INDYCAR SERIES: BOMBARDIER 500

June 7, 2003

Tony Kanaan

Tora Takagi

TONY KANAAN: Well, I think the race speaks for itself. It was a great race. Lot of close calls. I think we're going to address that in the next driver's meeting. But most of the race was really clean and fair. The last lap, I mean the last race car I had a pretty good idea from the previous race car what I could do without. He was very strong all day. So I had to try. I wasn't constant enough that I could make it, but I had to try. So I got a run on him on the outside. And the outside line was a little slower. And I proved that Scott was running with me, I was all the way to the inside and Scott could get by me. So Al figured that out and he was all the way to the inside. He did a great job. Very clean as always. I congratulate him for the win. It was a great fight. To have a good lead is never good enough, but that's what we're here for. I need to thank the whole 7-11 team for the great car and Honda to give me a great engine. I look forward -- I don't have too much time to celebrate and think about next week where we have another one.

TONY KANAAN: My car was very good. So I was very secure with what I was doing. I wasn't trying to make -- that I wasn't going to be able to do it. I knew how to do it. I just tried it and it worked for half of a lap. In the drivers meeting they told all of us that the last four races people won here, they won from the outside. So I went on the outside. So I need to slap him in the hand because this time it didn't work.

TORA TAKAGI: I have to avoid the crash. I have to go down. I have to go down. My team did a good job.

TORA TAKAGI: Yeah, I think so.

TORA TAKAGI: He was already inside within the track and he was trying to come down because he was hit by Scott. That's why he was cutting inside of the white line.

TORA TAKAGI: Yes. He pushed him off to the right.

TONY KANAAN: Not really. I think it worked better for me being a one time -- one lap shot because Tora was really strong, too. So I was concerned about him. I think it was the last 10 laps would be green, I wouldn't be trying what I was doing. I would sit behind Al because I was trying to pull away from him. Then maybe try the last lap. I didn't have -- what I had you saw. I didn't have anything more than that. I was quicker than him in 1 and 2, but he was quicker than me in 3 and 4. I knew right away that either I could get a good run on him and then I was going to be able to go to the inside line. Maybe I'd have a shot because I couldn't do that. I knew he was there. We tried to race the same from the first lap to the last lap. It was because of the last lap we had to do something different. I was clean, Al was clean, I was clean. It wasn't good enough today.

TONY KANAAN: Two years ago honestly we did just like two sessions and we had to stop. It was just the type of cars we had at the time. It wasn't good for the racetrack. The racetrack I don't think had nothing to do with it. It was just a matter of us understanding how fast those cars were going. This weekend I felt pretty comfortable. We had some close calls like I said before. We're going to have to address that in the driver's meeting because it can hurt people. I've been through that twice. We don't want to see that happening. I was really excited about the race. I never saw the laps going by. By the time I looked at the lap chart, it was at the last yellow, 20 laps to go. The time goes by so quick. So I tried to make no mistakes, stay clean, play clean with people and get the best out of my car.

TONY KANAAN: Well, I love racing. I would have a good time anywhere because that's what I love to do. Definitely the whole 7-Eleven team is giving me all the support. Not just having the fast car. But we are so tied together and the chemistry is so nice that I wake up every morning and I'm looking forward to come to the track. I'm looking forward to go to the shop. It's just the whole thing. The series is great. They can criticize us as much as they want. We have the closest race. We have very good drivers, probably the best -- not the best drivers, but the majority of the best drivers out here. We race good. The cars are tough. If anybody has a question that those cars are easy to drive, I'd invite them to go to Indianapolis with them coming here right after and they can give it a try. It's a great series. I have a great team. Great people working for me. I have a lot of reasons to be happy. My arm is not working anymore. It's great to be on the racetrack.

TORA TAKAGI: Very good.

TONY KANAAN: Not a lot. We had a lot of close calls and there's a lot of things that we see that people outside don't see. It was a very clean race. I haven't seen everything yet. I don't have my opinion right now. Even if I had, I don't think it's important. I think Brian is the most capable guy for the job and he's going to address the people that caused the thing. I would say on my side it was just a couple close calls just racingwise, but you shouldn't -- once you choose the line, you should stay in that line. A couple of the guys maybe moved a little bit. Sometimes it's tough, I understand that because you're following one car ahead of you and you have a car beside you and a car behind you. You have a lot of wind -- they take a lot of wind out of your car. So your car gets really light. So sometimes you have no control. But you have to anticipate because you can cause a big wreck. Fortunately I think it was a great race. It was a clean race, apart from what happened in the end that I haven't seen. But there was a lot of close calls, too, during the race that we can talk privately. I don't think it's a matter of people not trying to be clean, just people understanding where they have to be at the time to not hurt anybody else.

TONY KANAAN: I feel great. I think I appreciate -- everybody has problems, obviously. Obviously he came from tough times and turned the situation around. When you're a driver, you won so much in the past and you go through a tough time and you struggle, people just hammer at you and say, "Oh, he's done, he's old, he's this, he's that." It's not up to us to judge. This guy is very capable. He's proving that. And he proved that today. It was a tough race, and he had a strong car and he knew what he wanted. He has a lot of experience. You can't take for granted what this guy has done in the past and is still doing, still delivering. I'm really happy for him. Look how close the series is. We have six races, that was race six, right? Five, five races, five different winners. That tells you how competitive it is. I think he did a great job.

TONY KANAAN: Not really. I've known Al since the CART times. He's always been very clean. He's been the guy that's been around for a long time. He actually sometimes in a driver's meeting he gets up and say something. He says, "Look, guys, let's take care of each other." He's very clean. He would never do anything to hurt you at the racetrack, even if it's going to win. He could actually go wide and try to not put me right beside him. He's very fair. He's a very clean driver. I had no concern at all.

TONY KANAAN: I've always said that. I already said that. Racing with him at the track, he's the guy that can go -- you would least expect it he would be on the outside and then coming in. And it's like where the hell did this guy do that. To do that, he has to be able to drive a race car.