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INDY PRO SERIES: MILWAUKEE100July 22, 2006Jaime CamaraWade CunninghamJonathan KleinMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN THE MODERATOR: Thank you for coming in, spending a few minutes with us. We have Wade Cunningham, Jonathan Klein. Wade, we'll start with you. I have to ask the question, what happened to your car in the second half of the race? You had the dominant car all weekend long. WADE CUNNINGHAM: Nothing really happened. I was really just driving off the time gap, had a mental number of two and a half seconds. As long as the gap was more than that, I didn't really push too hard. Got down to one point seven, I'd push it back out in a few laps. Really just cruising, really racing against the clock at the end until that last restart. I didn't get a great restart off of turn four, but it was enough to stay in front. But unfortunately I hadn't really scrubbed the tires enough I don't think in the roll-up laps, I had a lot of pickup on the front. I just missed turn one, allowed Jaime to get under. Jonathan nearly got under as well. From the last lap and a half, it was just a battle. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, if you could, you finished third, looked like you were coming on strong at the end of the race. Take us through the last third of the race and then that last restart. JONATHAN KLEIN: Yeah, we kind of -- our game plan was to be conservative the whole race and just make sure we could hold a fairly decent pace and save tires and really be nice to the car so it would be nice to us at the end of the race. That's what it was doing. I think my engineer told me we were catching the leaders two, three almost four 10ths of a second per lap at the end. Really reeled them in. Had the yellow not come out, could have been a different story. The three of us all played nice on the restart. It was a good result. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. What was going through your head when the yellow came out? WADE CUNNINGHAM: Just keep the tires clean, keep the engine clean. I was doing the best I could. Wasn't really sure how many laps we were going to get under green at the end. I figured it would be one or two. But, you know, I mustn't have done a good enough job because I missed turn one on the first lap. That was the end of the race for me. Q. Leaving here disappointed, Wade? WADE CUNNINGHAM: Yeah, I'm disappointed. I think I drove an excellent race. I pulled it out to a five-second lead and wasn't really pushing. I had one massive moment in two I think around lap 40 just battling with the wind. It was a complete opposite of what it's been all weekend. It was coming from turn one down to turn four instead of four to one. You know, the car was really good through three and four and wasn't bad through one and two all race. Really, we had everything covered. I was just trying to stay focused and drive a pace that would keep my time gap to a second place, whoever it was. The yellow came out. I wasn't panicked or anything like that. Like I said, just didn't scrub the fronts hard enough and understeered out of the corner. Q. When you have a dominating weekend like you have had, you're a couple laps away from the finish, you see the yellow come out, what goes through your head? WADE CUNNINGHAM: Just stay focused and do the best you can. I think I made little mistakes all weekend. I made one on lap 98. Unfortunately that's going to spoil the weekend. It was excellent up until now. It's not like last week, I can't point the finger. Just got to take it and move on. Q. Jonathan, you were planning on laying back. You were catching Jaime near the end. Do you think you might have been able to catch him had everything stayed status quo? JONATHAN KLEIN: Yeah, I think the gap was probably even less than that. I could see both Wade and Jaime struggling a bit. I could see their cars moving around quite a bit, giving them some trouble. Yeah, like I said earlier, had it not gone yellow, it could have been different. But it is what it is and we're still leaving with third-place points, which is pretty solid. I'm not sure, but I hope that we can close the gap and then move ahead of Wilson with this finish. Q. Jonathan, talk about your test here in the IndyCar. JONATHAN KLEIN: A lot of people have been asking if it helped or it's been a benefit. I think it has in a sense that track time is track time. No matter what kind of car you drive in, it's going to be beneficial to whatever your program is. In regards to whether it really directly helped to my program car-wise, handling characteristic-wise, not really clear, not sure, because the IndyCar has an enormous amount of grip and drives this track completely different than our IPS cars do. Like I said, track time is track time and seat time is seat time. There's nothing that can make up for that. I think it was a benefit for sure. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. Tell us, Jaime, about not only your race but the last 10 laps when you were closing in on the leader, last third of the race when you were closing in on the leader, then we have a caution. JAIME CAMARA: I mean, it was obvious that Wade was really quick. He was just demonstrating the advantage he had on me all the time. By the end of the race, my car -- it was obvious that Wade had a very quick car in the race. He was just demonstrating the advantage he had on me. From the 50 laps to the end of the race, my car on the beginning was pushing a lot. But I think I did some adjustments with the weight jacker and the bars. I could get the rear a little bit better and the front a little bit better as well. The tire wear helped me with the understeer because the rear got a little bit loose. That helped me a lot with the understeer on the car. I was quicker than him in the end of the race. I know I could be close to him at the end. That was what I was trying, to be closer to him at two laps before the race ended so I could try a move. That yellow flag, I mean, when it came, it helped me a lot. In the beginning, I thought maybe it's going to be -- it could go two ways: I could get passed or I could pass Wade. I said, I'm going for the win, I'm going to do my best to pass Wade. On the restart there, I went low on the track. I could restart better than he did. I could make a move on him going into one. He got a little bit loose on two, and I could open up a nice gap, like four or five cars' gap on the back straight. I knew the win was mine at that time. THE MODERATOR: Had the caution not come out, do you think you would have been able to catch and pass him? JAIME CAMARA: I don't know. We never going to know. It could be or it could not be. I mean, what I could see at the end of the race, his car was very loose. If that was going to happen, even without the yellow, I think I could be really close to him and try to pass him. This is the kind of track that if the car is really loose, you can't carry speed inside the corners, you can't be quick. We're never going to know. THE MODERATOR: You sat on the pole here last year, come home with a win here this year. Has to be a very special track for you. JAIME CAMARA: It is a very special track because last year I was quickest on the open test, I was quickest on the practices, and I did the pole. I mean, on the race, my car was really good, but I couldn't find the right line on the race to drive the car last year and I finished fifth. This season I was really quick all weekend. On qualifying, what happened was I got loose on four when I was going to get the green flag. That kept me from being quicker on qualifying. I knew I had a good car on the race. I knew I had the best car out there. I knew I could fight for the win at the end. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. (Question regarding the tires.) JAIME CAMARA: I had pretty much the same balance until the 50 lap. After that, the rear tires got a little bit worse. That helped the front of the car because I had understeer until the 50 lap. When the rear started to get a little bit loose, I could come back with the bar. That helped me turn and carry more speed inside the corner. I think I did pretty much the same lap times from the beginning of the race until the end, 4/10ths or half a second between them. Yeah, but the tires were good. I thought it was going to be much worse than it was. THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for coming. Congratulations. JAIME CAMARA: Thank you.
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