It's the biggest race in the world. It's not supposed to be easy.
Marcus Ericsson on The Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 2023
The Indianapolis 500 is about the fastest 33 Indy car drivers going for one prize. If they happen to come from America, that's great.
Tony Stewart, May 2007
Some of the drivers who don't want to do the Indy 500, they just have small balls. I think that's the only explanation.
Mikhail Aleshin on drivers who are too scared to run the Indy 500, May 16th 2017
Rick Mears is a great race car driver. Hopefully I have plenty of years to try to earn his respect again.
Tony Kanaan, Detroit 2007
Good morning from the start/finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Tom Carnegie
I hope all the fans out there were as excited about that race as I am. It was awesome doing so much passing. Racing can't get any better!
Graham Rahal on the Kentucky 300, August 2009
It was a tough day – really disappointing... I guess it was a good day in reality.
Josef Newgarden on finishing 7th at the IMS Road Course, July 4th 2020
There comes a time in a race where money doesn't matter, living doesn't matter. Winning is the only thing that matters, and so when you go into those corners, it's winning that tells all.
Al Unser Jr.
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
And here comes Max Crappis into the pits!
Paul Page, Michigan '99
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
Racing IndyCars at Richmond is like flying fighter jets in a gymnasium.
Eddie Cheever Jr.
Cheever had a problem with my dad, he had a problem with me, and now he's taking it out on Marco.
Michael Andretti, Watkins Glen 2006
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
I'd have finished my career very disappointed had I not won the Indy 500. It's an amazing feeling and an amazing event.
Will Power on winning the 102nd Indy 500, racer.com, August 7th 2018
I think the IRL has been poised for a long time to be discovered by a lot of people.
Chip Ganassi
Most importantly, for the Indy 500 we'll probably be all okay, and that's cause to be happy.
Mikhail Aleshin on Honda's prospects for the 2017 season, Motorsport.com, February 2nd 2017
I wish I could get my deadbeat family to participate.
Kurt St. Angelo on the IndyCarFanZone fantasy league, Twitter, September 14th 2022
If you run around in the back with the squirrels, you're bound to get your nuts cracked.
PJ Chesson
We'll be fine. I'll take them to Six Flags tomorrow and we'll all be fine.
Tony Kanaan on Marco & Danica, June 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway
You've only seen me smile here.
Romain Grosjean on being in IndyCar, after the GMR Grand Prix, IMS, May 15th 2021
The worst thing about crashing A.J.'s car twice in two days is you still have to go to dinner with him. And he makes you buy, and then he eats your bowl of ice cream, too.
Billy Boat
You don't pay me to run second.
Dan Wheldon to Chip Ganassi, Nashville 2006
I think Briscoe and I had a pretty good race going on, but we got what we got.
Scott Dixon on losing the race and the championship, Homestead 2009
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Fernando Alonso on the difference between an IndyCar and an F1 car, May 3rd 2017
I get one more opportunity to head into the defining racing venue of my career with a single, achievable goal: Win.
Danica Patrick on her final Indy 500, The Players' Tribune, May 15th 2018
I wasn't thinking, 'That's Eddie [Cheever] and he's in an Infiniti and so I need to beat him.' I was thinking, 'That's Eddie, and I want to kick his ass!'
Robbie Buhl, after winning at WDW in 2000
I don't want to take a defeatist attitude here but it's going to be ugly. If IndyCar goes the domed skid route, we're going to be taking a knife to a gunfight.
Sam Schmidt on Chevy's advantage with domed skids, Racer.com, April 7th 2016
This has been the best season of my career in motorsport and I've learned so much. We'll be coming back to win this thing next year.
Will Power on losing to Dario Franchitti, Homestead, 2010
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
Gentlemen, start your engines.
Wilbur Shaw
We are unified.
Terry Angstadt, February 22nd 2008
Back then there were 50-75 cars just trying to make the field. And they were the best drivers in the world. I remember thinking; I can’t believe this. I can't believe I got a spot.
A.J. Foyt on qualifying for his first Indianapolis 500 mile race
It's just great, pure racing.
Sebastien Bourdais on IndyCar, June 2015
Brad Pitt got a super license before me. Tough.
Colton Herta on Brad Pitt joining the F1 grid to film a movie, Twitter, May 4th 2023
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 know a lot of people say that Iowa is in the middle of nowhere, but you know what, we get such a great crowd and they're so enthusiastic. As a driver you could put me in paradise, but if there's nobody in the grandstands then it's not good racing.
Dan Wheldon on Iowa Speedway, June 2009
Everyone wants to pick a fight with me. Whatever.
Sage Karam on everyone wanting to pick a fight with him, IndyStar.com, August 3rd 2015
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
I don't know him at all. Is he in his own little world?
Kevin Lee on Jacques Villeneuve, Trackside, August 2012
From now on, Scheckter, when used as a verb, means, "To steal one's wireless internet access."
Tony Kanaan's blog, May 2007
Patience is a virtue... and someone wasn't very virtuous today.
James Hinchcliffe on an unnamed driver, Long Beach 2014
Whoever has got the big balls is going to go fast!
Helio Castroneves
I remember the first year I raced here, I took pictures of the entrance. I was taking pictures. I hoped one day to race here in May.
Fernando Alonso on Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 3rd 2017
Brian Clauson's car got pretty beat up yesterday. It's black and blue all over
Justin Wilson on Brian Clauson's patchwork DW12, bump day, Indy 2012
Everyone remembers the pole winner for two weeks. Everyone remembers the race winner for life.
Dan Wheldon on the Indy 500
I can't control what size I am and how I'm built. All I know is the NBA doesn't lower the hoop for short guys.
Danica Patrick, June 2005
It's a living, breathing, organism.
Eddie Cheever on Indianapolis Motor Speedway
It was a very good test in terms of outright speed, but I did destroy a car the first day.
Dan Wheldon, Homestead test 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