Power says he feels like the rest of the field is gunning for him, but he doesn’t mind seeing as he’s come up just short of a series title the past couple years. He’ll start fifth in Sunday’s race at the Brickyard. Teammate Ryan Briscoe is on the pole.

Will Power, Scott Dixon and Charlie Kimball joined WJOX in Birmingham with The RoundTable to discuss the lengthy stretch spent gearing up for the Indy 500, what it’s like to manage a race team during that stretch, Power’s three straight victories, drivers gunning for him, how Indy is different than other race weeks and the tradition of drinking the milk after winning the 500.

Scott, what is Indy week like? It seems like you’re here for a whole month:

“It used to be. I’d say, actually with this week, it’s felt like a whole month, especially on the outside of the team. It used to be about three weeks, I think, with preparation and everything like that. Now it’s seven days or eight days. You start on last Saturday and practice all the way through to this Sunday. We get this whole week off track until Friday. … It’s definitely a lot of work when you’re in the car from noon everyday until 6 o’clock at night.”

What’s it like for a race team trying to manage a week like that without getting drained?:

“You see it all. You have good days and bad days. I think the crew guys definitely work so hard. I think to try and turn around from tests, we’ve been at the track every day this week. We’re changing engines; you’re changing cars. … We get to leave sort of 6 or 7 o’clock at night and they’re still there at 10 or 11.”

Will, you’ve won three races in a row. Is this the best stretch of your career to this point?:

“Yes, I’d have to say it’s probably one of the best starts to a season that I’ve had, to have three in a row. The last couple years I’ve been kind of knocking on the door of that. Very strong as far as the team goes, because Helio won the first race. That’s four in a row for us. We’ve taken all the pole positions. Ryan Briscoe got the pole for the 500, so we’re in great form and I think Chevy has done a great job with the engine. I think we’ve got the upper hand on that right now.”

How different is Indy week for you?:

“Yeah, it’s just the fact that you’re on the track every single day that’s so different to a normal race weekend. You have so much time to sort the car out. And this year they gave us more horsepower for qualifying so then you add in the different boost level to run for qualifying. It is draining, honestly. And it’s draining on not the drivers only … but the crews are just there until 11 at night sometimes and up at 5 in the morning and this is going to go on and on and on so you’ve just got to keep your head.”

Will does it feel like everyone is gunning for you at this point?:

“Yeah, these guys have been trying to play pranks on me and so on to try and unsettle me. … But I’ll take it. The last two years I’ve gone to the last race leading the championship and lost it, so man, I’ll take wins when I can get them and try to get a big enough lead this year and see if I can bloody win the thing.”

Charlie have you ever worked out in the heat and then drank milk just to see what it would be like?:

“I don’t know that you ever want to try and jinx that tradition by practicing for it. I’m sure that if you asked any driver they’d probably give up any win in their career, somewhere other than the Indianapolis 500, to win the 500, because it is so special and is such a crown jewel. People have asked what it’s like this month and the Indianapolis 500, for us, is the Stanley Cup, the World Series and the Super Bowl next Sunday, in 500 miles.”

Listen to Charlie Kimball, Will Power and Scott Dixon on WJOX in Birmingham here

Hildebrand joined 107o The Fan in Indianapolis to talk about what’s going through his mind as he’s approaching the lap car that caused him to crash, if there’s enough time to have an ‘oh crap’ moment in a situation like that, how it looked like he might still have an opportunity to win even after he had crashed into the wall, what he’s going to take from the unfortunate loss, the reasoning behind his aggressive strategy there, the advice he’s received from various folks since the race, how he’s trying to not let the mistake get him too down, and how he feels worse for his team than he does for himself.

What’s going through his mind when he’s approaching the Audi lap car of Charlie Kimble as he’s going into that fourth turn:

“Well, sort of going half a lap back, I knew there were guys that were on different kinds of pit strategies, different keep strategies. We were trying to stretch our strategy significantly, you know, to try to make it to the end there. And I’d seen that there were a couple cards that were as the laps were ticking away that were coming out of the pits that were pitting with two or three laps to go, or whatever because they knew they were going to run out.  So coming around to the last lap, I thought Charlie was one of those guys because I’d just seen some cars coming out, and I figured ‘if he’s coming out of the pits, he should be more or less up to speed by the time he gets to 10-4 and gets to the front straight. So I didn’t even really think it was going to be  an issue, and then obviously coming around three and then getting into four, he was all of a sudden quite a bit slower than I was and trying to just milk it to the line. And it suddenly became sort of a split second decision for me — I had the choice of, one angle for me would be to slow down a bunch, follow him through the corner, and then try to accelerate up, go past and beat Dan to the line; and the other was to go for it and make the move to try to get around him and try to keep the momentum up. And at that point, everything was so close, I knew Dan was coming full head of steam having pitted, new tires right around Lap 220, whereas I’m struggling with the fuel conservation at that point to rni 215, 216 . Obviously that ended up biting me once I got out in the grey area there.”

If there’s enough time in a split second decision like that to have an ‘oh crap’ moment mentally:

“There definitely is enough time to have an ‘oh crap’ moment there. I’d say that’s a fairly G-rated version of what was actually going through my head. But basically I made the call to go around Charlie on the high side. It’s a move that had worked for me earlier in the race. Obviously at that stage you’re on an extremely used set of tires, more used than any set we had run previous to that. The marbles on the outside of the track had obviously been building up; it was a long green flag run there at the end. And as soon as I got on the outside, I felt the car start to push a little bit. I started to pedal it to try to get the front end to hook back up and get around the outside, but once it really got there in the grey, the front just really washed out. At that point you’re helplessly along for the ride, and that was most certainly when the expletives started going through my head. But then it very quickly becomes a situation of ‘okay, I need to get the car to the finish line.’ And so as soon as the thing kind of stringed out, I just turned it into the wall  full throttle and was lucky to be able to salvage second from it.”

On how it looked like he might have been able to still win after crashing into the wall, a finish that would have gone down as one of the craziest ever:

“It certainly crossed my mind for a minute, but being the realist I guess you have to figure that they’re not going to throw the Yellow on that car that’s lapping it at 220. I kind of knew roughly how quickly Dan was catching up at that point, that it was going to be tough to make it across the line ahead of him. But I guess that’s just how those things go.”

Whether there’s been a wave of people — from colleagues to mentors to fans — that have wanted to console him and lend support since Sunday:

“I mean, a lot of people have wanted to come up and say ‘you did a good job’. For me, it’s not so much…there’s certainly some personal frustration with how the whole thing ended up and how the last lap ended up unfolding, but the heartbreak really for me is for the team and for the guard. Those guys put in an insane amount of work to get the program to where it is, and have done such a good job for the whole month to get myself and Buddy to the top of the charts pretty much every day. So that’s really where the disappointment for me goes to. Obviously not on this quite a stage, not quite at this level, but you have these kinds of experiences at various different points along the way. Last night, the drivers all kind of get together on the night afterwards, and you can just kind of see people understand kind of what you’re going through on an emotional level. But they also understand we were running a pretty darn good race before that. The best bit of advice that I’ve gotten, or the kind words I guess you can say, is this should just give you confidence that you can do this, and that you guys as a group at Panther Racing that we can be in a position to try to win races this year. And I think that’s what we’ll try to take with us moving forward.”

How he seems to be in great shape mentally about not letting this affect his confidence and approach moving forward:

Well I appreciate that very much, and it always runs across…it’s always kind of in the back of your mind that ‘what if this is…’ Like I said, there’s just a lot of ‘what ifs’ about the whole. But obviously we’re just going to take it as a positive step towards getting there down the road. It’s hard to think of it s another logical way to try to use momentum going forward. So we’re going to try to make that our plan anyway.”

Whether there was anyone who reached out to him that took him by surprise:

“I wouldn’t say that there was anyone I didn’t expect to hear from. I didn’t have the President on the line or anything like that.  But it’s been good because there’s just kind of been a constant flow of positive feedback about everything that’s gone on. So that certainly makes it a little bit easier to move onto the next step.”

If he has watched the replay yet:

“Oh yeah. It’s hard not to watch it. You’ve got SportsCenter and all sorts of stuff going on, so but to be honest with you, it’s one of those situations where I watch the replay, and, yeah there are certainly things I could have done different. But to be honest with you, especially with these guys, Panther Racing has come in second here the last three years in a row, and I did not want to be the guy that was leading the race and slowed down for a lap car instead of pushing it to try to get around and win the thing. We ended up the bridesmaid I guess once again, but I do personally take a little bit of satisfaction that, yeah, I could have tweaked the decision there to have had a little bit better outcome. But I was glad that we got second by going for it there rather than getting snookered on the last corner there by taking the cautious route.

Listen here to Hildebrand on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis

Instead, Wheldon said he was still driving hard, hoping he might have a chance to win if rookie JR Hildebrand ran out of gas and was coasting to the finish line. That scenario never played out, but another one did as Hildebrand attempted to pass a lapped car and put his car in the wall in the final turn of the 500-mile race that he was just about to win.

Wheldon passed Hildebrand just before the yellow caution lights flashed, capturing his second Indy 500 in a finish that no one will forget for a while and one that put the sport back on the highlight reel. Wheldon still doesn’t have a full-time ride, but that probably matters quite a bit less today than it did last week.

Dan Wheldon joined 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis with Grady and Big Joe to discuss what he was thinking during the final lap, why he was able to pass a lapped car easier on the last lap than Hildebrand was, if it was sweeter given that he doesn’t have a full-time ride, why he thanked his family so much in the post-race interviews and if he would have been satisfied finishing second.

What is going through his head as he enters Turn 4 and sees JR Hildebrand in the wall?:

“I actually saw him very late because with 20 laps to go the team had told me there was various strategies that various teams and drivers were playing out. The strategy that I had was we pitted … and some of the other cars stayed out. JR was obviously one of them. That told me that, with 20 laps to go, every lap had to, in effect, be a qualifying lap. I couldn’t lose any time. … Going into Turn 3 on the final lap, I was drafting behind another car … and at the short chute I was able to overtake the car, but I was so focused that I cleared that car without crashing, I didn’t really notice JR until late. … From that point on, it was just about staying focused, no tunning over the debris and making sure that he didn’t come back across to the inside part of the track. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Given that Hildebrand also crashed while passing a slower car like he did, was he aware of the marble situation at that point?:

“Yes, but I think the biggest disadvantage he had was he wasn’t able to run as fast as I was because he was trying to conserve fuel. Whereas I was able to quite easily duck inside of the car that I was able to pass, it was obviously more difficult for him.”

Does it make it that much more sweet that he doesn’t have a full-time ride?:

“Yeah. Honestly, I’m always incredibly motivated when I’m on the track. I think what I found since not being in the racecar full-time, it hasn’t re-energized me, it hasn’t kind of re-motivated me, what it’s done is it’s made me appreciate everything a lot more. … The environment that [Bryan Herta] has created has really kind of got me back to how I like to be. I’ve got that happy fire in me.”

Was there a time where being without a full-time ride nearly made him depressed?:

“It was never that. Certainly I felt like I had the talent to be in a full-time ride. I obviously feel like I can be very, very competitive. I’ve never had moments where I’ve really thought that I can’t do the job. But there’s moments where you need a pick-me-up, so to speak, and my wife has always been there from that standpoint. … My wife knows and my family back in England know that being in a car full-time is really what I love to do. … That made this win all that more emotional.”

Was he going to be satisfied with a second-place finish?:

“I was going to push the whole time because I knew JR must have been very, very close on fuel. … I knew there was a high percentage chance that he was going to sputter toward the start-finish line so I was committed til the end. I was driving it like I stole it as they stay. That’s what you’ve got to do at Indianapolis.”

Listen to Dan Wheldon on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis here

Now that he’s there, Andretti believes he’s got a car to compete. He’ll start from the 10th row in Sunday’s race and says the race isn’t all about speed, it’s about handling as well.

It’s the sixth straight year he’s driven in the race and he’s finished in the top three in three of his first five trips, so he and his team clearly know how to have success at the track. They also know that Andretti’s have a bit of a stigma in Indianapolis. His father, Michael, never won it, and his grandfather, Mario, won once in 29 tries.

Marco Andretti joined 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis with Dan Dakich to discuss having to beat the buzzer to qualify, the process that went into that, what it was like driving with that much pressure, fighting with his teammate for the final spot and how he feels heading into the race at this point.

What was it like having to qualify for the race in the final minutes of qualifying time?:

“That was a new one for me, man. We definitely were battling a lot of emotions there at the end. Between Dad and I, we’re both very emotional people to begin with. He’s on my radio and we’re shouting at each other trying to figure out what to do. We stepped up when we had to. They did a good job of placing me in line and timing it all perfect. We had some lady luck on our side, too, with timing.”

When you’re sitting there waiting, is your team talking with other teams, making sure cars that have no chance of qualifying get off the track after one or two laps?:

“No, no, no. The league helped me out there, a little bit. They knew [the guy ahead of me] wasn’t going to have the speed to make the race. … Just imagine if the guy hit the wall, then I’m done. A lot of it was out of our control.”

What were his emotions once he got out on the track and started driving in his last chance to qualify?:

“I had my head down as far as it would go. You’re trying to do anything you can. But I definitely knew we were going to have the speed, because at balance I went out and the balance was very good. … When I saw my out lap was in the 223′s, I knew we were good to go. … Obviously you’ve still got to go out and do it and keep your focus and hit your points.”

On people who are criticizing him for bumping his teammate out of the field (though Ryan Hunter-Reay is now back in):

“It’s a very selfish business. I’m getting criticized, Dad’s getting criticized for putting him back in the field, but we have sponsor obligations to fill. And I’m even getting criticized for bumping my teammate, but I’m just doing my job.”

Now that he’s in the race, has his team found more speed in the week of practice leading up to the Indy 500?:

“I don’t know. I think we ended up putting a decent time up there. We’re just working with it. It’s little by little. You make a change and find a half mile an hour. OK, that helps, let’s go get another half. Basically I had to go run more trimmed out than anybody else, so the car was more uncomfortable. … At the same time, it’s not always the quickest car that wins this race. Once there’s 33 cars out there, the car handling comes into play a lot more. That’s why I’m still really optimistic. I don’t want to jinx us or this team, but this team has been in the top three at this race since 2003.”

Listen to Marco Andretti on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis here

Franchitti is only the seventeenth driver to have won the Indy 500 multiple times, which puts him in the likes of Al Unser, A.J. Foyt and Arie Luyendyk among others.  That sounds like quite an accomplishment to have your name in the same sentence with other Indy car legends.  What would be even a bigger accomplishment for Franchitti is if he can put together back-to-back wins as they are set to race in Houston this week.  History is on his side because the two previous Indy 500 winners, Brazilian Helio Castroneves last year and Scott Dixon of New Zealand in 2008, also won in Texas the same season.

Dario Franchitti joined KILT in Houston to talk about how he compares winning a normal race to winning the Indianapolis 500, why the Indianapolis 500 winner gets to drink milk, and what form of racing he enjoys the most.

How he compares winning a normal race to winning the Indianapolis 500:

“You want to win every race, there is no doubt whether it is the Firestone 550 this weekend or the race in Houston all those years ago, but there is something obviously special about winning in Indianapolis and you can’t try any harder than you do a normal race but I guess the reward is just bigger.  You know it just feels because it is the Indianapolis 500 except it is more special.  You get to drink the milk and get to the circle.  It means a lot to the Target team not just myself.”

Why the Indianapolis 500 winner gets to drink milk:

“Years ago, I am talking like fifty, sixty years ago, Louis Meyer, one of the winners drank milk in the big circle and since then it has been a tradition and the only guy not to do it I think was Emerson Fittipaldi, he drank orange juice because he had some deal with an orange juice farm…  It is an important part of the tradition and I will tell you what I am glad to get that milk out.  It is a great part of the whole deal.”

What it means to him to hear the whole crowd cheering for him after his name is announced before the race:

“It absolutely makes you feel good.  That part is probably the last time you can enjoy anything before you get in the car there so you look around a little bit to see that and hear the reaction and go starting back down to business and try and keep your head in the game and get ready to do battle.”

What form of racing he enjoys the most:

“Indy car racing is my first love and that is why I came back to the Indy car series after the attempt in NASCAR.  I just missed driving the car and actually the first time I drove an Indy car again was south of Houston there in MSR, I drove a test there and I had this smile on my face and I was like, ‘Man, why did I ever leave this?’  With the Izod Indy car series we now have this great schedule.  We get to race on the street courses, road courses, and obviously the ovals we are doing this week in Texas.”

Dario Franchitti on KILT in Houston with Rich and Barry

After recently visiting many NASCAR teams like Stewart-Haas Racing in North Carolina, there has been much speculation around Danica Patrick jumping the IRL ship over to NASCAR as her current contract with Andretti Green Racing is set to expire. AGR has been trying heavily to secure Danica behind the wheel of their car for years to come. She has been on record saying that she will wait till the end of the season before she will make her next move. Danica joined Boers and Bernstein on WSCR in Chicago to talk about this season, on what is important to her in racing, whether she would pose for Playboy, the way she markets herself, and on whether she will be back in the IRL next season.

On this season so far and whether or not she is satisfied:

“Well I started off the year having the best season that I have ever had… We have hit a tough stretch of the season on road courses the last sort of month and a half and you know as a team we have just struggled on road courses. We just haven’t been able to find the setup that makes us fast. It’s definitely not from a lack of trying. The team is prepared to do whatever it takes to figure it out but sometimes you have to make a lot of wrong decisions or decisions that don’t make you faster to find the ones that do. It’s a process of elimination so we are all working hard and I have no doubt that we will back stronger next year. We are doing our last road course this weekend.”

On whether her goal when she first started in the IRL has been lost in all the attention she has received for other reasons?

“I don’t think so at all…I’ve really think you know I’ve always stayed true to what is important and that’s driving a car. You know it’s just a matter of getting a team around me that can you know help me do everything in the most efficient way possible. But after that you just do your job.”

On distractions off the course and whether she has turned anything down:

“Playboy. I definitely said ‘NO’ to that… Yeah so.”

On the way she markets herself and how it affects the way people look at her:

“I mean all I can say is that for me I have always put out the same stuff I believe in. If it’s something of part of what I want to do then its part of my personality and then it’s something that is probably not new and never seen before so I think it’s the consistency that has been my strongest point. It’s that I have been the same person all along and I haven’t shocked anyone with doing something totally radical so I just do the thing that I want to do and have fun with and that’s it.”

On whether she will be back in the IRL next season:

“Yep, possibly…”

Listen to Danica Patrick on WSCR in Chicago with Boers and Bernstein

You would be correct, actually. And Andretti talked about that in a recent interview with 1070 the Fan in Indy, as well as missing being behind the wheel, looking back on his career and Marco Andretti’s chances at this year’s Indy.

Looking back on his career:

“Am I thankful for everything that’s happened in my career?  You bet.  No question about it, I’ve had opportunities that I was able to take advantage of and I’ve certainly satisfied myself in so many different ways by just being able to drive in different disciplines with the stock cars, with sports cars, Formula One, Indy cars, midgets, sprint cars, all that sort of thing.”

On missing being behind the wheel:

“Oh absolutely.  I love the sport so much.  I stayed in it as long as I could, obviously, and I still wanted to be competitive, I was so afraid that I would overstay it.  But, like I said, I tried to get the last ounce out of me until 1994, and then when I got out I raced four more times at Lemond, where actually we won, finished second in ’95, and now and then I just get to get in a car to mess around a little bit, but nevertheless I have to say it’s tough to stand by the sidelines doing exactly nothing.”

On Marco Andretti’s chances in the Indy 500, starting in the middle of row three:

“It’s certainly close enough to the front.  If you have a car, you’re going to be able to demonstrate it.  I always said with 500 miles the closer to the front the better because you’d like the least amount of traffic and also potential problems.  But I think he’s certainly in a position to be able to get it done if he likes the car on race day.  And if he likes the car he sure knows how to drive it, he has proven that.  He likes that place and he knows how to lead it and he knows how to get it done.  As I said, I just hope that they have the car the way that he needs it to be.”

Listen to Mario Andretti on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis with Kravitz & Eddie