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Panther Racing
Meira, driver of the No. 4 Delphi Panther Racing Honda-powered Dallara, made his IndyCar Series debut at Kentucky Speedway in 2002. He talked about the level of intensity that racing side-by-side requires.
Q. The one and a half mile ovals have obviously historically been places that have the side by side racing, the pack racing. Coming out of Michigan as a group, not you individually, but drivers in general, do you guys take anything away from Michigan and really what we saw there and maybe take a different approach now coming into Kentucky?
VITOR MEIRA: Well, we do, we do. Actually, I was talking with (Helio) Castroneves about it. It’s very good to run close and it’s good to run two- three- wide, but everybody has to understand that bad things can happen, and I think we have to push. We have always to get the best out of every opportunity. But also we have to know that when to do that.
And I think in Michigan we were a little bit over the edge, not only who crashed but everybody during the race was a little bit over the edge. And I’m not blaming others or even myself, it’s just that’s how it was in Michigan, that’s how the race is there in Michigan.
Kentucky, Chicago, that’s not going to happen because the race is not as one, it’s not as fast, and there’s not as many grooves. So I think the racing is going to be back to normal. But again, what we learned from Michigan is that it doesn’t matter how many how much experience we have, it doesn’t matter who you’re running with, mistakes happen, and that can translate into sometimes bad news. So we all have to have busy minds.
Cunningham, the 2005 Indy Pro Series champion, talked about joining AFS Racing and its partnership with Andretti Green Racing’s IndyCar Series program.
Q. Since you’ve been tied in with the IndyCar program in some respects, does it look like there’s an opportunity either later this year in the fall or winter with AGR or anybody else to finally get into the IndyCar Series and do some testing and maybe move up?
WADE CUNNINGHAM: Well, testing is definitely something that we’ve talked about all year. I think the way the IRL schedules work over the summer was being on back to back weekends or whatever it was, it definitely made things difficult. And now they are very, very focused on trying to win the championship. Definitely that’s probably out of the question until after the season is over.
But being with AFS/Andretti Green, I do think I’ve been able to build a relationship with the owners that I wouldn’t have been able to if I hadn’t been with the team. So it’s definitely a positive, and I’m pretty hopeful and fairly confident it might lead to something.
