Certainly coming back to try to put that all together and do just that.
Q. One-offs haven’t had a great deal of success here. Do you think the IRL, as it’s constituted now, a lot of turnover, do you think the environment is such now that somebody in your situation can come in and maybe have a better chance now than you might have been able to have in years past?
SCOTT SHARP: Certainly hopeful. I remember Michael (Andretti) did it a couple years ago I think and finished third. I certainly think it’s very situational. Even then, it depends a lot on how the race goes. Certainly I’m excited to be at Panther and think that they want to see us equally do well. I think obviously when you’re not running regularly, you really got to dot your I’s, cross your T’s. There’s less room for error from a competitive perspective. You can’t be letting down in any area.
But I think they’ve assembled a really great group of guys for me. I think they’re going to give me a really great car. Like I said, Dan and I are going to work well. Based on all the work they’ve done, how they ran there last year, I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape. I’ve always felt the 500, it’s a race from the moment you wake up it’s got to be your day and things have just got to fall into place. There’s enough elements going on during that race that things are out of your control, things have to flow your way. I think if we have a good month, qualify strongly, get a good racecar, we wake up, it’s one of those days, no doubt we can go win the race.
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Q. How does all this racing fit in with your other commitments on your other racing? Do you have the time to do it?
SCOTT SHARP: You know, it’s a little bit of a handful. But everyone’s extremely supportive. Obviously Patron is over the top supportive in their backing of me, the fact that they’re the sponsor of our Patron Highcroft racing entry in ALMS, certainly helps they’re the sponsor at Indy. But Duncan Dayton, all the guys have been fantastic. Hopefully a couple of them are going to come help us out a little bit with the Panther team. They certainly have very capable people as it is, but just to keep some continuity there.
Overall, you know, the answer to that, straight up, everyone has been super supportive in recognizing we’re going to have to bend in certain spots if needed. But the only part that makes that at all difficult is we have a race in Utah during the second weekend of qualifying. We very much want to qualify the first couple days. There’s some scenarios out there where if that didn’t happen I could still probably get back to qualify on that third day on Saturday. You know, that throws a little bit of a wrench into things. Overall, I think we’ve known that from the beginning, we’ve been able to plan accordingly, and don’t really expect that to be much of a problem.
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