Firestone Indy Lights: Milwaukee 100 |
|---|
Topics: Milwaukee 100
|
Raphael Matos
June 1, 2008
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in, guys. We are joined by Raphael Matos and Jeff Simmons. Raphael, tell us about your race.
RAPHAEL MATOS: I think it was a good race. I mean, obviously we were looking for the win. But I think qualifying yesterday made things more difficult. In the start of the race, I was able to gain a position. I was able to gain another position on the restart. Just put my head down and try to keep the gap to Simmons and Bobby.
But certainly we didn't have quite as good of a car, especially in traffic. Especially at the end was very difficult behind the traffic. They had too big of a gap.
In the end, I was just trying to hang on to the car. The car was pretty loose coming out of three and four. Sometimes was loose, sometimes was understeering. It was very difficult to find a sweet spot for the balance of the car, especially in the end.
I am very happy for the team. I'm very happy for the Andretti Green team. This is certainly a strong result if you're looking in the big picture for the championship.
THE MODERATOR: How different was the racetrack yesterday? We saw a lot of problems up in turn two. How different was the racetrack with the conditions? A lot less wind it looked like from my vantage point.
RAPHAEL MATOS: Yeah, I think, my point of view, turn one and two was definitely a lot more grip than yesterday. Yesterday at least I had massive understeering in qualifying. That's the reason we qualified so far back. Three and four, the way the wind was blowing, it was pinning down the front of the car. The car was quite loose.
Today was fairly good balance in both ends. I think it was a really good day for racing. I think the stock cars running yesterday made our life a bit more difficult, especially in the beginning of the race. After we got some rubber down, it was a bit easier, I think.
THE MODERATOR: Raphael with three previous wins: St. Pete in 2006, two of them, and St. Pete again in 2008. Best oval finish was eighth at Homestead in March. Third-place finish here is a big improvement on that.