IZOD IndyCar Series: Honda Indy Toronto

Topics:  Honda Indy Toronto

Mike Conway
July 8, 2012

TORONTO, ONTARIO

THE MODERATOR:  We'll go ahead and get started with today's post race press conference.  We are pleased to be joined by Mike Conway.  This is Mike's best finish of the season, and Mike's previous best finish of the season was seventh at Barber.  This is also the team's best finish at Toronto.  I believe it's the team's first podium since our very first race at Brazil. 
Mike, congratulations on a great run.  Big mover starting from 11th up to 3rd.  Walk us through your race. 
MIKE CONWAY:  It was a good day.  We started out kind of hanging in there.  I could see the other guys were going off around me.  Kind of hung in there, was picking off people.  The car was really strong down into turn three.  I could pretty much pass everybody without using the 'push to pass' too much. 
The car felt good.  Obviously we missed out with the safety car coming out right at the end of our stint.  That was unfortunate.  But I knew if we kept doing what we were doing, we would be able to work our way back up to the front. 
A bit of the struggle on the middle stint in the beginning.  I waited for the other guys' tires to go off and started picking off guys again.  The guys did a great job in the pit stops.  At the end, just kept on picking people off. 
At the last restart, went inside of Charlie.  We got a little bit close into turn one but we both made it through.  Great to get a podium.  Really happy. 
THE MODERATOR:  We'll open it up for questions. 

Q.  You just referenced going into the corner with Kimball.  Did you make contact? 
MIKE CONWAY:  Yeah, a little bit.  I knew it was getting a bit close.  I was trying to back out of it as much as I could.  I just touched his rear wheel.  That kind of sent him a little bit sideways.  Got through the corner. 
Yeah, I couldn't quite see, that's why he was moving over on the inside. 

Q.  Mike, when you were being interviewed on television, they told you that Foyt wouldn't come to Victory Lane until you won.  Is he a tough guy to work for?  He's a gruff guy, rough guy.  What's he really like to work for? 
MIKE CONWAY:  No, A.J. is great.  He wants to win as much as everyone else.  It's quite funny.  That just makes me want to win even more.  I mean, this podium is for A.J. today.  Happy to get this result.  Obviously we want to win and he does as well. 
I've enjoyed my time.  He's a great guy.  Obviously he wants to win so he's very passionate and wants the best out of everybody.  Yeah, that's just the way he is. 

Q.  Were you surprised that it looked like it was going to be an uneventful race as far as crashes, then all of a sudden it came back to rear up its head in the final restart? 
MIKE CONWAY:  I'm sorry? 

Q.  Just how this course that's known for its crashes... 
MIKE CONWAY:  Yeah, no, definitely.  I think right at the end, so many marbles offline there was no real chance to sweep.  That made the restart even more difficult. 
Normally you see a fair amount of safety cars in here.  It was an all-out spin race for me.  I was constantly busy trying to pass people.  It was a tough race.  I enjoyed every bit of it. 

Q.  The two races entering this weekend we saw how good Ryan Hunter-Reay was on the short ovals, now the street courses.  How formidable do you see him?
MIKE CONWAY:  Yeah, Ryan has done a fantastic job.  Three wins in a row on different types of courses.  It's fantastic.  All credit to him. 
Yeah, you know, he's definitely a contender for the championship.  He's leading it now.  Will had a bad one and Dario, too.  He's definitely on a run.  Got to try to slow him down a bit. 

Q.  How would you characterize the ending of this race?  You won at Long Beach.  What did you think of the restart at the end? 
MIKE CONWAY:  From my perspective I'd have liked to have raced it out.  I felt like we could have passed a few more cars.  There were only a few laps left.  Obviously they couldn't get it all cleaned up in time. 
Yeah, I would have liked to have had more laps, because that was our day.  We were working our way up and passing people.  But, you know, it doesn't always fall your way. 
Pretty happy with what we achieved today. 

Q.  Do you think IndyCar should have green-white-checkered finishes? 
MIKE CONWAY:  I don't know.  I mean, that's a tricky one.  I think that's just going to cause more crashes and more expense for everybody if you did it like that.  It's pretty tricky to do all that.  With the amount of marbles we had, we would have had to swept for another four or five laps.  It wouldn't have been good. 

Q.  What about the fans?
MIKE CONWAY:  Obviously you always want to race it out and finish under green.  But, you know, I watched that race at Daytona last night.  That gets pretty messy.  I know it's different racing for us. 
It is really tight here.  We saw last year on all the restarts there were accidents.  I don't know.  Unfortunately it does finish under yellow sometimes.  That's just racing. 

Q.  Would you have liked to have seen a red flag, close the track, get the people that have crashed off, then have a restart?  Would that be better? 
MIKE CONWAY:  Yeah, I don't know.  I don't think that would have been good because you're stopping a race to fight out for another lap.  I don't know if it's the best thing to do, to be honest. 
If we'd have finished under green obviously the fans would be happier, but I think they've had a pretty good day.  It was great to see all the fans out today.  I think there was lots of action all the way through the race.  I don't know.  It's a hard one. 
THE MODERATOR:  Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to come in today.  Congratulations on the podium. 
MIKE CONWAY:  Thank you.