IndyCar Series: Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Ethanol

Topics:  Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Ethanol

Marco Andretti
Scott Sharp
June 24, 2007

NEWTON, IOWA

THE MODERATOR: The Indy Car Series Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, we have our number two and number three drivers here, Marco Andretti, New York Stock Exchange Group driving for Andretti Green Racing. In the second spot, Scott Sharp from nor walk Connecticut with Rahal Letterman Racing.
Let's start with March could he Andretti. March could he, can you tell us about your run today?
MARCO ANDRETTI: Yeah, it was -- excuse me, my voice, I'm very under the weather, but it was -- today was definitely a game of survival. You just had to watch yourself on the restarts and also a game of consistency.
At the end it came down to the two of us, and I just had nothing for Dario. I was driving his setup. The guy is unbelievable at setting up a car. I've got to thank him for that. When you're driving the same car, it's hard to go a longer distance and I had nothing for him so I just wanted to protect him and great day for Andretti Green.
THE MODERATOR: Scott, what was your run like today, Scott?
SCOTT SHARP: Obviously I think as everybody, very eventful. I had at least three cars side ways in front of me at some different point. Literally one of them a foot away, I probably should have been collected several different times. Felt extremely fortunate to get through those.
Just we had a good day. Didn't have quite the speed probably to challenge these two guys. But ran strong, ran at the front, had good pits stops and real pleased with the effort and the work we're doing back in the shops is playing off. To come here, qualify fourth, finish third, feels good.

Q. Marco, second place --
MARCO ANDRETTI: I said to Dario, this is just what he needed for points. He said, this is just what I needed, too. He's completely right. I just needed to finish, man. I'm happy to be second of course. But no confidence lost here, for sure. It was a long day, though, very physical.

Q. Inaudible?
MARCO ANDRETTI: I don't think so. Here, all weekend, I haven't truly gotten past and I haven't passed anybody, you know. It's tough. Obviously when you're up to speed obviously on restarts and stuff, you can make up your positions and ins and outs of the pits, but no, I didn't have anything for him.

Q. Inaudible?
MARCO ANDRETTI: The tough part for me was they were bringing us -- I'm sure for him, too -- they were bringing us through all the junk on the track. Obviously when your tires are warm, it picks up everything you run over. So you go to turn, you know, and the green flag at speed and you have no grip, so it's tough.
SCOTT SHARP: Yeah, I mean, for so many -- it was pretty desperate driving I think on restarts because you didn't want to pick up a spot; and at the same time you wanted to take a spot and you didn't want to give up the bottom, so there's a lot of different things you were juggling.
You know, just it was a matter of trying to hold your own and hope a hole opened up in front of you really. They were eventful, no doubt, and, you know, I think we felt we got through a lot of the melees on them, so it was good.

Q. Tougher race than Milwaukee or Richmond?
SCOTT SHARP: I think I'm definitely more tired than I would be in either of those. It's just that you have so much turning in the car, quite a significant amount more angle I think you have in the car here than you do either certainly at Milwaukee and I think even more than Richmond.
MARCO ANDRETTI: I'm battling a car, so it was definitely my toughest but I'm sure it was for everybody. It's hardly an oval; it's more of a circle, so you take four breaths the whole lap, so it was tough.

Q. You said it was pretty desperate driving -- inaudible --
SCOTT SHARP: Definitely. I don't think that's necessarily anything bad about it. Maybe that's just what this track is going to be like. It's just an action-packed race for the fans. It's just a little different. Just it's a big pack, a lot of cars running in a line waiting for someone to slip up, waiting to use traffic as a pick; like Marco said, waiting to do something in your pit stop to improve; waiting for restarts. And of course, you know, the easiest place to get someone is on a restart when people are on the outside and going every different way; you can get a few guys and get five breaths, that sometimes happens.

Q. Inaudible.
MARCO ANDRETTI: If it was up to me, I would want less downforce because I would want to make it so maybe there's no limit in qualifying to where you can put the wings down, and that will make it not just easy flat-out.
The speed will be quicker, but I think it will be, you know, less packed -- well, it wasn't very packed today.

Q. Inaudible.
SCOTT SHARP: I was right behind it. I almost got collected in that. I had a really great restart and got up there and there was nowhere to go because the whole track was sort of blocked by five cars and it looked a little crazy and all of a sudden you saw just a couple of guys got super close and, man, you're lucky if you can get through that without even some debris let alone without what ended up having tires, smoke, rubbing and all of a sudden guys going left and right.

Q. Did you see how it started?
SCOTT SHARP: No. It happened so fast. I saw Danica involved, she was either the first or second car hit or hitting someone. I'm not sure what triggered it.

Q. Inaudible.
MARCO ANDRETTI: Yeah, first of all I got lucky on the first yellow because I was able to stay out a couple of laps longer. That's what gave me the track position behind Vitor I believe in second. And then yeah, Kyle had this race won for me. I over shot my pit box and I think -- you know it would have been very close, but you know, he ended up beating me out.

Q. Inaudible?
SCOTT SHARP: Not really around me. I was luckily towards the front all day.
You know, that's the only way you're probably going to get -- you're not just going to go when everyone else and expect that you're going to gain a pass or two. You have to make it sort of happen. It's that real balance of jumping and getting a run but not jumping too early and getting penalized. I don't know, were there any penalties handed out -- okay.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.