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Thursday, 29th April 2004

Day one of the Indianapolis group test passed off largely without a hitch, and it was established circuit pacesetter Penske which led the way from Robby Gordon's impressive privateer effort.

RG:
It's hard to compare to a year ago. I drove a Honda last year for Andretti Green, and this year, I'm driving a Chevrolet. The three-litres, compared to 3.5, obviously we have lost some power. I think, you know, I think the IRL has an underwing wicker under the spoiler that after you drop so many degrees of negative or angle, it kind of just stalls itself out. I think when we come down to qualifying, how far can you go with that rear wing, and how brave are you, because we don't - we don't have the power that we had last year. So it's going to be trimmed out, toes are going to be straightened up as much as possible, all of the drag is going to be taken out of the car, so that you will be fast. It should make it fun. I remember a few years ago, they knocked us down to 212, 213. I think was the pole here in 1997 when they went to a different spec. By last year, we were already back up to 230s again. With the engineers and the technology that Indy Car racing has, the IRL will slow us down, and we'll go to work to figure out how to go faster.

Q:
Sam, if you ask Helio, the cars were running at Motegi 205, 206, is there a noticeable difference in the power band from the 3.5 to the three-litre?

SH:
Keeping momentum up is going to be the biggest thing. Last year, when we ran here, for myself, I had to keep the momentum up. It was a big thing. This track is so hard to pass at that it's always been about keeping your momentum up and keeping your moves at the right time, and not doing something hastily and trying to make a move and knowing it's not working and trying to get out of it because the guy behind you is going to pass you.

This year it's going to be even more about that, because the car, while we can still go out there and run nearly 220-mile-an-hour average around the track, it's once you get down to like 200, if you have to let off and you get behind the slower car, that it's going to be real hard to get by. People are going to go flying by you. As they say, you don't have to slow down at all. It's going to be a lot about patience, more about momentum and making your moves at the right time. I think that all plays into the better drivers' hands when it comes time for race time because they are going to make the smart moves and make the right moves and they are going to know how to keep the momentum up, and it should be a good race.

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HC:
On the top hand, I don't think it's a huge difference. On the bottom hand, like especially when you're leaving the pits, going to the warm-up lane and probably during the racetrack, as Sam said, you're backing off, because traffic, stuff like that, will take a little more time to come up to speed. The only difference we felt, other than that, as Robby said, just going to take the rear wing, trying to trim it out of the car as much as you can, and whoever has got the big balls is going to be the fast guy.

MC:
Thinking back to a year ago in qualifying....

RG:
I had the pole until he [Castroneves] tightened up his seat belt!

MC:
Obviously, Helio and Sam, their primary consideration is the IndyCar Series, and they are here during the entire month, while you [Gordon] have a an awful lot of balls in the air. At the same time, a day like today, efficiency, 24 laps, getting it in, getting it done, checking off the laundry list and going down the line, how important are days like today, and are you going to be able to be here tomorrow?

RG:
Yeah, moving the test back one day didn't hurt us at all, even though I race the Busch car and the Cup car at Fontana this weekend. We'll be able to stay all day long, do the tests that we need to. We're going to try some different package options on our car for tomorrow, more race stuff.

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