Quotes from the Firestone Freedom 100

Courtesy of the PR department at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Pippa Mann of Panther Racing was doing very well, but had a bit of bad luck when her teammate, Martin Plowman, made contact with her in Turn 1:

"I was just running in a little hole of air. The car was really, really good. I was just cruising around, taking care of my tires. I wasn't racing anybody too hard, minding my own business. My teammate (Martin Plowman) had a slightly less good car and just tried to pinch down going into Turn 1. Unfortunately, he just lost control and spun. I had to avoid him and yet got caught up in his accident. It's a real shame. Nothing to do with me, but I'm the one sitting out. It's a really big shame because we had a great race car."

Martin Plowman wasn't sure how it all happened though.

"On the first few laps, we were just hanging in there," said Plowman. "I dropped a few places at the start. Just as things were starting to balance out and I was starting to get control of the car and I was making up ground, making runs on people. I was loose at the start on my own, especially in traffic. I tried to dial it in, dial it out for a few laps, and it seemed to get to a point where it was reasonable. I think (Mario) Romancini pinched me on the inside down into Turn 4, and he made a run, following me into Turn 1. I’m not quite sure what happened then. Going into (Turn) 1, I got a face full of clean air, and it just snapped around on me. Didn’t give me any warning."

Wade Cunningham was matter-of-fact about his win, and graceful in victory.
"The whole race was to and fro," said Cunningham. "I got to the front early and knew I couldn’t lead all 40 laps, so I fell back because I didn’t want to be leading at the end. I knew I had a fast car, and it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time."

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