IndyCar Series: ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Indy 225

Topics:  ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Indy 225

Oriol Servia
June 1, 2008

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we are joined by Oriol Servia, finished sixth today coming in as our story of the day. Great drive out there. Take us back to the start because it wasn't completely clear from the television replays what happened there in the first lap that caused you to come into pit and change the front wing.
ORIOL SERVIA: Yeah, well, it's a race and it's an oval and everybody wants to be first on first corner and I wanted to be first, too.
The truth is we got to turn one, and you know, it was like a big mess, lots of cars side-by-side and I thought I went in and Brenoldi, probably he couldn't see me because he had cars on either side and he was one on the side of me and I had to really back off.
And then I still had a run into him on turn three and I thought for sure he saw me and I'm turning in and he's closing and I'm thinking here we go again, here we go again and I didn't brake but he clipped at the very end my front wing, and from there it was a big mess, because we were trying to change the wing without losing a lap and we almost got it.
The crew did a great job but because of the front wing, got stuck, and they couldn't get it out, and they just got it out and Marco just beat me at the lap line and I was one lap behind. From there, I knew he was in the lead and I had to pass him and in case there was a yellow, I would get my lap back and at least I passed him and opened a small gap. And from there it was just one car after the other, just trying to pass them before the leader would pass me, and so it was tough. It was like, it was basically I had to go the same speed as the leader, but the cars in front of me were not letting me by; like they would let the leader go by obviously.
It was really tough but the whole race was just keep fighting, keep fighting and every pit stop, we gain spots. After the restart we gain spots and on track, just on top.
I was quite happy and also quite tiring. Usually I don't get tired on the ovals but because of the type of the racing I had to do every lap and because when we changed the wing for some reason we lost water; I didn't have the water. I was really struggling there at the end.
But again sixth place sounds like a win and I'm really happy especially my last two or three times in this place I had been on the podium, so I was hoping it was going to happen again, but this sixth today coming from last feels like one for sure.

Q. You've seen a lot of irony in your career, is there irony that the guy who won last week --
ORIOL SERVIA: I don't even know who won. Happy for him, he's a fast guy.
Honestly I don't know what happened at the front. I don't know what kind of race he had. I saw Dixon leading earlier, is all I knew, so I don't know what happened. I cannot tell you. I don't know.

Q. Are you surprised there weren't more yellows?
ORIOL SERVIA: Yeah, and especially I was hoping for many more, because where I was, I needed as many yellows and as many restarts as possible to make moves. And I tell you, the conditions were not easy. I had so many, so many moments that I saw myself in the wall, you know, in traffic, the car went really loose over marbles and passing cars. I thought, okay, it was tight, it was close, somebody must be close to crashing now. But nobody was, so it was tough and as you say, it was surprising there were not more yellows.

Q. (No microphone).
ORIOL SERVIA: I really believe so. We were contenders. I passed the leader after the start and opened the gap. So for sure the crew did a great job and my car was great and this proves that the racing technology is really stepping forward every oval. We qualified fourth and I was ninth; so it's the first oval we were really close to the front, and in this case we showed we were there.

Q. (No microphone).
ORIOL SERVIA: We are definitely catching up but next weekend unfortunately we go back to the mile-and-a-half where we have the biggest problem.
Even here today, I was just telling the guys, we had a great car in the corners but I could see I was shorter on power than the other guys, and as soon as we got on the straight these guys accelerate more. I don't know what they do with their cars, but they go faster on the straits and that's what we see on the mile-and-a-half ovals; we go full throttle all the way around and they go faster than us.
I could see today many times I was on top of somebody and just couldn't even pass them. We still have to catch up, which is encouraging because we are getting closer and we still see we have a lot of potential to gain. So, we'll get there.

Q. I watched you and -- (inaudible).
ORIOL SERVIA: Really hard. Sometimes at the beginning of the race, obviously you're trying to make as many moves as possible, but you are not going to go head-to-head against somebody when still you have 150 laps to go.
So you think, okay, this guy is faster now. You almost don't let him by but you don't fight him too much, because A, he didn't maybe open the door for to you move forward. At the end of the race, he may not be there, but the last 30 laps, he's fourth position. And especially where we were, sixth, you think if something happened at front, this could be for the podium right and so you're fighting and him and myself; almost I lost everything just trying to hold onto that position.
A couple of times I went wide into because he was putting his nose in there and the whole car went sideways. It's one of those cases that probably Mario would just give up the position to finish seventh, but you don't, and he was doing the same. He actually put me on the marbles a couple of times which I didn't think was that nice, but it was because we were fighting really hard for that position.

Q. (No microphone).
ORIOL SERVIA: Oh, yeah, yeah, it was just tough, last 20 laps in an oval in a race, nobody gives up anything.

Q. (No microphone).
ORIOL SERVIA: Oh, yeah, I think as we were saying, I think everyone expected a lot more yellows. Everybody said, oh, 26 cars and so many rookies, last year I think there were 38 laps of yellow. We were thinking there were going to be 70 today and there were not so many.
I think everybody behaved, and as I said, the conditions were not easy at all. You know, hence everybody did a good job.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations and nice run out there, Oriol.