Dario Franchitti has added his name to the Indy 500 victory list. Here is the transcript of the winner's press conference in which Dario Franchitti, Michael Andretti, Kim Green, and Kevin Savoree took part at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we greet the winner of the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500, Dario Franchitti, and Andretti Green Racing. Congratulations, gentlemen. An incredible day. Dario, I can't imagine how many twists, turns, emotions, not only for you but your entire ownership team.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I would imagine at this point these guys have better stories than me, apart from Michael because he was busy today. These guys saw the whole picture, working all five cars, the ups and downs throughout the day.

What can I say? I'm in shock at this point, I must say. I'm definitely in shock. We started off the first stint of the race. I was really struggling with the car with understeer. Progressively we just worked on it, through each pit stop made it better. I was really happy with it. When the red flag came out, one of those bittersweet moments there. I'm looking, seeing Tony leading the thing and looking like he's going to win it. I'm thinking, I think my car is good enough here, but at the same point my best friend's leading this race, my other two teammates second and third. You know, it's looking like a pretty good day for us, isn't it, at that point?

The selfish side of me is thinking I hope we go back racing because I think we can do something. At the same point, if the result would have stayed after the red flag, I wouldn't be anywhere as happy as I am now, but it was probably going to be the second best result of the day.

And then after the red, we had a cut in the right rear tire. I guess we ran over some carbon from the last accident. We had to pit. That wasn't our intention, but we had to do it for safety, I guess. That put us on the strategy that won us the race. Pretty happy right now about that (laughter).

Then the last, when we got into the lead -- first of all, I had to fight my way back through the pack. That was exciting. Ended up not only behind the guys one the lead lap but behind the lap cars, too. The car was really good. Managed to get through the traffic pretty quickly, get back up into contention. Then the strategy, our roll of the dice proved to be the lucky one. We got in front, made a couple of good restarts, then the rain came. This place, it's been a roller-coaster month and definitely a roller-coaster day. I just, as I said, am in shock right now.

MODERATOR: Michael, I'm going to go back to a conversation I had with you in the Milwaukee airport two years ago. You had just come off a race at Nashville where your car got into Victory Lane, but you had a couple of cars with some significant mechanical problems. At Milwaukee you had a great quality team finish, but your car did not get into Victory Lane. I asked you which scenario do you most prefer, all your cars basically having good quality finishes or having one guy get into Victory Lane with the other couple cars getting torn up. I remember your answer then. I'm curious about it now.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI: It's still all about winning, isn't it? That's why we have five cars out there. Hopefully one of 'em is going to be in the right position. And that's what happened.

At the first part of the race, we had three in a good position. In the end, we had one. Lucky that it was Dario. That's the way it works out for us. Like I said, we're all about the win. We want the wins. We're very happy today that Dario was able to get it. I'm so very happy for him personally. He deserves it. He's been such a big part of Andretti Green Racing since day one. He's helped build it to where it is today. I'm just so happy that he was able to get the benefits of that. I'm really happy for him.

MODERATOR: Kevin Savoree, I saw you nodding there. Obviously, you had a glorious run at Andretti Green Racing a couple years ago. You found yourself in a fight-back position in 2006. Now it looks like your squad is back where you're the most comfortable and happy. Congratulations on a win at the Indianapolis 500.

KEVIN SAVOREE: Thanks very much. Again, I'm so proud of this organization. Last year here we just got our butt kicked. Through some strategy, we were almost there. Then, you know, as the season progressed, we just kept getting clobbered. We made a real commitment to development over the winter. I think it showed how much it paid off early in the month on Pole Day. But that's nothing like getting into Victory Circle.

Personally, I'm so proud of Dario. He sat down with us after Fontana at the end of '05 and basically said, I'm going to give this one more year. He's always been that kind of guy, very honest with us. He's such a part of our family. Then he followed up last year. He said, I've got some more left in me. I think he showed that today. Very determined. Drove his butt off. You know, just couldn't be more proud of him.

MODERATOR: Kim, you've been through these wars many times. It's a strenuous month, difficult month. There's the emotional twists and turns. I'm looking at the face of a guy who has I think look of satisfaction. I can't tell whether it's satisfaction or relief, as well.

KIM GREEN: All day today, we had race cars in strong positions. Certainly, we were doing a big rain dance at Lap 113 hoping it would rain out at that point. Danica drove a great race. In the end, the rain probably got to us a bit earlier than we thought it. Everybody at AGR, all five drivers today, did an awesome job. It was a very fast-paced race at the start. We had very, very good race cars. I think the way it all played out, we sort of covered the bases. I was a little bit concerned we only had one up the front toward the end rather than three of them.

I know every one of other drivers is disappointed but extremely happy because this is a team that works together, strives to get perfect race cars, and strives to help each other out on the racetrack so they can work together on the team. I think you saw a lot of teamwork on the racetrack today, a lot of team strategy in the pits, a lot of team strategy during the red flag. In the end, all the hard work paid off.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
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