Q: Marco, how would you gauge most of the race? There seemed to be periods out there where it was kind of nuts; had a couple of cars crash under caution. Just some nutty things that happened out there. What was your viewpoint of the entire pace of the race?
ANDRETTI: Yeah, it seemed like there was a bit more marbles than usual, so it was really easy to get your right front with understeer. Just touch the marbles with the right front, and it will pancake the car. I think that’s where most of the spins were, but it’s an easy thing to do, for sure.
Q: I guess the second question—no. Marco, the thing that happened with you and Tony there is you seemed to have a head of steam there. Explain from your vantage point what happened.
ANDRETTI: No, I had a huge run, and I went for it. I kept the car as far bottom of the racetrack as possible. Maybe it was a bit too late, but you hate to see this stuff happening with teammates, but I had a run; I went for it. You don’t want to really park the thing because then, because if I wouldn’t have went for it, I would have been overtaken and then I would have been in that position, so I had the run and I went for it. Obviously, if a little bit of that is my fault, I feel absolutely horrible, but I was worried about it when it happened, too. I do what I do and all I can do is concentrate on the race at that time.
Q: Did you feel he left you room, though? Did you feel Tony had left you room?
ANDRETTI: Yeah, he was toward the bottom of the racetrack, but I was on the line turning in or pretty darn close. But that’s racing. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen.
Q: Marco, third place finish, you get in a race and you think you could walk away with a little smile and sometimes it’s not—how do you judge this as a third-place finish?
ANDRETTI: I just think, you know, we just need to look at how we didn’t win the race, that’s all. That’s the only disappointment that’s on my face. Obviously, a championship and everything, it’s great but, you know, we need to look at how we lost the race, that’s all. Then next year not make the same mistake.
Q: Marco, in that last stint, was your car just trimmed out, you couldn’t get past Helio or was Helio actually kind of—did you feel like he was maybe blocking you a little bit?
ANDRETTI: I guess it’s not blocking if he doesn’t do two moves, but he was pretty far to the bottom of the racetrack. My last run on him I knew was my final chance. I faked to go high, so he didn’t block low, and I was able to go low and get him. It’s tough, and you really toward the end of the race when everybody is sort of trimmed out, you’re not going to be able to pass a car, just drive around the car, especially a Penske at the end of the race on the outside. So that was the only way I was going to get him.
Q: Marco, did you talk to grandpop since the end of the race?
ANDRETTI: Yeah.
Q: Did he have any comments?
ANDRETTI: Yeah, just the same thing, we need to sit back and see if we made a mistake, how we made the mistake and why and just build on that, try to fix it. Like I said, that was the question I tried to put to rest initially because that was the mistake, you know, I thought, we trimmed out. But if we would have trimmed out and stayed at the front, it’s the ideal thing to do and it was a team decision. We just ended up going to fourth and making the mistake earlier.
| 
|