INDY RACING LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 4, 2004

Felipe Giaffone

Brad Pollard

BRAD POLLARD: It's great to be here. Thank you so much for taking the call.

BRAD POLLARD: It really was. I was a young boy at the time watching Art race, and my father would take us to the races that he could out on the west coast. We were from Bakersfield, California. We would go to as many races as we could on the west coast. At the time they were running at Hanford, California, Riverside. So we would go out and watch Art race as often as we could. It definitely influenced me as a young boy, especially the times when he would let us run into the pits and get into his car. I can remember as a little five-year-old guy hopping into his car and putting on his helmet. That was the way he used to sneak us into the pits. We would pretend we were drivers. Those were great times. That influenced me to want to race someday. That's exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing now.

BRAD POLLARD: It was always my goal and always a dream as a child, to be as much as I could like Art. That's all I ever thought of, was getting into an IndyCar someday. That's exactly how that all started.

BRAD POLLARD: The dream was always there, so I started go-karting at a young age, then kind of stopped actually. I didn't continue on with go-karting as much as I had wanted to. Then at a younger age, teenager, got into some auto-crossing. Just tried to stay in as many kinds of cars as I could. Budget didn't really permit me to stay racing. We were so focused in our family on sports, I played football, I was a pole-vaulter in college, so really focused on that kind of sport rather than racing. When I finally got the chance to start running a shifter kart in 1999, I realized there was something I should be pursuing, and that's kind of really why I started to back up. As of 1999, I just went after racing, you know, wholeheartedly. Moved up to Formula Mazda, had great success our first season. It was very exciting for us to bring the Pollard name back into racing alone, let alone back to the Speedway. Once we had some success in the Formula Mazda, we realized there's something there and I want to keep pursuing it. That's exactly how I got into the IRL.

BRAD POLLARD: It was exciting. A lot of people have asked me, "Was it emotional, anything like that?" It really wasn't. It honestly felt like coming home to me. I know that sounds a little odd, but it just felt so familiar. Maybe that's from all the years of dreaming of finally driving the Speedway. I got out there. The car was set up perfectly. Everything was in slow motion. It was just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be out there, driving on the Speedway, bring a Pollard name back to the Speedway. A couple of times when I went through turn one, where Art had his accident, I looked over at the wall, I saw that, I said, "That's not for me. This is the time for the Pollards to bring the name positively back to the Speedway." My goals are to pick up where Art left off, get up there and win the 500, I don't want to say as quickly as possible, but get the name back into the IRL, work really hard to win the 500 and do the best that we can do.

BRAD POLLARD: They do. My parents will be there. Art's son Mike Pollard will be there. He always helps me out. So we'll have quite a few of our family members there. That will be a real special time for the family to get back to the Speedway. We're all looking forward to that.

BRAD POLLARD: I can tell you we're continuing our alignment with XBOX, which is very exciting for us. They've been a great sponsor and continue to be a great sponsor. We will run the last three races of the season in an IRL car. We haven't aligned with a team yet, but right after the 500 we know lots of equipment becomes available, and there's lots of different strategic alignments that can be made. We're going to work really hard after the 500 to get with a team, get with the right team, run the last three races of the season in both cars, because I'm going to finish up the Infiniti Pro Series, then the last three races the year, Chicago, Fontana and Texas, I'll be jumping back and forth between IRL cars and Infiniti cars. We're working on a plan for '05, aligning back with XBOX for the full season in an IRL car. There's still a few partnerships that we're working on that we can't announce yet, but there's some very exciting things coming. I can't wait to share those with you as soon as I can.

BRAD POLLARD: That's absolutely something I would plan to do, sit with him as soon as he's freed up. I know he's been very busy, so I didn't want to bother him. My plan was to ask Mark Taylor and Ed what it was like to make the move up, what was the difference between the cars, what should I pay attention to. Also I've aligned with Phil Kruger, if anyone remembers that name from the Speedway years ago. He's been mentoring and helping me. He will also help me make the transition to the big cars. As soon as we can get ourselves aligned with teams, we're going to actually start testing in the big cars so I can be prepared for September.

BRAD POLLARD: We've been very, very fortunate. I can't tell you how thankful I am that they're actually even listening to me. It was a little bit of a challenge at first. Everybody out there who raises the sponsorship, they know you hear a lot of "no's" before you hear the final "yes." Lucky for me, I actually work for XBOX when I'm not racing. I'm a consultant. I help out -- I'm an art director actually what I do for them. I help XBOX developers all over the world make better games. I help guide them both with their technical pipeline and their creative pipeline to make their XBOX games as good as they can be. I was already sort of inside, just knew the right people to call. We just kind of kept working on deals that made sense to XBOX. It had a lot less to see with, "Let's take all your money," a lot more to do with strategy alignments with outside groups into XBOX to make it advantageous for them. Finally, come November last year, they decided to jump in and help and said, "Okay, we'll do something for '04." Luckily they've been happy with the results. We're working on something for '05. We're very, very fortunate, very, very thankful.

BRAD POLLARD: I do. I get to see all the stuff before it hits. That in itself is really a neat job. Of course, now when the racing games come by, those are my favorite games to work on. But it's a really neat relationship. That's something that we're very thankful for.

BRAD POLLARD: That's a great question. My father was upset at first. He wasn't really sure. Of course, you know, losing Art which really was like a brother to him, because my father was raised with Art, he was a lot closer to us than a cousin would be. My dad was like, "Oh, my gosh, why are you going to do this? It's so dangerous." I couldn't really explain why other than it's just been a calling that I felt my whole life. You know, had I not jumped in a Formula Mazda and been so successful the first year and won, I probably would have kept it as a hobby. But I have to pursue these dreams. I feel like it's my responsibility to the Pollard name to pick up where Art left off. I'm very thankful everything has worked out. Now my dad is much better. You'll see him at the Speedway. He's very excited about the whole thing. Of course, he's very excited if I don't crash. But the family, Art's son has been completely supportive and has been helping me out left and right, my cousin Terry. I've got a lot of people in my family that are helping out now. But at first they were a little bit concerned, but they're much better now.

BRAD POLLARD: That's how it feels to me. That's exactly how it felt. You know, after Art's tragic death, that really affected me as a young boy. I got out there and I just felt like, "Okay, let's go to work. Let's get this name back where it belongs, let's get a Pollard an and Andretti and Unser and Foyt back on that track together, let's keep going." That's exactly how it felt. I felt like I was coming home. I felt like I'd driven that Speedway a million times. I can't explain why that happened. But we were pretty quick right off the bat. I felt, "It's just supposed to be that way." It felt easy to drive. I kept thinking, "Why does it feel so slow?" I don't know. That's a testament to how great a car that Ken set up for us. I'm very thankful.

BRAD POLLARD: 1973, May 12th, in the morning. All I remember is I was a really young guy and I was eating cereal. My mom was crying and I couldn't understand why. She had said Art was tragically injured. I think it was maybe about 10 a.m. I remember it being really early in the morning on the west coast.

BRAD POLLARD: That's a great question. My dad and I were just talking about that the other day. Rick is actually really good friends with my cousin Terry. Every time they see each other, they ran around together at kids. You know, I don't know what it is. I know in Bakersfield, it's a very sports-minded town, a very competitive town. You grow up looking up to your idols and looking up to the people that really count, your mentors. For some reason it seems to breed fast car drivers. I don't know if that's our competitive nature, if it's in the water. I really don't know. It's pretty neat that we have a group of guys that are gaining some success. If we could all be as good as Rick Mears, I think that would be fantastic.

BRAD POLLARD: Yeah. I can understand why. In fact, I was just talk to Robby Gordon the other day. He does that. He goes back and forth between the IRL, goes to the Coca-Cola 600. I think that would be pretty fantastic to be able to do something like that. Right now, I'm going to stay focused on open-wheel and get as good as I can get there. But, of course, I'm always open to opportunities. If anything arises, to be honest with you, it's really where God leads me, where I'm supposed to be in racing. I know right now I'm supposed to focus on open-wheel.

BRAD POLLARD: You're going to see a lot of us down there, absolutely. In fact, they all came out to Fontana last year. That was one of my first races in the IPS. Yeah, it's going to be exciting. Actually, they'll all kind of pile into Phoenix and Fontana. Close enough to the Bakersfield crowd.

BRAD POLLARD: You mean the Freedom 100?

BRAD POLLARD: Well, it won't feel like it's very many laps. It's a two and a half mile oval there, rectangle with rounded corners. You know, Phoenix felt, because it was so hot, like a longer race because it was so many laps. I kind of get the feeling that Indy is going to feel -- of course, we're going to try to get this thing to the front this time. We're going to work really hard to qualify well, get it up in the front, keep it up in the front. Honestly, I hope it feel -- it feels longer, but I have a feeling it's going to feel like it's over with pretty quick. I really wish we could be in the big show this year, but of course that's not set up until us next year. Next year we're come here and run for two and a half hours.

BRAD POLLARD: The last three races the year I'll be running the Infiniti Pro car as well as an IRL car. I'm getting prepared for next year.

BRAD POLLARD: We're talking to teams right now. I thought we were going to get pretty close to being able to tell you something today, but we've still got a little bit of work to do. My goal is to get something up and running by June 1st because we really need to be purchasing cars and getting tests set up in order to get me prepared for September because I need as much seat times a I can get. My goal is not to just get up there and run in the back; my goal is to get up there, the first three races of this year, in an IRL car, it's just to do well an finish, but I really want to test as much as I can in the off-season and come back next year strong and doing a good job, be safe to the other drivers, just keep the integrity of the Pollard name.

BRAD POLLARD: Well, we're trying to decide whether we're going to use our sponsor money to purchase and build a team from scratch or whether we're going to just align with another team and do a turn-key operation. We still haven't decided what's the best path.

BRAD POLLARD: He was my father's cousin. My dad's father and Art's father were brothers. My dad lost his dad at a young age, so Art's family helped raise my dad and his brother quite a bit.

BRAD POLLARD: Harvel, H-a-r-v-e-l, Pollard.

BRAD POLLARD: Thank you, everybody, for your time. I appreciate the opportunity talking with you.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: My pleasure.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Well, it was very quickly. It basically everything happened like in 24 hours. I mean, I wasn't expecting Robbie's retirement. All of a sudden Dennis called me, I flew into Indianapolis, look at the shop, you know. They have a great facility. At night I flew back to Orlando the same day, and were all signed up after a few hours. It was crazy.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Yeah, it's been very hard for me. You know, I went to most of the open tests. I went to Homestead race, then to Phoenix. Just as I told you, it's just like you're like in the same place working, trying to find a job like in a place where you think you should be at, you know, but you don't have a job. It's like you've been fired from a place, but you still have to go over and over to that same place with the same people and try to get a job in the same area. It's not like any regular job, you know. But I definitely don't recommend it, you know (laughter). It's been very hard few months for me. I'm glad that everything came back and we should be racing from now on.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Well, I mean, as soon as I came here, when I first met everybody, they have a good facility, good people working for them. But honestly, I mean, I was also expecting something not as good, you know, just because it would be everything new. I was outside of the car for seven months. They've been struggling a little bit in the past. I mean, I was happy, but it was like we just sign for the rest of the season, so I was happy for that. I was thinking, okay, Indy, we're going to work our way through, and maybe in the middle of the championship, we're going to be where we should be. I was very well surprised when I first went out and I start pushing. It's one of those things, the track came back to me so quickly. After my third lap, I was just like -- it seems that I drove in that track like a few days ago, you know, not a year ago. The same with the car. It was the first time I was driving a Dallara. It just came very quickly. For sure, I mean, the team's setup had a big thing on that, you know, because they made me feel very comfortable with the car. For sure they gave me a fast car right out of the box. That's really good.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: No, I haven't. It's a hundred percent brand-new for me (laughter).

FELIPE GIAFFONE: I mean, I still have the limp, you know, but I don't think I'm going to be carrying this forever. It's going to be -- I think I still have like a big hardware on my right leg, and I think I spoke to the doctor. I think we going to have to remove this in the end of the season, the plates. I think it's the plate in my leg that bothers me. It's going to be a little while. But, I mean, as far as physically, you know, I just can't go jogging, which I used to love to do it. You know, so I've been cycling, swimming, all the weights. Physical just as good as anybody.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Yeah, no, but it's been crazy. I think this last week or two, you know, nothing happens for so long, for such a long time for me, and all of a sudden I had the deal going on, then the moving. I'm all settle in right now. I mean, it's still not the way it should be. I just finished testing in Indianapolis. Which day was that? I think it was Friday.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Yeah, Thursday. Basically I flew back to Orlando. I got back home almost 1 a.m. The next day, people were packing everything at home. Then me and my wife, we drove back here on that night, you know. We drove four hours the first day, 12 the next day. We got back all right. We're just kind of taking our time to put everything where it should be in the apartment, you know.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: It's been very good. I mean, Robbie, I think this is going to be a big plus for the team, you know, having Robbie right beside me or whoever. They're planning to run a second car here in the future. So I think Robby's input is going to be very good because he's like Michael Andretti is for Green. Penske, he always have some exdrivers, you know, helping them. I think that's going to be his job. I mean, he knows exactly what's going on. Like if the car is not going good, he knows pretty much what he needs to go to try to help the team, you know. So we've been talking quite a lot. I mean, he's really good with sponsor, as well. I'm pretty sure he's going to help the team finding more and more sponsors. I mean, from what I can see, he's happy right now doing what he's doing.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Well, I mean, he's doing a little bit of that. I mean, my engineer right now is Owen. He was with Robbie before. I think we had some good chemistry, you know, between the two of us right out of the box. I think he's trusting me as a driver. The more I run with him, the more I trust him as engineer, you know. Robbie, at the same time, it's been us, you know. I mean, we have nice people working there. I think, again, it's going to take a while for us to be where we're like the big, very well-formed teams are. But I think this is a target that the team here have. We hopefully like towards the end of the year going to be right there.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Not really leaving. Indianapolis, the weather is one of the things that bothers me. But we just -- I just put in my mind, I told my wife that we're going to be here no matter what happens. I always been living in Indianapolis, and said, "When we have like a long-term deal, we going to go somewhere in Florida." Like once I was in Orlando, during the day you don't have anything to do, I miss going to the shop at least a couple of times a week.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: It is (laughter). Basically for sure like we put in our minds that it won't matter what happens, we're going to be here for at least the next three years. I mean, we can settle things down here. If everything goes right, we can buy a house and just be here, you know.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: You know, the leg's coming along good. It still hurts a little bit to walk and to run, but I think, as I told you guys before, I'm going to have to wait and take the hardware out, then I'll be 100%. As far as the metal detector, you know, sometimes it beeps. But I thought it would be a bigger thing for the guys, but I think a lot of people has metals on their body. Usually like if I go just through the metal detector, you won't beep unless it's very sensitive, because it's not like a regular steel, it's made of titanium.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: But whenever they scan me with that little bar that they have, then it beeps really loud (laughter).

FELIPE GIAFFONE: He was helping me, as I wasn't driving. He was trying to hook me up to a few guys in Europe to do a prototype race there. So we're always in touch. I had maybe after June, I would maybe go over to Europe and do some prototype tests. Right now we stopped everything, of course. I mean, I got a ride, you know. That's not in my mind. He knows that I'm not like -- I always want as a kid to go to F1. Not anymore. I would love to have a chance to drive one of these cars, but not to go and race.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: My father knew him because they raced together back in Brazil. The only time I met him was he gave me like a trophy one time in '88, I think. I was like 13, 14 years old. I won, they had like an end of the year party in Brazil. All the kids would gain some awards. That was the first time. I never actually talked to him like as a normal conversation, unfortunately. I used to love him. It was the best guy for me.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Well, not much, to be honest. We discuss before I got in the car. I just told Owen the way I like the car to feel like first time out. Basically whatever I said, either was a big coincidence or he was really good (laughter). The car was just the way it should be. It work out very good. The car, I went out, first time I was really taking my time. The lap times, didn't take long to be right there. For sure the car was very good out of the box.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Well, I mean, when I first signed the deal, I was expecting just to finish the race and do the best job that we could, as everything's new. But I think the better you start to go, the faster you start to go, things start to change. You start to look more like, "Okay, if we have a good qualifying car, we're going to try to go for the pole." Of course, in the race, if everything goes right, we're going to try to win it. But I think we're a long way to go still from qualifying to race. A lot of things can happen in the meantime. I think we just got to take our time. As you know, everything is new. We're all excited because things are going good. I know Indianapolis, I know it's a tough track. One day you can be very strong, the next day you could be very easily last. I think we got to take our time and don't get too excited and then see what happens. We have to go day to day.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Thank you.

FELIPE GIAFFONE: Thank you.