"What they're saying" from the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500

Alexander Rossi (No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda) - P1: "I don't even know where to begin. In February I wasn't even thinking about INDYCAR and now we've just won the Indy 500 and thanks to an amazing group of people who gave me an opportunity to come here this year, relatively unknown in American junior formula and they gave me the shot. I have to thank Michael Andretti and Bryan Herta for giving me such a wonderful race car all month. We ran out (of fuel) in Turn 4 and we were clutching it and coasting it down the back straight. We knew it was going to be tight but Ryan (Hunter-Reay) helped give me a tow to the finish the last couple laps there and it was an amazing result. Firestone Firehawks were fantastic and they gave us such a consistent platform. It has been a great tire all month and it's a privilege to drive on such a wonderful piece of equipment. The milk tasted better than anything I've ever had. I will forever be a fan of milk. A huge thank you to INDYCAR and the American Dairy Association."  

Carlos Munoz (No. 26 United Fiber & Data Honda) - P2: "I was really disappointed when it comes down to fuel and you lose the race because of that. I was really disappointed to get second and be half a lap short. That's what it took. I was sliding the last two stints. I knew I had the car to win in the first half of the race. I just was holding my position. Last part of the race I was pushing really hard, overtaking everyone. One of the yellows didn't help us. We fell back into the field and got back to the front of the field again. It wasn't our day, if I'm honest. My team never was in the fight. But this is racing. We have to congratulate him (Alexander Rossi). It's part of the racing, strategy and everything. The only thing I'm clear about is that I want to win this race one day. Man, it was a close one. I think me and (Josef) Newgarden had the battle for the win, we were so strong. But I'm happy for the team, one and two Andretti, one and two for Honda."

Josef Newgarden (No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet) - P3: "It was a crazy race. Not the way I wanted to finish it. I think we had a shot at outracing these guys today and that's all I wanted was a shot to race him at the end. I didn't feel like I got that but that's no fault of my team. I think we had an amazing car. It's not the way the cards fell today with the fuel that everyone was using and the way the fuel started to break down towards the end and everyone started to see what they had to do. It wasn't a straight shootout. People were doing different strategies and we went for it. We were trimming out. We were doing a normal running and we went flat out, trying to win the thing and when you have a strong a car as we did you have to do that. I mean, it's Indianapolis. We had a shot of winning this thing and the cards didn't fall our way. I'm just happy to be here.

Happy to have a shot. Disappointed we weren't able to race for it at the end. Today is gut-wrenching just because I think I had a winning car. And when you know you have a winning car and you know you can win the thing and you go for it and it doesn't happen, you know, because of a strategy call, it's kind of tough. I don't think that's on our guys. We've done exactly what we needed to do. We went flat out, trimmed the thing out, tried to win the thing. I think we could have outraced anyone today at the end if we needed to. That's all I was really asking for. We didn't get that. It's the Indy 500. This is the 100th running. This is a staple, man. This is the greatest race in the world and just to be a part of it has been amazing for me. I just hope I get another shot to try and win this thing again."

Tony Kanaan (No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) - P4: "The car was awesome. It was really good. We dialed in - we had downforce, we took downforce out. It just wasn't our day." (What to take away from today): "The good thing I take about today is this atmosphere. I had a chance to experience something I haven't done here in 15 years. This crowd was awesome. I made sure I drove my heart out to give them a thrill so they will come back next year and support us. We'll take it. It wasn't our day. We'll just hope I put on a good show for the fans.

The one thing we can't do is hear the fans when we make a pass for the lead, but I was sure the crowd went wild when I made a couple of those passes." (On racing with Newgarden and Hinchcliffe all day): "It was awesome. It's always great to know who you're racing with. You know guys you can race, and guys you cannot even think about it. We had a lot of fun. What a great day for racing, what a great race. I hope I made it exciting. If I had to make a list of my 15 starts here, I think I drove a better race than I did when I won here in 2013."

Charlie Kimball (No. 42 Tresiba Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) - P5: "Well, we went through quite a lot with the 42 car. The Novo Nordisk Team and Chip Ganassi Racing never give up. I hit a really big piece of debris. It actually got lodged in the suspension in one of the earlier accidents, so we finished with a backup front wing on the car and a hole in the floor. We came in multiple times to get all the debris out of the sidepod. I'm really proud of these guys. They kept fighting at the end. I don't know how I did it frankly; I don't know how the 98 (Alexander Rossi) made it to the finish. The Hondas were a little back on mileage all day, so we'll learn from that. I think we'll be better moving forward."

JR Hildebrand (No. 6 Preferred Freezer Fuzzy Vodka Chevrolet) - P6: "It was a long day. We were close there at the end. We led a few laps, and we were legitimately running top three for a minute there. Then strategies got all mixed up at the end of the race. Obviously, we weren't going to do what those two cars that wound up up front did. It was a good race. The car was good. We were able to race. We raced our way up the field a couple of times, which is really what we set out to do. In hindsight, if we had known we'd be running in the top five those last couple of stints, we might have prepared for that a little differently as we went through the race. It's hard to know how that's all going to shake out."

(On contact with Castroneves): "I've got to go apologize to him. It starts to get really dicey when you don't know if you need to go to the outside, if you need to go to the inside, guys are running inside and outside. I thought I was going to need to go to the outside. He stayed put longer, so I changed direction and caught him and flipped him on the bumper pod. I feel really bad about it. I know it screwed up his race. He deserves another serious shot at this, but at the end of the day, it's all so close out there."

James Hinchcliffe (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda) - P7: "I have to give everybody on the Arrow crew a ton of credit for the effort the entire month. Coming in third at the GP of Indy, qualifying on the pole and the race here, it was a solid effort. We were super strong the first half and definitely had one of the cars to beat. It was really just track temperatures that caught us out there. We started losing grip as the temperatures came up late in the afternoon and the last two stints were a real struggle when we tried to make the tires last. Well, more than a stint because we came in for that splash of fuel at the end. A couple guys out there took a punt on fuel - congrats to Alex (Rossi) and great to see Honda back on top. Realistically, I think we had a third- or fourth-place effort today, which is nothing to turn your nose up at."

Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) - P8: "It was tough all day. I think we started a little too light and over the course of the race we put in quite a bit of downforce overall. It became better but we didn't have the overall speed as a result. I hit the wall pretty hard on the exit of Turn 4 and that definitely bent the suspension. The wheel was out of alignment and the race just never played out in our favor for Team Target."

Sebastien Bourdais (No. 11 Team Hydroxycut - KVSH Racing Chevrolet) - P9: "It was a very interesting day for the Hydroxycut - KVSH Racing team. A very strange race for us. We unfortunately could not run what we wanted to run during the last practice on Friday and that was detrimental because it was very powerful to adjust understeer in traffic and we ran out of it the last third of the race. The car was pretty decent compared to most in traffic toward the end, once I got it figured out, but I was maxed out on the adjustments. There was a lot more potential in the car and we could have adjusted a couple more things, but we had a bad second-to-last pit stop. We went from a possible top-five finish to a top 10, which is always disappointing. However, we still recovered from 20th to ninth, so we have to look at the bright side of the story, but for sure it is disappointing when you feel like you left something on the table."

Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) - P10: "Tough day for the Verizon Chevy.  It was pretty hectic as we went to the back and then the front again. We tried to save fuel at the end.  We were on the same strategy as Rossi but he was getting better fuel mileage and quicker lap time. It was really tough trying to save fuel those last 15 laps and keep our speed within the traffic. We made it as best we could.  Despite the penalty, we still made it back to the front, but it just didn't go our way towards the end."

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