Vitor Meira Quotations

Wow, this place is physical. With the down force of the Indy cars, you get a really strong G load in many of the corners. It is almost as much as some of the high-banked ovals we race. But it is different since we turning left and right. But that is why we train so hard off the track. (Meira is a tri-athlete). You need to be in as good shape as possible. Overall, we learned a lot with the car today. We'll be stronger on Saturday and be prepared for the race. Eighty laps is going to be long at a track like this place.

We have had a decent year, but we need that big finish to end the year right, ... I am anxious for the first win. I am not obsessing about it, but I am ready for it to happen so we can move on to the next challenge.

We had a vibration with the car after the second practice today. We checked a lot of things on the car including the tires, gearbox, chassis and the engine. Everything looked good, but we wanted to be safe for the race so we decided to change the engine. That way we are ready for warm-up and the race. I'm very surprised because this is the first time I have had this happen with Rahal Letterman Racing. We can work out some more things in warm-up and the car will be set to go. The car felt very good in traffic in the practice. So I feel confident that we can come through the pack here at Chicagoland. Some other tracks you couldn't do, that but here it is possible.

My goal coming into this season was to win my first race and I still haven't accomplished that, ... Our cars will be good at California and it would be a great way to finish the season with a victory. I think we'll be in the hunt right to the end.

I was telling (team co-owner) John Barnes that patience pays here. That's what we did the whole race. We were racing smart instead of aggressive. It paid off for us.

I have always admired the Special Olympics program and its thousands of athletes for their determination and enthusiasm. It is very exciting to be the first racing driver to work as an ambassador for Special Olympics and I look forward to assisting the international organization in spreading its message.

I have always enjoyed racing at Chicagoland, ... Yes, it is a basic 1.5-mile oval, but it seems to have a different personality. It is wider than most of the other tracks and the grip level is good everywhere. So you see a lot more drivers using the high groove. I think that is why there have been so many close finishes there. I think there will be another close one this year. I just want to have the front of my car cross the line first this time.

He did a good job of holding his line and protecting his position.

John has been backing me since I started in the IRL and we've got a great relationship and I feel very lucky,

It is a great honor to be an ambassador for the Special Olympics. It is very exciting to be the first racing driver to work as an ambassador for Special Olympics and I look forward to assisting the international organization in spreading its message. Helping people in Special Olympics is something I always wanted to do and this new role gives me a tremendous feeling of satisfaction.

Our pit stops were great but we had something with me coming in and out. I had some difficulties. We could've got Sharp in one of the pit stops for sure. It didn't happen. It's just these kinds of things.

We are letting the chance to win come to us. I don't think you can do anything else. One day or another, it's going to come.

We worked on our race settings during practice, ... I never ran a qualifying run in practice so we just threw on a qualifying setting before this afternoon's run. The race is the important thing here. Sure, we would like to qualify on the pole but it doesn't matter here. You can win the race from anywhere on the grid. We think we have a good race car and that is the key for Sunday. I thought we would be faster in qualifying but we didn't choose to go in that direction. We'll be ready for the race.

We had to go out second and that is a little bit of a question mark since the weather changed so much. You never know what will happen with the cool temperatures and the wind, but I was flat on the throttle. It felt pretty good. We did some race setups this morning and the car seems to be very good for the race. Rahal Letterman Racing had enough data coming into qualifying that we were not too surprised by the conditions. I got some information from Buddy after the last practice when the wind was really strong. Overall we had a strong run. Of course, we would obviously like to be faster.

As the rules say, you can't improve your position below the white line. If I could've, yeah, I think I would've had him.

The team did a great job putting the car together to the new Chevy Gen IV engine and we were very fast. That's the way it goes sometimes. I was really trying hard mostly because the team and engine company deserves it. That's the way it goes I crashed. I got loose. We were trying to free up the car and that was my first qualifying simulation. Maybe the tires weren't ready and maybe I pushed too hard. The fact is I got loose and crashed.

I'm not sure where I'll be driving, I'd like to stay with Bobby, but I'm hoping for a good ride with somebody.

The hardest thing for us was being proactive and making the proper changes for these conditions. Now we will have to do the same for the race and the race will be much different.

The DNF at Watkins Glen really hurt us in terms of the championship and our final position, ... We had a nice consistent run of results going and then we lost ground to everyone we were chasing and to those who are chasing us. You can't worry about where this driver or that driver is during the race. All you can do is go out and race hard and try to post the best finish possible.