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05-24-08, 08:25 PM
In a startling turn of events, Danicles admits she didn't wonded mindy
Danica would love to re-run end of 2005 Indy 500
She says Rahal Letterman's decision to conserve fuel cost her her first win
Patrick finished fourth as a rookie in 2005, partly because she had to conserve fuel late in the race. Dan Wheldon passed her for the lead with seven laps left and won. Patrick has been told there was a little more than two gallons left in her car's tank, which, if true, is a tough pill to swallow given the conservative way she drove in the closing laps.
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"I wish I would have known that then," she said. "I would have gone for the win."
Ray Leto, her engineer that year, understands Patrick's frustration, but he said there were reasons for the decisions made by Rahal Letterman Racing officials who, by the way, dispute the fact there was that much fuel left.
No one could have foreseen three caution periods for eight laps in the final 30 laps.
Since a car gets better fuel mileage going slower under caution, Patrick was able to lengthen her final segment after being involved in the fourth-turn spin on lap 155 that collected Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge.
Had the race stayed green, Leto said Patrick would have run out of fuel with about two laps to go.
That makes the issue of having two gallons of fuel left a moot point.
"I'll be kicking myself for years, but you don't know till it's over," Leto said. "If we would have stayed in front and the race would have stayed green, we'd have run out (of fuel) with two laps to go.
"But if we had stayed in front and known there would have been all those yellows, who knows." :cry:
That Patrick, who now drives for Andretti Green Racing, recently raised the issue in a Sports Illustrated story irritated her former team owner, Bobby Rahal, who insists the car didn't have that much fuel left and they played the strategy as well as they could.
"The inference is that we prevented her from winning, which is . . . completely insulting," he said. "As (Leto) will tell you, there was a lot of discussion about where we were on fuel and what was the risk. Ultimately, my decision was made (to conserve) based on the fact that if we had pitted (for fuel), we were going to finish 13th. If we had run out on the last lap, we would have finished 13th."
Rahal noted that the team's decision to leave her on the track when others pitted allowed her to be in the lead twice late in the race with a chance to win.
She was 11th at the time of the spin on a restart. The strategy worked; it just didn't result in her going to victory lane.
"The only way (to win) was to gamble by not pitting when everyone else did," Rahal said. "We were telling her to draft the pace car, draft whoever she could.
"If you knew you had (that much fuel left), why would you lean it out? That doesn't make any sense."
see the hate @: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080524/SPORTS0107/805240429
Danica would love to re-run end of 2005 Indy 500
She says Rahal Letterman's decision to conserve fuel cost her her first win
Patrick finished fourth as a rookie in 2005, partly because she had to conserve fuel late in the race. Dan Wheldon passed her for the lead with seven laps left and won. Patrick has been told there was a little more than two gallons left in her car's tank, which, if true, is a tough pill to swallow given the conservative way she drove in the closing laps.
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"I wish I would have known that then," she said. "I would have gone for the win."
Ray Leto, her engineer that year, understands Patrick's frustration, but he said there were reasons for the decisions made by Rahal Letterman Racing officials who, by the way, dispute the fact there was that much fuel left.
No one could have foreseen three caution periods for eight laps in the final 30 laps.
Since a car gets better fuel mileage going slower under caution, Patrick was able to lengthen her final segment after being involved in the fourth-turn spin on lap 155 that collected Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge.
Had the race stayed green, Leto said Patrick would have run out of fuel with about two laps to go.
That makes the issue of having two gallons of fuel left a moot point.
"I'll be kicking myself for years, but you don't know till it's over," Leto said. "If we would have stayed in front and the race would have stayed green, we'd have run out (of fuel) with two laps to go.
"But if we had stayed in front and known there would have been all those yellows, who knows." :cry:
That Patrick, who now drives for Andretti Green Racing, recently raised the issue in a Sports Illustrated story irritated her former team owner, Bobby Rahal, who insists the car didn't have that much fuel left and they played the strategy as well as they could.
"The inference is that we prevented her from winning, which is . . . completely insulting," he said. "As (Leto) will tell you, there was a lot of discussion about where we were on fuel and what was the risk. Ultimately, my decision was made (to conserve) based on the fact that if we had pitted (for fuel), we were going to finish 13th. If we had run out on the last lap, we would have finished 13th."
Rahal noted that the team's decision to leave her on the track when others pitted allowed her to be in the lead twice late in the race with a chance to win.
She was 11th at the time of the spin on a restart. The strategy worked; it just didn't result in her going to victory lane.
"The only way (to win) was to gamble by not pitting when everyone else did," Rahal said. "We were telling her to draft the pace car, draft whoever she could.
"If you knew you had (that much fuel left), why would you lean it out? That doesn't make any sense."
see the hate @: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080524/SPORTS0107/805240429