Manning was impressed

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

AL UNSER JR. (#50 AJ Foyt Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"It was one of those races. I can't remember having such a crazy race in terms of weather. It rained, and then we stopped, and then we got back out there, and it rained again. I've never seen something like this before here at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway."

TOMAS SCHECKTER (#2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"I knew I had the car to be where it belonged. I think a lot of guys up there shouldn't have been up there really because they still needed a stop. It was a little bit of fuel strategy. We had a top-five car. I was just wishing for a green, because I was flying at the end. It was a pity. I'm really happy with a top-10 finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway." (During rain delay, about incident with Hornish): "I'm pissed off. We've been told so many times in drivers' meetings not to block or stop a driver when he's got a run. Sam's done that. It's such a pity. He's such a good champion, such a good driver but what an idiot, a real idiot. Straight down the front straight, comes straight in. I hope I damaged his car when he hit my front wing. We are lucky that he had just a flat tire and I've got a broken wing. Next time he does that to me, I'm definitely not going to lift and will ram him straight into that front wall."

JAQUES LAZIER (#21 Indiana Ice/Venture Logistics Panoz/Honda/Firestone)
"I'm obviously very disappointed right now. It's not the way we wanted it to end. We had a good run going, but all things said and done, I'm very proud of everyone at Playa Del Racing. The Indiana Ice, the car, we had a good run. We even led a couple laps, so it was a good strong effort. The entire month of May, we've been working on our race setup, and it was pretty good for a while. I don't know. I was just turning in to Turn 4, and we were back up into the wall. It's frustrating to end it that way, especially since the team worked as hard as they did. You never want to end it that way before." (About staying prepared during rain delay): "They pay us to be that way, so you have to be to be 100 percent when you go back out. You know, I think at one point we were running pretty competitive laps, and I actually think at that point we were leading. We led a couple laps, too. We were ready, and we had a little problem where we came in and we ran out of fuel going into (Turn) 3. And we had to coast in and had to start it back up and stalled it again, we went back in and had to do it again. So we lost a lap that way and had to catch up, but I can't say anything negative with these guys. They worked extremely hard, and it's too bad because the last couple of years we've had good runs here, and we just don't have the luck that we need."

RICHIE HEARN (#91 Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"My car was not very good. We really struggled with the car. All I tried to do was not crash the whole time. It's not the way I wanted to race, but that's what we had. We only had 60 total laps before today, when most of these teams had 600 or 700 laps. I survived it and can chalk it up to experience, but I'm not very satisfied with it except for the fact that I didn't put it in the wall."

DARREN MANNING (#14 ABC Supply Co./AJ Foyt Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"I've never seen anything like it. I talked to Al (Unser Jr.) and A.J. (Foyt, Jr.) - those guys have a lot of races around here - and they said that no two races are ever the same here. I think they just proved it today. It rains, it dries, and it rains again. We go around 40 miles per hour aquaplaning. I thought I'd never see that in my life."

SCOTT SHARP (#8 Patrón Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"A good day for the Patron Rahal Team. You know, it was up and down all day. It kept seeming like we got the bad stick on a lot of the yellows. They just came out at wrong times for us, like, right after we would pit. It happened like two or three times. Traffic was tough. There were a couple of guys that were a lap or two down that decided to give me a hard time. Not really sure why that is. I don't have any problems with anybody out here. This sport has a funny way of what goes around comes around. Eventally, you get by that person. You just smoke them off in about two laps you are a straight away ahead of them. It's like what are you doing. That hurt us a bit. We rebounded well and finished sixth and it is something for us to work off of."

RYAN BRISCOE (#12 Symantec Luczo Dragon Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"It's a huge team effort. We came in at the last minute to do this race. My pit crew guys had every single pit stop absolutely perfect. Absolutely amazing. They put in so much effort. It's been so much fun. It was good. When we stopped before (red flag for rain in the middle of the race), we were 10th. I knew the car was coming back, and we deserved better than that. We had third at one point, and I got chopped by Fisher on that restart, and we lost two positions. So it was sort of between third and fifth. I'm really happy."

DAVEY HAMILTON (#02 HP Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone)
"Man, I tell you what, these guys did a great job with this Vision Hewlett-Packard car. It was all strategy, really. Our car was OK. That last restart, I actually had a good one, but the two Penske guys got by me because I got hung up a little bit. But, man, it was a great day." (What was the racing like out there overall?): "After the restart, my car wasn't quite as good in traffic. It was better by myself. But Rick (Galles) knew that and he had a hell of a strategy. These guys figured out what we needed to do and did one hell of a job to get us up where we were."

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source IRL Indycar