1996 Indianapolis 500 Daily Trackside Report Quotes

ARIE LUYENDYK (#5 Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria/Bryant Heating & Cooling): "Today's good for the team. It uplifted the team. Now we can get ready for the race with a clear conscience. The car we qualified today was always the better car." (About his run): "I wasn't as tidy as I should have been. I was kind of nonchalant. I was kind of playing with the lines because I knew I would have faster laps than yesterday. We had a goal for today and that was to go out and qualify the car that was the best car. I just went out there today and went for our goal. It was easy for me today." (On a weekend of extremes): "No, not really. One thing that comes close is the ‘86 rainout which was close for everybody. I've never gone through a roller-coaster like this but we achieved one thing and that's breaking the track record. Today's Mother's Day and yesterday was a real mother of a day." (Feelings regarding the roller coaster): "I didn't sleep well last night. We all talked a lot, talked to the guys and said, ‘let's set a record.' We didn't have to fiddle with the car a lot. During the run, the lines were different on each lap. I was just trying to get more speed. I was able to run flat-out. Today, I was really where I should have been yesterday with it but I wasn't able to because I had the two engines go." (About what happened to car yesterday): "There was a major vapor lock in the water system and after replacing it, it cooked the new engine in a matter of a lap." (About the field being slower than him): "I started here once 14th and went to fifth by finding openings pretty quickly. For this race, I'll take openings. I'll consider the inexperience and I'll look out for them. Anytime you start in the middle, there're bad spots. There's a lot of turbulence. I'll have to consider a lot of things and be careful." (About Brayton qualifying the car Arie qualified in ‘95): "Scott's car was a great car. These cars are all equally set up and well-balanced. Team Menard is a professional team. It's a good team. It sounds good that they qualified my car from last year, but it really doesn't mean much." (About pressure for qualifying today): "There's no pressure at all. I was qualifying for 21st spot and there's no pressure at all when you're qualifying for 21st position." (About his race record of 185.981): "Judging by what I'm seeing here this week, a lot of drivers are very capable in their own right. They can read the lights, they can deal with different situations, they know how these races work. There's a lot of experience from a lot of different areas which will pay off on Race Day. When I won the race in ‘90, I used to come into the pits at 210 and leave the pits at unbelievable speeds. Now the limit is 100. Before the pits were always open and now they're closed. So the safety factors USAC has instituted will help to keep my race record intact for quite awhile."

JONATHAN BYRD: "We haven't been through tech yet, so we'll see. We were five pounds over yesterday." (About today's run): "This is the car Arie prefers. It's a better race car anyway. This is an extremely good car in traffic so we're looking forward to the next chance to put him through that in the race." (About the record): "This was our only opportunity to make history. Each day is a new day and you try to do the best you can on each one. This record is a way to measure the acceptance. We've worked so hard to put this team together. Everyone has done a great job." (About the disallowance of Saturday's run): "It was a mistake in weighing it. All we can figure is there was some fuel in the car that wasn't supposed to be there when it got weighed. USAC made the right decision and this is definitely the car that Arie wanted in the race."

FRED TREADWAY: I've had a short career so far. I'm a rookie owner. The emotions were at an all-time high yesterday. We've got a great team and couldn't be happier today. Last year I was involved with Project Indy and went to a few races and that was fun. But the team was under funded and that wasn't fun. I met Arie and got some guys together and said that if we could put together a first-class team, we'd run it. We made a commitment to Arie to run a one-car race team." (About preparation of car for today): "The team changed the engine last night and we were here until 10 p.m." (About running another car): "We're still considering it but the one thing we don't want to do is to jeopardize Arie's run. We'll probably lease the car to someone because we don't have the crew to run it."

MARCO GRECO (#41 AJ Foyt Enterprises): "It's great to be the fastest ‘94 car on the grid. I'm excited about that. The car did great today, even with some understeer. Yesterday, we thought we had no problems but then the engine blew. So today is a big relief to be locked in the best race on the planet." (On his career): "My career has been very difficult in terms of people who want to give me a true opportunity. A.J. is the first one to give me what he said he would...no more, no less. This year, I don't feel like I'm alone. I hope from now on I can have a good shot. I'm hoping to run the next two IRL races."

SCOTT SHARP (#11 Conseco AJ Foyt Racing): "This feels good to get it in the show today. This morning we had hoped to be the fastest qualifier today, but after Arie (Luyendyk) went out we just wanted to concentrate on getting in solid." (On race day strategy) "We're going to plan on running to the front early, because if you wait very long, the leaders can get away from you. Maybe Arie and I should team up." (On qualifying with exempt status) "That thought has never really entered my mind this week. We thought we had a shot at one of the top two rows until the engine problems yesterday. We went 233 this morning and definitely didn't want to limp into qualifying."

A.J. FOYT (Owner, #11 Conseco AJ Foyt Racing): (Happy with the run today?) "Well, it's a hell of a lot better today than last night with all the problems we had. We just want to try to win the race and that's the biggest thing we're gonna concentrate on now. We had hoped to sit on the front row. I thought we could. I learned here in ‘66 the hard way -- I was outrunning everybody and went out to qualify and I got a bad push in the car and I waved it off. I was second fast time, Andretti was sitting on the pole and I said, ‘I know damn well I can outrun him' and I waved it off and went back out that evening and stuck it in the wall and wound up starting 16th or 17th the next day. After that I said, I don't care. Even though I was outrunning ‘em, I said ‘I'll take what we can get and get in the race.' You kind of learn through experience when you make a mistake like that. Just like today, Scott ran a little over 33 right before qualifying and I said, ‘The best thing we can do is we need to get in the race and race ‘em because we're not gonna be able to start up front.' He did a beautiful job. I didn't care what we ran as long as we were up good enough so we couldn't get bumped or something. He was wanting to run faster, but I was happy with the speed and now we can work on the race strategy. He's in the race and he's safe sitting here. When I hit the wall, the next day, I was just about cross-eyed when I tried to qualify and I said, ‘Oh man, why was I so damn stupid? I could have been on the front row and I waved it off.' So, you gotta learn by experience." (About CART drivers' comments about the Indy 500 this week) "It's a terrible thing. They're the ones that are suffering. You've got certain fans who will follow A.J. Foyt or Scott Sharp or what regardless of where you run. This is the biggest race track in the world and the world knows it after 80 years. Like I always said, it's like the Kentucky Derby -- you can't replace tradition regardless of megabucks or what. All of ‘em are so jealous and so hurt that they're not here. They should be here. I heard that same statement (about Indy not being safe) and it really ------ me off. They're just jealous. It's like Roger Penske -- big Roger Penske. Where in the hell was Roger Penske made? Right here at this damn race track. He damn sure didn't make this place -- like A.J. Foyt didn't or Wilbur Shaw didn't or whoever. I'm sick and tired of hearing this crap. Like Mario Andretti. Like they made Indianapolis. You don't know me winning Daytona three times. You don't know me winning LeMans. You don't know me winning Ontario. You don't know me winning Pocono four times. You know me from one place. And that's right here. And when those people start saying they made Indianapolis, they got a bad problem because they're forgetting where they came from and what made their name. And that's what I'm getting disgusted about." (What do you see for the future of Indy car racing?) "The IRL is going to make the field level. It's gonna be tough the first couple of years. But the exposure is going to be good. I think you're gonna see a lot of the young boys get breaks who couldn't get a break before. Use Jeff Gordon, for instance. Jeff Gordon, if you recall, wanted to run open-wheel cars and was very good in ‘em. He couldn't really get a ride in Indy Car because he didn't bring megabucks, so he went down south and he's done a terrific job down there. Same way with Tony Stewart. A lot of these guys who come up in the midgets and sprints and stock cars like I did should have a chance to run Indianapolis. That's every race driver's dream to run here. And that's what the Georges and the Hulmans and USAC is gonna do. I think you're gonna see it get bigger and bigger and bigger." (Regarding chances for the race) "The biggest thing is to stay out of trouble. With 500 miles at any race track . . . anything can happen. The biggest thing is what we're gonna do is we're just trying to put a lot of downforce on the cars so the cars are very comfortable for the drivers all day. It will hurt the top speeds a lot, but still, if they can drive comfortable all day long, they'll be most likely to be at the front at the end of the day."

ROBBIE BUHL (#54 Original Coors/Beck Motorsports): "To be here at the Speedway is obviously a dream come true. When I fell in love with racing was when I came here at seven years old. I have a picture with Linda Vaughn in front of the pit row from back then. That's why I'm in racing, because of the first time I came here." (About speed gain today): "A good part is due to Greg Beck and the crew. We've been working on getting comfortable in the race car all day and my speed jump is a testament to my crew knowing what they were doing. Everything was consistent and we scrubbed the Firestone tires before we went out there and ran." (About Racing for Kids): "I've been involved with Racing for Kids for six years. Every venue I go to, I go there a day early and visit a children's hospital and give the kids hats and posters. We've raised close to $600,000 in the last six years for children's hospitals around the country." (About the car): "This car has never been raced before. This is the car that Al Unser Sr. tried to qualify in when he retired and Jeff Ward tried to qualify last year and didn't make it."

RACIN GARDNER (#90 Team Scandia/Slick Gardner Enterprises): "That was a pretty good run. That's about the fastest I've run all week. It was getting pretty close to the end of the day so I decided I better pick the speed up if I was going to make the show. This morning we had a little bit of a push and were only going about 210. But, we worked with it and got it dialed in." (On working with Dick Simon) "Dick Simon has really helped me a lot this week. This is the first time I've been here and for the week I have only run 80 or 89 laps. With all the rain, this is the first full day I have had to run."

PAUL DURANT (#96 ABF Motorsports USA Sunrise Rental Canada):"The car was still tight. It's been tight since we got here. We made a couple of radical changes but they didn't make much of a difference. I couldn't take the line I wanted to, but I still feel pretty good. We're happy with where we're at. We would have liked a 227, but the goal was to go over 225 and qualify fast enough to make the field. The conditions here today were ideal. They are much better today than they were yesterday and we wanted to get out today because it was so ideal and there's no telling what it would be like next week."