Absolutely nothing I've done in my form of racing can help in IROC. Absolutely zero. For me, this is a totally different way to go around a track. You drive flat-out, all the way. Then when you run into traffic, you have to figure out how that works. It's a completely different world. |
Certainly I understand a little better what it will be like during the race after practicing with the NASCAR guys and Frank Kimmel. They're certainly a little more aggressive, which is the nature of how they race. |
Few folks will see them. But everyone will know love built that house. |
I do not think I want to go back. We had to swim under dirty water, where bodies were floating. It was something. If I can find a place here, I'll stay. We lost everything. |
I saw Ryan (Newman) coming up in my mirror and I've seen a lot of cars behind me in practices, but I've never seen one come up so close. |
I think going back this time, we will not be under the pressure we were last fall. We're looking forward to it and having some fun. We really enjoy the fans. They are real sports car enthusiasts and so many good fans and good crowds make it exciting. |
I think it may have started as an electrical fire because I started smelling something in the cockpit, |
I think the virus that Max had in Italy earlier this week and that some people have here is what I got. I was absolutely gone. I was really lame. There was no way I thought I could do the race. But I rested, had an IV and got some medication and was able to at least do my stint. |
I'm really, really disappointed. I really thought we had a car to start in sixth position or so. We're starting further back than we had hoped, but we're going to take a look at the data. I'm not sure if it was tires or what, but we'll take a look at it and see where we can improve for tomorrow. |
I've been doing it for a long enough time that I can get past it. The thing that makes it difficult is we knew we had a car that was capable of winning. |
In a street race, anything can happen. Today we just couldn't get a break. Jan ran well at the beginning but it seemed that Max ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. When you are winning a championship, good luck seems to go with you. When you get bad luck, it seems to be everywhere. |
In the future I may concentrate just on the long distance races, but for now I plan to continue driving this year. The Grand American Series has grown so much in a few short years and it is great to be a part of that growth, in the past, present and into the future. |
It means a lot for the championship. We could have been out of the race. That incident with the fire could have happened this morning. If it had happened this morning in warm-up instead of yesterday we'd be done. I really believe things happen for a reason. The championship is not over, but today we didn't lose too many points, and that's thanks to Max. |
It's just incredible. It's just incredible. |
It's quite daunting. The car becomes very light. You think you're going to lose the front end of the car, but you have to keep your foot down. And when you have a car come up behind you, you think you're going to lose the rear of the car. It's a bit terrifying the first couple times. |