Danica Patrick was the guest on today’s Indy Racing League teleconference
About the speakers: Danica Patrick discussed the upcoming Indianapolis 500. This will be her fifth start in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Danica Patrick
· 27-year-old veteran of five seasons in the IndyCar Series
· Drives the No. 7 Motorola entry for Andretti Green Racing
· Opened the 2009 season with two top-five finishes in the first three races, one of only four drivers to do so
· Has made 67 career starts, recording 13 top-five finishes, 38 top-10s and winning three poles
· Became the first woman to win a major closed-course auto race in April 2008 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan
· Has made four starts in the Indianapolis 500, qualifying in the top 10 in each one
· Has three top-10 finishes in the Indianapolis 500
· Won Chase Rookie of the Year honors at Indianapolis in 2005, leading 19 laps en route to a fourth-place finish
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Select Quotes: Listed below are select quotes from today’s teleconference. The complete transcript and audio MP3 file are posted at www.indycar.com/media.
Q: Danica, a couple of practice days this week before Pole Day on Saturday. You qualified in the top 10 all four years at Indy. What are the things that you try and accomplish the first couple of days of practice and then what are the keys to turning in another solid qualifying effort on Saturday?
DANICA PATRICK: It's a good opportunity to really just focus on qualifying. All the rest of the year we tend to not really be so heavily focused on it, and we kind of do maybe a qualifying practice run or two, but that's about it, and then we kind of fill the car up and work on race stuff from there.
We get a few days to really focus on it. It's about getting the car comfortable. You really want the car comfortable when it has more downforce on it. As you trim it out, the balance changes maybe a little bit, but really you want to start out with a good balanced car, and hopefully you can even take the downforce off and just get faster.
Q: Other than the obvious answer, to finish first after 200 laps, what are the things you need to do this year to win the Indy 500?
DANICA PATRICK: Well, I think that it would be the easiest to start in the front and just stay there. I think that we're going to obviously work hard to qualify well. I think it's a matter of, in the past the qualifying's been reasonably good, but it's a matter of staying there. I think that's going to be the real focus, is just to not drop back and to not lose positions on the track on starts or restarts, to stay on top of the car throughout the race and keep up with the way that the track is changing, and then to have really clean pit stops. I think that's going to have to be a really, really big focus for me, getting in and out of the pits and getting in and out of the box at full speed all the time. If we do those things well, I hope we can qualify well and then I believe that we can stay there. Then it will be a shootout in the end.
There's no doubt that you do have to have a fast car to win the Indy 500, because it usually comes to that last sort of 20 laps or five-lap shootout where it's all about speed.
Q: I wanted to ask you about what I call the kinder, gentler Danica Patrick. The first race you were trying not to be mad all weekend, then (Raphael) Matos took you into the boards at St. Petersburg, you didn't smack him like we thought you might. Where is that all coming from?
DANICA PATRICK: Is it OK, do you think? I hope I'm not boring anybody (laughter).
I've learned from the past. Look, the emotional Danica is still there, but there's a time and a place. The time and place is not every weekend. So it's just easier. I think I always felt in the past like I had to prove to people that I cared and that I wasn't happy being fifth or 12th or something by being mad. It just doesn't really pay off, and it turns people off. It's a lot easier and a lot more fun to be relaxed. It's all bunnies and rainbows around here.
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The 2009 IndyCar Series season continues May 24 with the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at 1 p.m. (EDT) by ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. The radio broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights season continues May 22 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be telecast May 22 by VERSUS as part of its Carb Day coverage from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. (EDT).
From IndyCar
