Indy Pro Series: Kentucky 100

Topics:  Kentucky 100

Jay Howard
August 13, 2006

SPARTA, KENTUCKY

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Jonathan? Congratulations. We'll see you in Infineon. We're joined by race winner Jay Howard, second win of the season. In fact, his second win in the past three races.
Jay, if you would walk us through your day out there.
JAY HOWARD: What can I say? Car was absolutely perfect. I think I drove a pretty good race as well. So, yeah, right from the start I got into the lead. I'm sorry, my mind's a bit blank after doing all these interviews. I'm a bit lost.
Yeah, I got into the lead at the start. Wade got back by me not sure how many laps into it. Basically from that point on, I just decided to be patient, keep all the other traffic behind me. Yeah, just played the waiting game.
You know, made a few adjustments on my car, tried running some different lines, make sure the car was good enough for me to make a move on Wade. I told the guys on the radio what I did. They were happy with that. I made my move, made it stick. I was confident no one was going to get back by.
Then obviously the yellow came out. Then on the restart, I got a pretty decent start. Again, getting up to speed, Wade running the outside of me. We touched a couple of times, but that's fine by me.
Yeah, and then I knew which line I needed to take. I just stuck to that line. Got it as straight as possible out of four and headed for the line. I got within about 150 yards of the line, and I knew we'd won.
Overall, a good day. Like I said to some of the other guys, I don't know what it was, but about two weeks prior to this race I just had this feeling it was going to be a really good weekend and I was going to win no matter what.
We went out for qualifying. You know, I was third. I would have liked to have been pole. I don't know what it was, I didn't care, I knew I was going to win. Not really had that feeling before. I know to believe it when I'm next feeling it.
THE MODERATOR: Jay, I don't know if you realize, it was the second closest finish in Indy Pro Series history. If you would take us down that last stretch there and all those cars around each other.
JAY HOWARD: Yeah, like I said, running down real tight to the white line, just killed the engine a little bit too much. Running real high for me was difficult. The car didn't like it. It was sliding around all over the place.
Right in the middle, about lane two to three, was perfect for the car, what I'd done to the car with the bars. You know, late on, the tires are worn out. You need to run a slightly higher line to keep your revs up. I did that.
I knew when Jonno was down low, he was going to struggle to keep the engine revs high enough to pull past me through the line. Like I said, I got out of four, just made sure I got out of the corner really good, got that steering wheel straight and prayed (laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Jay, you extend your points lead to 40 points with three races remaining in the season. Looking ahead to those three races, any sort of game plan? What are the next steps here to try to hold on to that championship point lead?
JAY HOWARD: Yeah, win every race. Yeah, I want to win five races. I'm not very happy I haven't won five races already this year. That's my focus. You know, there's always going to be -- with that lead being a little bit bigger, there's always going to be that little guy in the back of your head saying, "Championship, championship."
As far as I'm concerned, I'm here to win every race and prove to everyone what I'm capable and what Sam Schmidt's team is capable of. That's my focus, win every race. If I can't, as close to that as possible.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jay.

Q. Your thoughts and plans about potentially moving up to the IndyCar Series?
JAY HOWARD: It would be nice, that's for sure. I don't know. That's part of my manager's job. I'm sure there's a lot of interest or questions, you know, like you just asked, what I'm doing. We don't really know what I'm doing yet. I'm going to make the best possible choice with Sam to pick the best ride and hopefully go there and win some races in whichever championship I end up doing.
Like I said, IRL would be the exact place I'd like to be. We shall see.

Q. Wade was upset with you there at the end for bumping. Your comments on that?
JAY HOWARD: I haven't got any comments to be honest. It's racing. We were racing closely. That was it.
He was trying to run as close to me as possible. That's fine by me if we touch wheels. I reckon if he wants to winge about it, that's his problem, not mine. As far as I'm concerned, that's racing. We both finished and I won. If it was the other way around, he wouldn't be moaning.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Jay? All right, Jay, congratulations. We'll see you in Infineon.
JAY HOWARD: Thanks. Appreciate it.