Everyone remembers the pole winner for two weeks. Everyone remembers the race winner for life.
Dan Wheldon on the Indy 500
We'll see how it unfolds, and we're going to have to give each other respect and the space on the track.
Danica Patrick on Dan Wheldon, June 2007
I'm a moving chicane out here!
Juan Pablo Montoya, lap 42 at St Pete's, March 30th 2014
My mom hasn't played much of a role in my racing career. In fact, I think she still wants me to join the Coast Guard. But I still love her.
PJ Chesson on Mothers Day
Since last fall I've been wondering what in the hell it's going to feel like, and now I know.
Danica Patrick on driving an IndyCar after 7 years away, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 1st 2018
He's grounded.
Bryan Herta to Marco Andretti on Colton Herta knocking Marco out of P1 in final practice, Long Beach, April 14th 2019
To finish first you must first finish.
Rick Mears
When you go home and you're slow, there's nothing you can do. But when you go home under these conditions it's kind of tough.
Alex Tagliani, Indy 500 Bump Day 2009
...one of the things that has always been wrong with that theory that NASCAR is the enemy... and they are... is because the people at NASCAR need to protect NASCAR.
Curt Cavin on Trackside, May 13th 2010
Obviously we always see the good days, but Gil de Ferran told me if you can have a bad day and nobody notices, that's how you do a really good job - and that's how you win a championship.
Simon Pagenaud on the 2016 season, ESPN.com, September 18th 2016
She probably does not know what that is, so I can say I'm going to Las Vegas to play poker and she'll think it's something like that!
Fernando Alonso on what his mother would think about the Indy 500, motor.as.com, April 20th 2016
The toughest people out there passing me are my teammates, and I don't get that. I think three of the four of us get what the camaraderie of Andretti Green Racing is.
Marco Andretti on an unidentified teammate after Milwaukee 2009
You've only seen me smile here.
Romain Grosjean on being in IndyCar, after the GMR Grand Prix, IMS, May 15th 2021
The walls are white, the track is grey, the grass is green, and the sky is blue... your job is to keep them all where they belong.
Johnny Rutherford's advice to Indy 500 rookies
There is nothing like winning the Indianapolis 500 and fortunately I was able to do so.
Eddie Cheever Jr.
I arrived in Turn 1 and I was convinced that I was doing flat out, but the foot was not flat - it had its own life, it was not connected to my brain at that moment.
Fernando Alonso on Turn 1 commitment at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 3rd 2017
If you're an open-wheel racer and not at Indy in May, you're not really a race car driver. You just think you are.
Eddie Cheever
I keep getting asked by Europeans, drivers also, if racing around IMS was boring an' easy. I just want to shake my head and walk away.
Connor Daly, June 6th 2013, via Twitter
Winning is always a great feeling, but winning at your home track, a place that you grew up at and a place that helped you fall in love with the sport of IndyCar racing... this is priceless.
Graham Rahal on winning at Mid-Ohio, Instagram, August 3rd 2015
The minute he got in front of me, he slowed down half-a-second a lap because he knows I'm fighting him for the championship and he was out of the race. It's probably the most unsportsmanlike thing I've ever seen on the racetrack, apart from shunting someone into a wall.
Wade Cunningham on Sebastien Saavedra, Iowa 2009
It's like a reunion to come back here every May. I've never retired. I always say, "I'm not done yet."
Parnelli Jones, Indy 2007
Downforce is the enemy of racing.
Rick Mears, Motorsport.com, September 15th 2016
This place isn't easy. It's not supposed to be easy. This place starts the 33 fastest, best-prepared cars. Obviously, I missed.
Paul Diatlovitch, Indy Bump Day 2007
I was frustrated since Motegi and wanted to prove a point. When you're in a competitive package, you can't let points slip. I can eat breakfast tomorrow morning now instead of stabbing my fork into the table.
Dan Wheldon, Kansas 2007
She's just feeling the pressure of not winning races.
Dan Wheldon on Danica Patrick, Milwaukee 2007
The Indy 500 is one of the greatest events in the sport. Drivers all over the world know this. I belong there. Because I'm a racer.
Fernando Alonso on The Indy 500, The Players Tribune, May 18th 2017
This track, believe it or not, has done worse to me in the past, and we came back swinging.
James Hinchcliffe on Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Bump Day, May 19th 2018
James Hinchcliffe on bumping at Indy, May 19th 2018
Having a pulse should make you want to attend the 500.
James Hinchcliffe on what should make you want to attend the 500, via Twitter, April 2012
You don't get too many times like that at the Indy 500 where you're out there and you have a chance to win the race right in front of everybody on the last lap.
Sam Hornish Jr, Indy 2006
I just can't wait to get back in the car. I wonder if I'm still any good.
Will Power on the long off season, St Petersburg, March 21st 2013
At 220mph friendship, risk and victory become extremely volatile.
Dan Wheldon
I lifted a little, but I didn't touch the brake.
Will Power on the art of restarting, St Pete's, March 30th 2014
It takes a lot of guts to expose yourself in front of millions of people, in front of all the media, in front of all your peers. If somebody came to me and said, "Hey, you want to run Texas in an IRL car," I'd say, "Hell, no. I don't want to get embarrassed." She's doing that. I have a lot of respect for that.
Jeff Burton on Danica Patrick, June 2010
There's fathers out there. There's husbands. There's brothers, sisters. It's something that absolutely we think about. We hope for the best with it.
Ryan Hunter-Reay on the dangers of racing an IndyCar, Pocono, August 23rd 2015
I need a nap now.
Colton Herta on winning his first IndyCar race, COTA, 24th March 2019
Antony! Yer losin' 3 seconds a lap! Now get yer foot into it, I'm not gonna tell ya again!!
AJ Foyt, Chicagoland 2004
I just kept focused, focused, focused, all day long, getting every corner perfect.
Helio Castroneves, St Pete's 2007
Andy Granatelli for as much as he put into the sport, especially at Indianapolis. I had to deal with that big kiss. I can still smell the garlic.
Mario Andretti on Andy Granatelli after the 1969 Indianapolis 500
I drove it like I stole it!
Helio Castroneves, St Pete's 2006
This is just an excellent race and to be a part of the history, I'm really grateful for that.
Roger Yasukawa, Indy 2007
Howard and me set the first and third fastest times of the day, and we both got beaten to grid slot 33 by a kid in Methodist Hospital with a smoking wreck of a car. The magic of Indy, huh?
Paul Tracy, Indy Bump Day 2010
All up it was one of the toughest weekends of my career in ANY form of motorsport, and you can sometimes learn more from your roughest days out there.
Scott McLaughlin on his Detroit weekend, June15th 2021, Speedcafe.com
Broke a glass at a restaurant. Apologize to the waiter, he looks at me, says "Accidents happen. YOU know what I mean!"
James Hinchcliffe via Twitter, December 17th 2015
If we're racing on Superspeedways with catch fencing, I fear we're just playing the odds until we have something protecting our heads. It’s a scary thing to say.
Ryan Hunter-Reay on canopies, Racer Magazine, 15 September 2014
The day started when I walked into Gasoline Alley and saw the grandstands. It was my first time here on race day and it was quite unbelievable.
Alex Tagliani on the 2009 Indianapolis 500
Will he get through? Where is he? Where is he? There he is!
Tom Carnegie on A.J. Foyt, 1967
I've never been so happy to be in last place.
Ryan Hunter Reay, Indy 500 Bump Day 2009
It's amazing how different an Indycar is from anything else on a racetrack.
Alexander Rossi, Autosport.com, April 26th 2017
That's a good way to lose a championship.
Tony Kanaan, Kansas 2007