Q: Scott, your emotions for finally getting five, and the fact that Hurley Haywood was one of the first ones there to greet you and to congratulate you.
SCOTT PRUETT: It's just an incredible day all the way around, winning with these guys, winning with Chip, with TELMEX, with BMW, and then at the end of it, having gotten to know Hurley real well over the years by racing with him and just as a friend, and to have him there at the end was pretty special, very special thing.
Q: This is for Juan and Scott: How hard was it for you to watch someone else close this out today knowing what everyone had on the line? And Juan, how much did you want to do that and how much of a good feeling was it to close the deal like you did?
SCOTT PRUETT: Well, it's no secret that I've gotten pretty beat up over the years, especially in NASCAR, in IndyCar. I don't know, for some reason my left ankle was bothering me a lot. It was really painful, and sometimes that happens. I knew I could go out and run a fast pace, but I wasn't confident that if I had to go head to head, some real hard, close racing, that I'd have enough strength in my ankle to be able to get it done. I told Timmy, I don't want to do this, but for the good of the team, we need to do it because we don't know how this thing is going to unfold, we don't know who's going to be there at the end, and I got in and ran a couple stints right there at the end and put us in a solid position. Juan got in and just did a tremendous job.
That's one of the things when you get together with a group like this with Memo, with Charlie, with Juan, don't try to be Superman. We've got some very incredibly talented guys that can step in and close it out. I'm just proud to be a part of the team, and it was exciting to finish up on top.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It was a lot of pressure. I thought we have a decent lead, we're just going to go out there and ride for two and a half hours or whatever is left, and then you realize there's a caution and another caution and another caution, and with the way the rules are and the speed the car had, it's like you didn't want to get into a pissing contest with anybody. You had to be smart about when you passed them and everything, so I was always careful on the restarts, and I took my time to pass people.
When they told me the 9 was going to get a penalty, I rode behind for a couple laps, and as soon as he went in, I caught up the 10 car in a half a lap, and a lap later passed him and drove away. We were kind of concerned about the 6 car, what they were going to do with fuel because they told me they could make it until the end and that we were going to have to push, and we pushed like crazy and opened up a hell of a gap. It was fun.
Q: Charlie, there are three professional race car drivers in the world that race as a diabetic. Coming into your first 24-hour race, can you talk about what you had to change as far as your preparation for this race to stay in line with your treatment?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, in an IndyCar race you're in the car for a maximum three and a half hours, and at a 24-hour race they can call you to come jump in the car even though they've got a plan when you're going to drive and not, usually when the green flag flies, that plan goes straight out the window. So I had to make sure I was prepared and ready and conscientious about where my blood sugar was and when I was injecting and what I was eating and making sure I was getting the nutrition I needed, but also making sure my blood glucose was where it was supposed to be for that whole 24 hours.
For the last four hours when Scott was finishing up his stints and Juan was getting ready to climb in and close it out, then I could relax a little bit. But until then, even all day Friday, Friday night, Saturday morning, I was really having to pay attention and focus on being prepared and as regimented as possible in a race that's typically very unregimented.
Q: Charlie, did you only do one stint?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I did two stints, but once in the car, yeah.
Q: Your first time racing with a roof, and the pressure of this and the pressure of being with these guys, how do you find the whole experience?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I think the pressure side, having these guys as teammates takes a heck of a lot off my shoulders because I knew that I could settle in, and as long as I was smart and didn't make too many big mistakes and kept us in the race they'd put us in a position to win at the end. Overall what an incredible race, though. It's unbelievable, and with about four hours to go, I looked up and thought, we have the whole Indy 500 left to run as far as time, and my second thought was, why do they only do this once a year, because what an incredible -- it's hard on everybody, mechanics, team, drivers, but it's such an awesome event and such a great race, and just to be a part of it with these guys and learn from these guys, I think it'll help me not only in this side with the roof but also without a roof.
Q: Juan, a big year for you because I think you want to perform better in your full-time job. Can you talk about what this means for you and what kind of momentum it can give you?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think it's good. I think personally it's a boost getting the job done. The last few years we finished second, we finished fourth, we finished third, we've been there all the time, and it's been painful. It's like you get so close, and the last season caught pretty hard.
I think testing has gone really, really well over the last couple months with the new car, and it seems like we've got a lot more speed than we had last year. It's encouraging. I'm very conservative to see how good we're going to be, but we're probably 80 percent better prepared than last year, and that is good. Everybody -- we had to hire a ton of new people last year and now everybody is working together, everybody understands their job and what needs to be done, so it's been pretty good?
Q: Do you think you're racing for your job this year?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think you always race for your job. It's normal.