Indianapolis 500 race day quotes

 

It was a heck of an Indy 500. It's amazing Dario pulls it off again. We're thrilled with a top-10 finish. We're a small team. I didn't quite have the straightaway speed we thought we should have today, but we're proud to finish in the top 10."

 

(About race progress): "Smooth and steady. We had a big start and got out to the outside. Then we just got settled in and began to work with the car. The guys made good changes on the stops. We didn't make any mistakes, which was our theme today – no mistakes. And we did that."

 

(About another top-10 finish for Bell at Indianapolis): "This year my theme was, 'Take what you get and don't take any more.' And I felt like I did that all day, and it paid off. I got a little greedy there at the start and picked off six cars. I almost got in trouble there in the exit of Turn 2 up against the wall. But other than that, we made smart decisions. And I'm just really proud to give Sam a solid finish with no drama after three years. I hope to come back do it all over again next year."

 

MICHEL JOURDAIN JR. (No. 30 Office Depot/RLL Racing Honda): "I was very happy to finish the race. I made a few mistakes on pit lane. We came in the pits with full speed, and we got penalized. We were running excellent with Oriol (Servia), and he did fantastic. I feel like we could have finished 10th or 11th, so it is what it is."

 

JR HILDEBRAND (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet): "Not by anybody's doing in particular, but it just kind of ended up being a long day for us. We got caught up in somebody's pit lane incident early that put us back. Then we kept climbing our way back up through the field but then ended up continuing to run into problems. It's disappointing for the National Guard boys. We felt like we had a good shot at running up at the front today and at points during the race had that going. We'll just keep working through the season and get ready for Indy next year."

 

(On racing the new car at Indianapolis for the first time): "The cars definitely stay closer together. But in the big scheme of things, because they're going slower, it's not too much harder to deal with. I think the conditions probably were more a factor in the guys that ended up getting up into the wall and that kind of stuff than the cars themselves."

 

E.J. VISO (No. 5 CITGO/PDVSA KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "I had a lot of good thoughts and a strong belief that we would finish in a great position today. It didn't happen because of some issue that occurred with the car during the race. The biggest problem was a big vibration that we believed was coming from the dampers. The vibrations then caused a whole series of other problems. I feel lucky I did not put the car in the wall. I want to give a lot of credit to the team. We had a pretty smooth month of May. We learned some things and grew as a team. I didn't have the best car out there today. However, the entire crew put in a lot of effort, and we did finish the race. I want to congratulate my teammate Tony Kanaan. He almost won this race and ended up finishing third. I believe we are getting better every race, and some good results are coming.

 

JAMES JAKES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): "We had quite a bit of misbalance in tires. One time, one side would be very good, and the other side isn't so good. But you know it was my first '500,' and we were the second (highest finishing) rookie. I was trying to get Rubens there at the end, but he just had a bit too much straight-line speed for us. I finished the race on the lead lap. I put myself in the position that I wanted to be in; we just didn't have the pace to get there. I'm happy with 15th in my first Indy. I'll just learn from this, take the points and move on to next year."

 

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 98 Team Barracuda-BHA Honda): "It was unfortunate because I think we had a car to win. Obviously, the Honda power did fantastic. We were good on fuel; mileage was amazing with our car. The balance was good. Unfortunately, we had a problem with the steering wheel, and it happened in qualifying where the weight jacker didn't work. So I lost a lot of the command (in the car). I had problems finding neutral in the pit. I couldn't really find the pit limiter. I got caught once, so I had to reset it all the time. Then the drink didn't work, so I didn't drink all race. That's pretty tough.

 

But the weight jacker was mainly our big issue. Without being able to balance the car in traffic, out of traffic, on your own, with the turbulence and the track changing, it was pretty hard. It was tough at the end to try to make the pass. It was a lot easier at the beginning to make passes for us because we had the perfect balance. We could play with the jacker and get the thing done. At the end, we just had the sway bar. We had that electronic problem happen earlier in the week, and we have to figure out what it is. But the team did good. For one race with Honda, I think we proved to everyone we belong with Honda, and there's more to come with this team."

 

KATHERINE LEGGE (No. 6 TrueCar-Dragon Racing Chevrolet): "It was 500 miles, so we really learned a lot. I'm pleased in a lot of ways but also disappointed, as it just didn't go the way we hoped. We went a lap down early, and then you're kind of moving backward through the field. I think we had a car to finish better than 22nd, and I hate that we didn't finish higher because the entire TrueCar crew has worked so hard. I'm glad we finished the race, and I really thought I'd be in a lot worse shape when I got out of the car, but I feel pretty good. The Indy 500 is definitely an experience."

 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 7 Dragon Racing Chevrolet): "It was a very tough day. We just tried to bring it home. We kept working on the car trying to make it better. It did get a touch better, but it was just never really where we needed it to be to be able to challenge people in traffic. It's just been a long day, a long month. If we couldn't get it to the front, then the target was to bring it home with four wheels on it, and that's what we did. That's, I guess, all we could do today."