INDY RACING LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 22, 2004

PJ Chesson

Kathryn Nunn

KATHRYN NUNN: Certainly. I had started watching the Pro Series races actually a couple of years ago when my good friend Miko Luyendyk's son got involved, Arie Junior, and I thought it was really good racing. So I talked Morris into coming out and watching a couple of races on the weekend, and he enjoyed it and I just suggested that we field a team and help develop drivers to bring them up; and it would have been useful to us on the IRL side to have development drivers in this series. He had sort of a lot on his plate and he said, "Well, if you will put it together, do all of the deals, get the funding, the drivers, the crew and manage the team, then I'll be all for it." So, as you say, it's taken me about a year to get this together, but it's finally happening and we really look forward to working with P.J. He's going to be brilliant.

KATHRYN NUNN: It was -- as of today, it's been 13 days. We had it delivered when we appeared at Milwaukee last Tuesday. We are exactly seven days old as a team.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, it's a completely separate team. But we did actually have the opportunity, one of our young junior engineers who has been with the team quite a few years and has worked with Felipe Giafone, and before that Jimmy Vasser, asked if he could come over. He was familiar with P.J.'s career and was very excited and he said, "I'd love to engineer one of these cars." So, we moved him over to our side and there are some other, like our crew chief Butch we had worked with before in the IRL, so he was excited to come and join us. So he is now the crew chief for P.J., and the other mechanics are new guys.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, we did have to do some research into the sprint car and the dirt track races, but I was introduced to P.J. -- was it Roger Bailey, P.J.  -- I think introduced us before Indianapolis. And we chatted because Roger knew I was trying to put something together. And I introduced P.J. to Morris, and Morris really liked him because he's quite colorful and quite a character and we started talking and he's had a lot of success in the series he's been racing in. So, you know, it's a good fit. He's got a lot of oval experience. We just need to convert that into asphalt experience.

KATHRYN NUNN: Oh, yes, it was very exciting. It was very exciting, and I have to say Morris is excited about this. He likes the racing, as well. As I mentioned before he likes P.J. He likes new projects and he was anxious to see how it would come together, and I think we were very well organized. Our engineer had a good plan for the day, and I have to say, I was quite emotional.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, we are just really excited. Now I really have a lot of confidence in P.J. It was a very successful test last week, and Morris was very impressed with his ability and how he handles the car and how quickly he got up to speed and with the feedback. Because Morris is an engineer by trade, the feedback that P.J. was giving really impressed Morris.

P.J. CHESSON: It was really cool. I felt the last time that I did something for the first time was a long time ago. It was really good. I was very comfortable with the situation. It's the first time I've ever driven for somebody outside of my family, so to go there, you know, it's very easy for a driver to be not comfortable with the situation or whatever. But with this program, it felt so natural. I mean, Kathryn has done a wonderful job organizing everybody, and she's done an amazing job coordinating a bunch of really good people to work on the car; therefore, making my job a lot easier and much more comforting, knowing that we're going to be there totally organized with the best guys that are possibly roaming around out there. So, while I'm loading the car and doing all that, it was I'm sure, probably much more emotional for Kathryn and Morris because it's their program. For me, it was just like the best situation that I could have really imagined for the first time to be starting, and it's really cool to be a part of their inaugural rolling out of the car, I guess you could say.

P.J. CHESSON: You know, I don't know, I've always  -- I've always been a better racer  -- when I get too much time on my hands even sitting around the house, I start thinking too much and trying stuff. I think I'm probably most definitely probably a better racer than I would be like at testing because my mind runs. You know, when I have a goal, I'm a real competitive kind of a guy. So I guess it will be quicker  -- it will be easier for me to learn, being around a bunch of other cars. Do I think I'm ready to get in there and dice with guys and go really hard? I don't know. We'll have to see how comfortable I am around the other cars. But the first couple of races, I just want to get some good laps under my belt and work with the guys, and if we can post a good finish, that would be really good. Just try and keep our noses clean and learn as much as we possibly can. But I think we are definitely going to have a very fast car there. Just a matter of whether or not the chauffeur (ph) is going to be up for the challenge.

P.J. CHESSON: I remember when I was little, I started out go-kart racing and my dad was involved. We used to take my brothers to World of Outlaw races and we would meet Sammy Wendell (ph) and Steve Kizzer (ph) and all those guys, and I never thought in a million years I would be racing with them. You know, 15 years later, I was racing with them and actually beating them. So it was like as a kid, looking in all of these series and the great drivers that are in them, it's a totally different perspective, and for me to be here now racing with these guys, it's every little kid's dream, I guess, that ever wanted to drive a race car. And you just have to enjoy it on the way up and not really  -- I don't know that I ever really aspired to be a professional race car driver. It just always seemed like a lot of fun, and I guess I'm still having fun at it. And I guess if you are having fun and being successful, take the next step, and I guess you just keep going until there's no more steps to be had.

P.J. CHESSON: I really hope so. I can guarantee you there's going to be a lot of people watching from the short track dirt world. Even the short track world in general, the Midget guys, Silver Crown guys, there's definitely going to be a lot of them looking, and I think definitely, if things go well, and we have a little bit of success here, I think that you'll definitely see more open-wheel racers, short track guys, coming maybe aspiring to this direction instead of the NASCAR, which I think would be great. I think it could be great for everybody involved in both worlds, the short-track world and the Indy world. We'll have to see. Who knows? Only time will tell, I guess.

KATHRYN NUNN: Right.

KATHRYN NUNN: Oh, dear, about 115.

KATHRYN NUNN: Oh, dear, I think I might be the only one at this point. Tim might be better prepared to answer that.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, I haven't actually had much time to think about blazing anything. But, no, maybe it's just that women haven't had the opportunity or have thought of this yet. It just sort of happened, just like I said, as a result of developing some drivers. A couple of situations last year with the two cars on the IRL team, it would have been nice to have someone like P.J., and say, "P.J. we need to you get in the car tomorrow." So, you know, in the future, this can happen.

KATHRYN NUNN: Oh, God, I hope not. (Laughing).

KATHRYN NUNN: Really, it's just been the organization. As I said before, I have been working on it for almost a year, but there's a lot of planning and we want to have P.J. surrounded by good guys and good equipment and have everything organized for the first race. So yeah it has been a bit stressful, but I'll be fine once we get Kansas under our best.

KATHRYN NUNN: That's Brian Welling.

KATHRYN NUNN: Actually four or five years.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, we are working on a second deal for a second car, but you know how these things take a lot of time. So that's on the back burner for now. We are just going to proceed to Kansas.

P.J. CHESSON: 25.

P.J. CHESSON: Yeah.

P.J. CHESSON: I don't know. I guess we hurt the right side of the car a little bit. I don't know how extensive the damage actually was. But it didn't feel like we hit very hard, that's for sure. The cars are built pretty well and it was just an unfortunate incident. But, whatever, you know. We met, we shook hands and now hopefully we don't have to have that conversation again; that is, the wall and I.

P.J. CHESSON: Yeah, you just have to take things one step at a time. If things go, you know, well and everyone is having a good time to go doing it, I can't imagine that I wouldn't want to go to the next level and drive an Indy car. So, that's just all the stuff and we have to wait and see what happens. As well as Kathryn has putting this team together, I'm talking to her about maybe driving a car at Milwaukee next time. (Laughter).

KATHRYN NUNN: It is Butch Winkle.

P.J. CHESSON: Actually Jeff Simmons was there at the test. And we made some laps early in the morning and we discussed a lot of stuff and all of the little questions that I had from a driver standpoint I could fire at him, and he's a really good kid. He's a great driver. He helped me out quite a bit. He helped me get up to speed and also Morris's knowledge and Rick Mears and Butch and Brian. I guess pretty much everybody at Mo Nunn. There's a lot of people there with a lot of knowledge. So it wasn't very hard to find somebody to talk to that knew what they were doing or they had some experience. So it was pretty easy to find some information.

P.J. CHESSON: Actually, for a driver, I think that's probably the most nerve-wracking part, stalling the car in the pits or doing something dumb like that. Really, the shifting, that's easy. You could get in an old Corolla and just practice that. Those things, they are nice to drive. I guess the weird part for me was sitting down the way we do, lying down, I should say, in the car and having your head totally secure in the car and that kind of stuff, the crotch drafts (ph) they have are pretty tight; that was pretty tough to get used to. Other than that, I mean, they are comfortable. They are nice to drive.

P.J. CHESSON: Not really. Just coming out of the pits every now and again, I would practice getting through the gears pretty quickly. That's stuff that I like to work on a little bit more in Kansas. Again, Milwaukee was more of a shakedown kind of a session for us and for me to get a feel for the car. It's a shorter track, so it was easier to feel the car there on a shorter track. So, that's about all.

KATHRYN NUNN: I can only tell from you my standpoint, I enjoy the larger tracks a lot more than the really small ones. I think you'd have to ask P.J. how he feels about the smaller tracks.

P.J. CHESSON: Well, a shorter track gives you a better chance to feel the car. But those tracks are also the more difficult tracks, as well, because you are not flat and you do have to drive the car, especially when the car is flat like Milwaukee is. Richmond I think would be a great place because there's high bank there and there's a little more room, where Milwaukee  -- a little more room for error. Milwaukee, there's really not much room for error. It's a single-lane track; it's really flat. So, I don't know, I think that Richmond would probably  -- everyone says, everyone I've spoken to, they are like, "Oh, man, Richmond would be a great place for a Pro Series car." You know, I don't know, that's there for the IRL to determine, not me.

P.J. CHESSON: No.

KATHRYN NUNN: I don't know. P.J. might have been talking about his rookie test when Rick is generally one of the people who observe and offer advice; is that correct, P.J.?

P.J. CHESSON: Yeah, I actually talk to Rick quite a bit on the telephone on a regular basis. He's just  -- he's a great guy. He's a great guy to be able to talk to. He's very good at expressing how a car works and answering the questions, the feels that you'll have. More from a driver standpoint, they are questions that a driver would really want to know, and he has been very helpful. I spoke to him, I guess the night after Milwaukee, and we talked for about 45 minutes about stuff. His big quote that I'll always remember, I guess, is these cars whisper to you, whereas like a sprint car would scream and holler, we are tight, we're loose, where these cars are much more subtle in how you feel them and react to them.

KATHRYN NUNN: Yes, he was. And he graciously offered at Minneapolis to come to the Milwaukee test and talk to P.J. and offer whatever advice he could, and he showed up first thing in the morning and he stayed there pretty much all day.

KATHRYN NUNN: Yes.

KATHRYN NUNN: Well, for the rest of this year, we are behind a bit. There's really no pressure on P.J. at all. If there's any pressure, it's coming from him. We just want him to learn the tracks. We're considering the rest of this year just a learning experience to get comfortable with the car, with the crew, with his engineer. And next year, we'll certainly concentrate a lot more on being at the front of the pack all the time. When P.J. and I first met, he did have a plan for his career. He would like to end up in Indy cars, and hopefully we'll be able to move him up there. If he does do very well next year, Morris would not give a thought to putting him in an IRL car in a race or a test and see how he does.