INDY RACING LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 8, 2005

Alex Barron

Patrick Carpentier

Travis Gregg

TRAVIS GREGG: Well, thanks, Tim. Thanks for having me on today.

TRAVIS GREGG: Well, I knew I was getting involved with a pretty good team with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. They are a high-class operation and with [] Thiago last year, they can certainly posted great results. At the test, things felt great in the car. I knew if the car was good that I had a good chance to be competitive, and that's what I was looking for. And things worked out to where we could race with Sam, and that's where we are today and I'm happy to be here.

TRAVIS GREGG: One part of it would have to be experience, my fourth start. And another part, I had my teammate, Jaime, working with me, as opposed to battling it out for 67 laps. You know, he was saving his car for the end, and I was trying to save my car for the end. So we worked together to develop a lead between us and third, and he was going to try to do whatever he had to to get around me the last ten laps, and that's how it ended up, 1, 2 finish. You know, I'm just happy that we worked together and we didn't take each other out.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, I think that's going to be an indication of what the season will be like.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, he is. In testing over the winter he was pretty quick and -- really quick, actually. And before the race on Sunday he told me, "You know, I'll be coming up there for you guys, so don't get too far ahead."

TRAVIS GREGG: Some of the keys, just be a little patient. And make sure you get a good race car setup; that way, you know, it's comfortable, you know, turn 3 and 4; and 1 and 2, it's a little bit tighter and has a little bit, you know, a tight corner coming of off 2. But I think to just, you know, stay focused on being smart and not trying to do anything silly, it's only the second race of the year and just try to do that.

TRAVIS GREGG: I think so. At the Phoenix open test, Jaime was the front runner and Simmons was up there, too. So I think it's going to be a very competitive race.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that, St. Petersburg, a great place. We going to be right by the bay. I think it's going to be a challenge. I've never raced on a street course before and it's going to be different variations in pavement and concrete. I'm looking forward to and just have to take it one step at a time.

TRAVIS GREGG: Sure. I began racing go-karts at age 7. I did some OBKA Club races, Camden, Ohio, G&J Kartway there; and did some WKA races, two-cycle Sprints; and also started racing Formula Atlantics in '98 and '99, and did some races at Gingerman, Mid-Ohio, IRP. And then from there on did four years of Sprint car racing, non-wing four-ten Sprints, mainly in Indiana, like Lawrenceburg, Bloomington and Terra Haute.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yes.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, it is, and I'm happy that Lucas is going to be a part of the program this year. I know Sam was a big part of that with the sponsorship last year they received from them at Indy with Richie Hern (ph). And I had a brief chance to talk to Forest, and he seemed excited on Sunday and looked forward to meeting him, and maybe even working up things better in the future with Lucas Oil.

TRAVIS GREGG: I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, Sprint car racing, you know, you're only turning left and that's a big part in racing on ovals. But the Formula Atlantic racing, it's more of an Indy-type style of car. So I think that they both kind of relate to helping me a little bit better on the track.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, Sam's a very dedicated individual. He travels, you know, many days out of the year for his paralysis foundation and also the race team. And just having him there at the track, because, you know, I'm sure he would give anything to get back into a car. So you know, I take that time to ask questions, and he lends support to me. Anything that I have questions about, he's there always with some advice.

TRAVIS GREGG: Yeah, you know, you can give 100%, but in his perspective, I can give 110% because it's hard for him to make it to the track and so I look at that. You know, hey, things aren't going great for me, but they could be worse, I guess you could say.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: For me, I'm very happy I'm really excited I'm really happy. I enjoyed the race. I had a good time. The weekend was a bit tougher than what I thought it would be. We wanted to be a little bit more ahead up front and we were disappointed with qualifying when they gave us -- we got stuck in fourth gear there, and so we started further back. But the goal for the weekend was to stay clean and bring the car home and then improve from there. So we know we have a lot of work to do, but we are thinking that we are going to really start moving forward. I'm looking forward to the next races, but let me tell you this race was really exciting. I feel like I was pretty lucky to escape the crash with the help of Davey Hamilton as a spotter. He guided me through the debris and we ended up 7. It was good, and it was good to lead a few laps. Overall, I'm very, very happy with the experience.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Getting more and more comfortable to know the guys. One thing that I like about the team is that they really want to win, and we don't necessarily have the biggest, biggest sponsorship out there, but they really want to win races and they are working toward that. I'm looking forward to work some more with these guys. This was a good experience, it was a lot of learning more for me this weekend. It's a completely different game than from what I'm used to. The cars run one inch from each other at 220 miles an hour, and the focus that it demands in the race is unbelievable. So anybody that says that they just put it flat-out and just leave it there and it's easy are completely wrong because it's one of most difficult things that I've done. You know, you need to set the car up so that can stay wide open all the time to keep up with the top runners. It was quite a learning experience for me on many different faces, with the car setup and the gears and the restarts and the pits and everything. It was a lot of stuff to learn, and I will be honest with you, I was a little bit more stressed than usual before that race. But like I said, you know, for us, the objective was to run well, but to finish the race, get some points. We knew the weekend had not been going our way and that's what we did. It was overall a good weekend at the end, so I'm looking forward to spending a few races.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, it's always tough. You know, any weekend you go, Indy Racing League has become in the last few years extremely competitive. And whether it's a road course or an oval, we already had a test on a road course, it's within hundredths of a second and thousandths of a second; it makes a big difference. So if you can begin one-tenth of a second, you'll gain six or seven positions. It's all of the details, the attention to details and preparing the cars and so forth. And I'm looking forward to going to Phoenix. I've always enjoyed racing one-mile ovals, and so I'm forward to this one and I'm looking forward to have a bit of a better week and to qualify.

ALEX BARRON: Well, it's been running through my mind ever since we raced on Sunday. I think that the setup was very reasonable. We started off with a pretty good balance. We made the car very good after the first stop, and I was able to run high and low and I just didn't seem to be able to overtake quite as quickly as would I have liked to. Our pit stops were average. We have some things that we need to work on, but we did get points over the weekend. To be honest, I had higher goals for the weekend. I thought we would be up further than we were, but, you know, we finished the event and we got some good points and we have actually a lot of things that we have to look at. The event that we are going into at Phoenix I think is a lot different than what we just did in Homestead. Last year we finished fourth there, and it's because we had a very good balance with the race car and the heat, and I'm looking forward to going there. I think it's neat to run the series now with five different kinds of venues with the road courses, street courses, Super Speedways, Speedways and one-mile ovals. I think it brings more excitement to the series, and I look forward to the races to come.

ALEX BARRON: I think so. I mean, I was able to win a win a race at Michigan with Toyota in 2003. I know that here in 2005 they are really going for it. They are putting a lot of effort forth to win the championship. I know that there are some things in the works, and I hope here in the next couple of races, you know, we can run in the front and be on more of the offensive side of the racetrack instead of defense. You know, that's what I'm something I'm looking forward to, and that's where you really enjoy making passes and either that's when you get really good results. But we have to work on some things all together, and hopefully we have a good package here before it gets too far into the season to start winning some of these events.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: It was more. It was more because it was definitely more exciting than what I thought it was. You know, I knew it was close racing and we're really close to one another, but I never thought it would take that much focus and run side by side like that, but it's pretty exciting actually. I'll tell you that I had a really good time. I really enjoyed the race, and there was a few close calls, but I guess there always is; there always are at every event. For me, when we did the practice, I was like, "Man, this is crazy." Everybody told me, "Oh, the race is worse, the race is worse." So I was a little bit nervous before. Race, I said, "How can it be worse?" In the race, it was actually pretty good. Once it settles in, then you get into a rhythm and then it runs really well. But imagine it's really exciting for the fans. I was excited watching it last year, and seeing it now from the cockpit inside the car, believe me, it is adrenaline.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, actually, normally at the end of a race, I stay out till two o'clock in the morning because I'm still like excited and stuff like that. But with this one, it demanded so much energy and so much focus, that by the time ten o'clock arrived I was drained out and tired. And my wife said after the race that I looked very different, very alert when I came out of the car compared to before. But, you have no choice, you have to be extremely alert and be aware of what's going on around you all the time.

ALEX BARRON: Well, I think all the teams, we analyze everything when we get back to the shop. We were just a little bit slow in the pits, but, you know, I think we know what it is and we've just got to work on it. But there's so many things with the new fueling rig this year and things that we have to look at to speed up the process. But, you know, in the pits and then being on the racetrack, too, we are trying to find out why we didn't quite have the speed to run with the leaders and we are working on that right now. But it was a long race because, you know, Patrick and I and the Ganassi guys, we were running together quite a bit and things got strung out. It just seemed a lot different than what I thought it was going to be. But we know what we have to do and we got some points in the race, and we just need to make sure that we carry on with making progress with what we need to do on the racetrack and try not to let some of these other cars get too far out in the championship, because that's ideally what we are looking forward to is to run with the championship throughout the season.

ALEX BARRON: Well, I think, you know, Toyota and Honda are quite the rivals with each other, and I know they want to beat each other really bad. It's hard to say what's going to happen during the season. But I'm a firm believer in Toyota as a company to win races. I've been with them on and off since '97. I won a championship in Toyota Atlantic with them. I know that when they are dedicated like they are, they are going to get some things done. I know some things are in the works, and we have to work together with them to try to go after the championship.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: I think for me it was one of the first experience with these guys. You've got to be extremely careful. You've got to race really hard and race three cars side by side on the corner, it's not a problem, but you have to be careful with where you are at. But I think I what happened with the Matsuura, because I had the first seat in there, I think he started going sideways a little bit and he didn't quite counter -- counter, turn the whatever you call it, the steering wheel, right away. His car kind of went down on the track and it seemed like he caught -- he was cutting off Scheckter, but I think it was not his intention. I think he was running a bit high and it started getting loose and the car started going down and that's how everything happened. At the same time as that happened, Scott Sharp started spinning at the back, also, having exactly the same thing. His rear end got loose, I don't know if he got touched, but that's what it did. So I'm not too sure. I'm not sure if it was intentional. If it was intentional, I think it's really bad because once you cut the air off, then it's very hard to guide the car around the corner.

ALEX BARRON: I haven't seen -- I saw the highlights on TV on the way home when I was eating dinner, but there was just a lot of movement that was quite quick in the corner on the restart. I think it just caused a lot of turmoil. It just, when you are running side by side like that, people get high and they go loose, and to make aggressive moves sometimes, I think it can catch some people out. But, you know, it took out like eight cars and you know that was a pretty big wreck. It took them a long time to get all that mess cleaned up. I'm glad that nobody got hurt. But again, we've just got to be careful of the aggressive moves. I think that sometimes that happens at the wrong time and sometimes you have to worry about people getting hurt and we have to evaluate it and try to make it better for the next time.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: It was good. I think Brian's main concern was that nobody take the whole field out on the first lap, you know. It was pretty clear that if you want to race, guys, try to wait until later in the race, and that's exactly what happened. But in racing, I think you're going to have some good racing and you're going to have some bad crashes but at least, you know, it's never good. But it was at the end of the race where the guys really started fighting hard for position, so it's not like it happened on the first lap. As Brian said, when it does, it's really bad.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, that was pretty exciting to watch that. I don't know, I think it's racing. They have to look at the tapes to make sure that nobody tried to play dirty on one another. But they have to make the decision to see what, if it was bad or if it was good.

ALEX BARRON: Yeah, it was. It was pretty much that way all the weekend. We were trying to figure that out, what's going on, but at the end of the day, you can always improve and we can do some things within the team to make further gains. We were talking about strategy for the event with the engineers, what we can do strategically to run in a pack and things like that. But yeah, I mean, there is a few cars out there that seem to have quite a bit more speed than us. You know, we have to figure some things out of why that's going on. But at the end of the day, that's the way it worked out, and it's kind of been a long couple of days for me because that's all I've been thinking about. I had higher expectations for the event and we were fortunate to come out with some points but we cannot let them get too far ahead. I know Pat and I, we both want to win the championship, and you start letting some of the cars check out on points and it's a long season to try to catch back up.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Not setup-wise. I think it would be wrong to do it anyway, because if we ever find something, I don't want them to go and see Penske and tell it to them. It works the same way. If they find something with engines, for sure you want to know as soon as possible, but I'm sure they are doing that.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, when you run by yourself, I would say it's very similar. It behaves very similar. I had the opportunity last year to do a test at Homestead with the Champ Car and the speeds were pretty much the same. The car was the same, but where it's extremely different is when you start running in a pack. The IRL cars, you have to run very, very close to one another, and you try to stay wide open as much as you can as much as it will let you do. It's much, much closer racing than from what I've ever been used to in Champ Car. It was close racing in the last week at Speedway, but this is extremely close and you have to stay with the three-litre engine; you have to stay really close to the guy's gear box in order to stay in the draft and keep moving forward. So it's a different game. It was a completely different game to get used to for the weekend. Like Alex said, we are hoping to get a little bit more speed in the next one. Besides that, by yourselves, pretty much the same. It's just the way of racing is extremely different.

PATRICK CARPENTIER: It's a little bit different between the two, but I think that top speed, the Indy car, the IRL car has more top speed than what we had on a similar track at Las Vegas. Power-wise, it seems like it has a little bit less, but around the corners it's really fast. I think we are easily pulling over four G's in Phoenix when we tested there, and I haven't seen that in quite a while. So it was two different animals.