Not the way you want to end your day at Watkins Glen - looking forward to next week’s race in Montreal (Courtesy Harold Hinson Photography)
I could see the 20, or whoever it was, get sideways and cut across the grass. I just didn’t have anywhere to go. It’s disappointing because we were excited coming in here after Road America. We just wanted to run a clean race and get some experience. It turns out, with the rain yesterday and then this today, we didn’t really achieve that at all. I hate it for Tony Jr. and my guys. They work really hard and to see our day end like this is unfortunate for everyone.
“
The rain sort of threw everybody a curve ball starting practice on rain tires, then switching to slicks halfway through. We were planning to only run a handful of laps on the rain tires because the weather is supposed to be lot different in the race. We were able to get her (Danica) out there a few laps at the end of practice to let her get a better feel for the track. She’s run here in IndyCar so she knows the layout. It’s just a little bit different line and feel that she’ll get used to.
“
| — | Tony Jr. on today’s practice… |
After the race Road America, (ran top-five all day before last-lap incident with Jacques Villeneuve) I’m looking forward to turning right again. I feel like Watkins Glen has a lot of the same rhythm as Elk-hart. It’s a little smaller, but we’ll just take it one corner at a time. I’ve been there before and driven the full circuit. The short circuit won’t offer any new corners.
I feel like we have the ability to buckle down and do some good stuff the next few weeks. It’s definitely an interesting mindset for me, to be looking forward to road courses, since that was part of why I wanted to leave IndyCar. A lot of the NASCAR drivers don’t have a lot of experience on road courses. IndyCar had a lot of focus on road racing, so that type of racing is where I came from.”
“
