Tough day for Marco

Following a rain-perturbed Indy 500, the drivers had many thoughts to share after participating in the event's 91st edition.

BUDDY RICE (#15 A1TeamUSA/DRR Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"I saw Marco (Andretti) get up in the air, and I had to slow way down and avoid the crash. But then someone just punted me from behind. I just couldn't do anything about it. I guess some of the guys behind me didn't see the crash. It is a shame because after the last pit stop the car really felt good. I was moving well and looking to make some passes. I feel we had a top-10 finish in the A1 TEAM USA Honda. The crew had some great stops today, and we had a little bit of bad look before the rain delay. We pitted on the green right before John Andretti's crash. Had we been able to pit under that yellow flag, we would have had a car toward the top five then. We were right behind Vitor (Meira) prior to the crash, and he came out fourth. This Dreyer & Reinbold team is coming together more and more with each race. We learned more about the car and the crew today. It's too bad we had to finish this way. We'll move on to Milwaukee now. Get ready for The Mile."

MILKA DUNO (#23 CITGO Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"After I was passing in Turn 1, one car passed on the inside and another car was in the middle. When I was coming, they slowed down too much, and my car lost all the aerodynamic charge in front and there was no way to control the car." (About the crash): "You try to control the car, but everything happens so fast. You have no margin for mistake. There really was no mistake. I was just behind two cars, and they slowed down too much. It was a reason, and I wasn't slow long but in the corner it's not the same. They slowed down in the corner." (About remaining schedule): "I am going to Texas; the next race is Texas. For me, it is Texas." (Do you have more confidence going into Texas?): "Yes, I was feeling very good. My engineer, my guys gave me such a good car. We were running so well. This is a very tough race, but we have a good car. My car was perfect; it was so good." (About first Indy 500 experience): "For me it was a fantastic, fantastic month. Working hard was great for me. I enjoyed every single moment in Indianapolis. It was a place I always wanted to be here a long time ago. I am here. I qualified, I was part of the group. I was racing. It is difficult to describe with words."

DANICA PATRICK (#7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"I had a fast car, and it was a good day except for some bad luck at the end. Then the rain came, and I was in the wrong place. Another year of frustration where I really thought I had a chance to win. It's frustrating. I'm glad that in all the mix-up at the end, with fuel stops and the rain, that one of our guys won and not someone else."

MARCO ANDRETTI (#26 NYSE Group Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"I'm going to be bruised, but to come out of that bruised, I'm going to be happy. I'm very lucky, for sure. What's making me overcome the bruises right now is this (pointing to Victory Lane), I'm so happy for Dario, that's all I can say." (What happened?): "I was upside down for a long time. I'm so lucky. My mirror was broke, so I had no idea who was outside me, whoever it was. I think it might have been Dan (Wheldon). I apologize. I'm so thankful Andretti Green came out on top. It's just one of those days where, for whatever reason, I lost the balance. It rained, we went out, and I was nowhere. The NYSE car was definitely a contender in the beginning."

SAM HORNISH JR. (#6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"We were pretty happy with the Team Penske car at the end of the race. We had a cut tire before the first storm, which was pretty unfortunate, but at least we got to continue the race after the rain. We battled back from 15th to fourth, so obviously we were fortunate to get another shot. The car was running well. We just didn't have enough for the leaders at the end due to the race being cut short. If the rain held off, the leaders would've had to pit and we didn't need to, so we had a bit of bad luck. It's not an ideal result, but at least we ended up a lot better than how we were sitting a few hours ago. I really have to hand it to everyone at Team Penske. The guys did an amazing job all day on pit stops as well as the entire month. Now we just have to look ahead to Milwaukee and hopefully we can get a win there."

SARAH FISHER (#5 AAMCO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"We had a pretty good car. We just didn't have everything go our way. As competitive as this sport is, it's really difficult unless everything goes your way. I thought I caught up to traffic a couple of times, and had some pit stop issues. We have a pretty good car. We know where it's at, and I think that's going to be good for us going to Milwaukee. We'll think about it and try to bring the car and driver together."

ROGER YASUKAWA (#24 Wellman Corbier/DRR Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"It was unfortunate that we had to cut short because of the rain. The car was excellent for the first 100 laps, and I was pretty confident going back out there but things didn't really go our way at the end of the race. I think the competitiveness of the league gets tougher every year. Being able to come here in the second week and do what we've done, I think the crew did an excellent job and I'm really happy. I want to thank Wellman-Corbier Custom Homes for their support, and hopefully we can go from here."

ED CARPENTER (#20 Hitachi Power Tools Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"Marco, when he was upside down, I turned and got into Buddy, and I did like a 360 and drove away. I mean, the car was broke bad, but I was still driving and we knew it was going to rain, so I was trying to make it to the checkered. Coming off (Turn) 2 under yellow and the left suspension broke and broke the brake line, and everything started scaling down and hitting the inside wall."

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source IRL Indycar