Catchfence

Andretti Autosport

MARCO ANDRETTI, #26 TEAM VENOM ENERGY DRINK CAR

Qualified in 28th position for the Indy 500

“What a day – obviously heartbroken for my teammates Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and Mike (Conway). They are two of the best drivers in this series and I hate not seeing them in this race. But at the same time I had to do everything I could to get the No. 26 car in the show and that’s just what we did. I said before that we can do it from 33rd – so we can do it from 28th. It looked for a while like everything was going to be up to mother nature and we needed to get bumped to justifying going out again – you just don’t pull a qualified car. All we wanted was a chance for the Venom machine. Circumstance almost caught us out but my (crew) guys stepped up, I kept it flat and the car hung in there. As it ended up we were plenty good. It was a bummer to be put in this position, but I’m grateful to be a part of the 100th Anniversary of a race that means so much to my family. I have all the faith in the world in my crew guys and the Venom car is coming to the front next Sunday.”

MIKE CONWAY, #27 TEAM HIRE HEROES USA/ 7-ELEVEN/DR PEPPER CAR

Did not qualify for the Indianapolis 500; was bumped from the field by Paul Tracy at 3:08 p.m.

“It’s a tough break – both me and Ryan, not in the show. I’m pretty gutted. Danica spent some time with me, putting me back together, after I got back to the garage. I’m obviously happy for Danica, Marco and John to be in, but gutted for me and Ryan.

“I never wanted to experience this feeling. You see it happen every year and you hope it’s not you. It’s not nice.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, #28 TEAM DHL/SUN DROP CITRUS SODA CAR

Did not qualify; was bumped from the field by Marco Andretti at 5:59 p.m.

Entered the field initially on his first qualifying attempt of the day and was positioned to make his second attempt immediately after Andretti when time expired on the session.

“It’s so unfortunate — I can’t even describe how disappointed I am. If we had gotten this car in the race, we were going to be a contender.

“This week, this month has been a struggle for Andretti Autosport. We have great race cars; we just wanted to get through this day to fight it out. DHL and Sun Drop have been giving us great support. We’ve been so fast this year; we’ve qualified in the front row in half the races. This one, we just needed to get in the race.

“It hasn’t even sunk in yet.”

DANICA PATRICK, #7 TEAM GoDaddy.com CAR

Qualified in 26th position for the Indy 500

“I’m just so happy that the GoDaddy.com car is going to be running in the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500.

“One problem with not qualifying until the very end is you’re not working on your race car, so it kind of keeps coming at you again.

“This team traditionally races better than we qualify, so we will have to use our experience from the past few years and make the most of it for next Sunday.”

- Andretti Autosport, Press Release