Indy Pro Series: Carneros 100

Topics:  Carneros 100

Wade Cunningham
August 26, 2006

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Guys, thanks so much. Congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.
We'll now call up Wade Cunningham, winner of today's race. Some stats on Wade. He is the 2005 Indy Pro Series champion. This is his second win of the year and his third career victory. It is his first victory on a road or street course.
Wade placed second at Infineon Raceway in last year's inaugural race here.
Wade, your colleagues there were commenting on just how strong a car you had and how strong a lead you had going into turn one and you never relinquished it. Talk a little bit about your run.
WADE CUNNINGHAM: Funny, Alex was talking about giving it everything you had. That's exactly what I had to do today to keep everyone behind me.
Stats never tell the true story. It was one of the toughest races of the year. I'd say that was tougher than Indy because of the nature of the road course, the penchant, how easy it is to make mistakes. So to come away with the win, the last two laps I didn't make any mistakes. I think that's where we kept the end. Five laps away I dropped the end I dropped a wheel coming out of the bus stop under acceleration. Alex got very, very close.
But we had a strong car on power down today, and that was probably the most important part of the race for me.
THE MODERATOR: Anything you learned from today that you can take into tomorrow about your team or the guys chasing you?
WADE CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, we're going to have to be in front of them before the first corner. I honestly believe Alex had a slightly quicker car today. We were quicker than Nick, but Alex was very, very strong. So if he gets in front before us, he's going to be very, very hard to chase down and pass.
But there were three full-course yellows today. Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow. Maybe more with the reverse grid. So it's going to be interesting, for sure, come the first few laps.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You didn't get the results out of the first two road course events, St. Pete and Indianapolis. How satisfying is it to finally get your second Pro Series win, first on a road course?
WADE CUNNINGHAM: It's kind of funny because I came to America to race ovals because the Indy 500 is obviously the crown jewel of American racing. That's the decision I made. My two wins so far had come on ovals. I started to wonder whether I was going to turn into an oval specialist being in America.
That hasn't happened. I was still strong on the road courses. We led the majority of laps at Watkins, but we just didn't win.
It's satisfying to get the win on the road course, but it's by no means more satisfying than any oval win that I've had so far.

Q. Do you think you're going to be able to pick up a decent number of (indiscernible) tomorrow?
WADE CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, I think Alex and I are quite a bit quicker than the rest of the field. Nick improved a lot. I could see he was still, you know, in the frame in my mirrors today, which was a little bit surprising, seeing how much quicker Alex and I have been all weekend.
For sure, us three are quite clear of the field. So I imagine we should be able to cut through, and then whoever gets to the lead first I think is probably going to win the race.

Q. Did the two lap cars give you any problems?
WADE CUNNINGHAM: No, they just a couple of times allowed Alex to close up, the just the nature of when I closed on him. They were courteous. You know, we didn't have any major problems.
THE MODERATOR: Great. Wade, thanks so much. Congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.
WADE CUNNINGHAM: Thanks.