IndyCar driver quotes after final Rolex 24 practice
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| Sebastien Bourdais |
The 54th annual Rolex At Daytona endurance sports car race Jan. 30-31 features nine current Verizon IndyCar Series drivers and 25 who have competed in at least one Indy car race in their careers (11 of whom are Indy car race winners).
The past five Rolex 24 overall winners have featured at least one driver who was a current Verizon IndyCar Series driver at the time.
The following are selected quotes from drivers following final practice today. Drivers are listed with their 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series team and their 2016 Rolex 24 At Daytona entry:
Sebastien Bourdais (KVSH Racing; No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, GT Le Mans class, making its debut): “It’s the grand opening for the Ford GT, the whole brand new program starting with the 24-hour race. It’s a pretty big challenge but looking forward to it. We’ve got a great team with Chip Ganassi Racing to try and make it work and that’s what we’re going to do. … I think we’ve been doing a decent job trying to adapt to the evolutions of the car, trying to see what the options are. Everything’s moving all the time, it’s what happens with new programs like that. Every time you come back in the car, something’s changed – procedures, feel, setup opportunities and so on and so forth. We’ve been trying to investigate as many options as we could, more than really optimizing everything so far. It’s part of the whole learning process. It’s a very new program. We were receiving parts up until yesterday. That’s just the nature of the challenge when you start something that big. Obviously the target is far down the road in June (24 Hours of Le Mans). We’ll see how we fare for the first try. The potential is here and anything can happen in a 24-hour race."
Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing; No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford EcoBoost/Riley, Prototype class): “The balance and performance is still quite a ways off, maybe a little broader now – I think 2, 2.5 seconds to the quick P2s and some of the other cars. We’re going to have our work cut out and have to hope for a little bit of attrition on the P2 side, which in the past has helped. But in the past we’ve also been a lot closer on straight-up pace. It’s going to be a tough race but obviously we’ve got a great team and the car’s pretty robust. We’re still going into the race thinking we’ve got an opportunity, that we can win. There’s no point being all down and out about it. We’ve got to go in there with a positive mind and try and come out with the best result we can." … “We’re in the business to win. For me, (this being the final race for the Ganassi Prototype) doesn’t really change anything. There may nice little frills on the end of it if you do come out in the end and you do win, yeah, it was the last DP race. But in all reality, we come here to win anyway. It would be like the Indy 500 this year being the 100th (running). Every year we try to win that race, but if we win the 100th, that’s an added bonus."
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| Tony Kanaan |
Tony Kanaan (Chip Ganassi Racing Teams; No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford EcoBoost/Riley, Prototype class): (on the difference preparing for a 24-hour race compared to an INDYCAR race) “You’re talking about a 24-hour race against a two-hour race. It’s definitely a completely different beast. Here you have to save your car, you’ve got to be smart about how you play traffic and those things happen for such a long period of time. I don’t know how many more pit stops we have here, but you have to be sharp and on top of it because you don’t want to lose time there because it’s time lost on the racetrack. Everything happens a little slower but also more times, so you have more chances to make it wrong." … “(Winning the Prototype class in the Ganassi Ford’s final race) was Chip’s goal when he brought those two (Prototype) cars back. He didn’t have to because he has enough on his plate with the GT program. We’ll try. We definitely have the people, we definitely have the team, the car and the engine, so we’ll see."
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| Simon Pagenaud |
Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske; No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette, Prototype class): (on racing again after a long layoff): “It’s just good to steer left and right and press the pedals. You get to feel speed in your eyes. For me, it’s the competitive edge. I like to feel the competition and try to come here to be competitive. It’s a mode you put yourself in. It’s nice to be able to do that. “I feel like my race craft could get rusty, so the more you’re in a car, the best it is for you. “It’s the first race of the year, it’s getting back to business and it’s one of the classics. It represents a big challenge for any driver to try and compete and win it." … (on driving an endurance race compared to an INDYCAR race): “This is more about taking care of yourself in a long distance. It’s not as much of a sprint, but it’s definitely thinking more about long term, through 24 hours. The way you hydrate, the way you sleep, you can adjust the nutrition a little bit. But all in all, it’s still driving a race car, braking as late as you can and accelerating."
Katherine Legge (Grace Autosport for Indianapolis 500 only; No. 0 Panoz DeltaWing/Elan, Prototype class, fastest in today’s final practice): “So far, so good. We made the decision not to go out and qualify because of the horrendous conditions (Thursday) and it looks so far like it’s going to be a dry race. We thought it’s a long race so it doesn’t really matter where you qualify. It was nice to get some dry running in today and see that we’ve got the speed. It’s still going to be about attrition from this point forward and making good decisions. We’ve got a really, really strong driver lineup this year and if we can all do that and are there at the end, we’ll definitely be at the top." … “It’s been an amazing project to be a part of. This is Year 4 for me (with DeltaWing). You never really get the opportunity as a driver to be a part of such a cool development program, where you see it from its infancy all the way through. You get to change every component on the car and get to learn about the car. I think I’ve definitely become a much better driver because of it. I enjoy being part of the team. It’s been an exciting few years and I think we’re finally going to see the fruits of everybody’s hard work."
The complete list of Rolex 24 drivers who have competed in an Indy car race, in alphabetical order, is (*-current fulltime Verizon IndyCar Series driver): Mikhail Aleshin*, A.J. Allmendinger, Richard Antinucci, Rubens Barrichello, Townsend Bell, Sebastien Bourdais*, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Dalziel, James Davison, Scott Dixon*, Christian Fittipaldi, Jack Hawksworth*, Ryan Hunter-Reay*, Nic Jonsson, Tony Kanaan*, Katherine Legge, Lucas Luhr, Jan Magnussen, Nicolas Minassian, Simon Pagenaud*, Martin Plowman, Scott Pruett, Graham Rahal*, Scott Sharp, Tristan Vautier. In addition, Spencer Pigot is yet to drive in an Indy car race but will drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing this season.
In addition, A.J. Foyt, who won more Indy car races than anyone in history (67) and is the first four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, will wave the green flag Saturday to start the Rolex 24 At Daytona. In addition to his Indy car exploits, Foyt was a two-time Rolex 24 winner (1983 and ’85) and won the 1972 NASCAR Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
“The Frances have been very nice to me throughout the years and I guess I’m going to start the race tomorrow," Foyt said. “And they honored me for winning the (Daytona) 500 here and also the 24 Hours, which is very nice. It’s been a good life, I’ve had a lot of fun. What else can you say, that’s what life’s all about."