INDY RACING LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 21, 2005

Alex Barron

Tony Kanaan

Buddy Rice

Tomas Scheckter

Dan Wheldon

ALEX BARRON: No. Actually the first one was with Chevrolet. It was before Toyota came in.

ALEX BARRON: Yes. Toyota with Mo Nunn.

BUDDY RICE: I think so.

TOMAS SCHECKTER: Obviously it's great to come back with the same team. It gives me a little bit of continuity. I know what to expect on the first race. I don't really have to prove anything to the team, my speed or my ability. It's a comfortable start. We just got to make sure that everybody involved puts in a good effort, that includes Chevrolet and everybody on the team. We've got to make sure that we can keep up with these other manufacturers. Obviously, last year was very tough for us. We've learned a lot. Hopefully we can take what we've learned and make sure we get some good results this year. We definitely need it.

ALEX BARRON: Yeah, I think so. I think Eddie and Max are working real hard. We've done a lot in the off-season for the level of the team. We have a lot of key people right now making decisions. The engineering staff's come a long way. But what you need to do is you need to set a good base in the off-season of things that you need to go after. We got a head start on that this year with being on board with Toyota. I think that's going to bump us up in the right direction. So far it's gone great. We have two strong cars running. Everybody's high-spirited. Our hopes are high. I know we want to get in the front every weekend. We definitely want to go for the championship.

BUDDY RICE: I think we're looking for a lot right now. I think adding the third car is going to be a benefit all the way around. Obviously, the other teams have proven that multi-car teams are the way to go right now. We need the development. We need the experience and the ability to test during race weekend. So the more cars you have, the quicker and the faster you're able to adapt and make your car that much better. So I think it's very important for us on that. With the Panoz Honda right now, we're looking for big things. This year it's a little bit different coming into the start of the season. We have strong testing going on right now. But also we already have continuity. We know what we need to do. We'll be able to start off strong hopefully from the start, you know, try to make a push all the way through the whole season for the championship.

DAN WHELDON: Well, I think I'm just going to approach it the same as I did last year. Certainly from the standpoint of the team, I think we're going to be very, very competitive. But I think with the league continuing in the direction that it is, I think there's going to be about 12 people that can win any individual race. It's going to be I think a lot more difficult. I know Honda have been working hard over the winter. I think everyone wants to catch them. Certainly the team, there's a target on our back, so to speak. We've just got to keep working hard, you know, keep enjoying it as much as we're doing. I think we're going to try to add a fifth car with a female teammate like Buddy.

TONY KANAAN: Dan is jealous about that, man.

TONY KANAAN: I don't think there is any difference really. Only sometimes when I wake up and I walk through my living room and I see the champion trophy, makes me smile. But different year. All starts from scratch again. So I would say that we got to build everything back because, you know, what's happened in the past belongs to the past. So now we need to move forward. I'm looking forward. I think we have -- we proved we have a strong team and we're going to work towards that and try to start to win eight races, try to win more, see what we can do.

TONY KANAAN: I guess I have to finish fifth at Homestead and then go from there (laughter). They add one more race, so I guess I have a challenge now. I have 200 more miles to do. It's going to be hard. I never had the expectation -- I never pretend to finish every lap really. I took it race by race. Actually, the media brought that up towards the end of the season because I wasn't paying any attention. I was just concentrating to keep my teammate and this guy here away from me as much as I could. The way we do it, we just, like I said, we can't do anything different. I even choose not to change the number of my car, just leave it exactly the same the way it was. We'll try, but we can't afford to go down a single lap, otherwise we're going to really start losing it. We'll see what's going to happen.

TOMAS SCHECKTER: I think, to be honest, some part of me is a little bit concerned. But it can also play to our advantage. If we get to the first race and all of a sudden we've got a big advantage, it's great for us. But in a lot of ways Chevrolet have got a lot of work to do. I know they're working very, very hard. They've said publicly that this was going to be their last year. So I'm hoping that they put a big push in and make sure that Chevy goes out with some good results this year. Really what I have to do is just concentrate on the car, make sure that that's as best as possible. Hopefully that makes everything look good, as well.

BUDDY RICE: I think he took it home and slept with it. He was pretty excited. It was a huge thing for him. I mean, this is what he's always wanted to do. That's why he was a part of the team from the beginning. It just happened to be that last year we were able to do it for him. He was so excited. You know, he doesn't get excited about too many things. Obviously, he doesn't show up to too many races but the 500. So for that to happen, for him to be able to take that thing home and put it on his mantel or whatever, he was extremely excited about it.

BUDDY RICE: None of these guys are going to say anything about what they did. That's why it's called testing.

ALEX BARRON: I tried to run as hard as I could majority of the time, working our race setup, trying to set a lap time for qualifying. We were trying to simulate the way it's going to be on the road courses with one-lap qualifying. We had a lot of mechanical things that happened in the last two days that held us back quite a bit. Patrick got to run quite a bit, and we learned a lot from his car. But for me, the 51 car, we struggled a bit just because a lot of things out of our control held us back.

DAN WHELDON: All I can tell you is I didn't run as hard as Dario (laughter). No, we were obviously working through a set program with the four cars. We had some different bits on each car. I think some of us got the good bits at one part of the day and others got it at the end of the day. No, it was just getting familiar with everything. For me, it's my first time on a road course in an IndyCar. I was very, very impressed with the brakes. I thought the brakes were excellent. I think it's going to make for fun racing.

TONY KANAAN: I can only say it was fun. I took it, you know, just trying to make it work for the team. We made big changes, just try to understand what the car did for us. That's it. I wasn't too worried about the lap time. Obviously, I was driving fast.

BUDDY RICE: He's lying.

TONY KANAAN: I was holding up. But I figured that out when me, Dan and Dario went out of the pits with a set of the tires. We both went off in the same corner all together. So I guess we were pushing. I mean, it's testing. Really, I mean, it doesn't mean anything. We're not going to race in Homestead road course. Just try to understand as much as we can about the car.

DAN WHELDON: Do you want me to translate that real quick? He was trying real hard, he couldn't get the car quite right, and he's pissed that he was fourth.

BUDDY RICE: I think it's like everybody; not everybody had driven on the road course with these cars. That was a little bit of a learning experience for all of us. Both chassis manufacturers are testing bits on all the cars because all the rules aren't completely 100% set, exactly how everybody is going to run, in what trim, what their spec is. There's a lot of different things going on at any time. This is an open test. And also I know with Honda, we were trying stuff as well. So, I mean, there's just a lot of different variables to what was going on and who's testing what. I know no different than anybody else sitting up here, we all have multi-car teams, and each team is running something different. Had to get through the list in such a short time, with two days, to try to get everything sorted out, because outside of maybe one more day of testing at St. Pete, we need to get all the information we can to get everything sorted out. There's just a lot of development work going on I think throughout the paddocks. I don't think it's any indication where anybody's at.

TOMAS SCHECKTER: For sure, I think we were all pushing. I think everybody was, otherwise you wouldn't have seen so many yellows as well. People are going off. That's because they're pushing the car. They want to find exactly how the limit is. We struggled with some problems with the power unit on the first day. We had to put something that wasn't exactly suited on the second day. But we gained as much information as we could for Chevrolet and for the chassis. Yes, I pushed, but I always think at the race really when you're focused or you're in qualifying, you really take it to another level. Although you see people going off, when it really comes down to it, you do take it to a level above.

TOMAS SCHECKTER: The problem is, we're both called Tomas. Every time they call Tomas, we both look. It gets a little bit confusing. But he's stated now he's Tomas and I'm Tomas. At least there's some difference. But, I mean, it's always new with a teammate. We just are understanding how we work with each other, understanding each other's driving styles, see what I can learn from him and he can learn from me so at least we can test different things and still I can take good things from him and vice versa.

TONY KANAAN: Dan is having a casting at South Beach to choose his female teammate.