Patrick Carpentier Race Quotations

Going into the last race, you always want to run strong, but it's also important to be safe. I've had quite a bit of experience at Fontana, so there really shouldn't be too many surprises. I should have won there a couple of times, but circumstances didn't allow it. I really expect the #83 car to be competitive in the race. Toyota has made some big improvements, and we were able to hang with the leaders on a big track for the first time at Chicago. So, I think we should be able to finish the season on a high note.

Toyota has really improved the performance of their engine lately, ... For the first time this year, I could keep up with the leaders without relying on race cautions to maintain contact with them. We are still lacking a bit of power to go for the win on a regular basis, but we are getting there. Toyota is really working hard to catch up to Honda. We are going to Watkins Glen next week for a day of testing in order to be more competitive for the penultimate race of the 2005 season.

Coming here and testing is going to help us quite a bit, especially so close to the race where the conditions are probably going to be very similar.

The race is going to be competitive, ... It's a long race, you've got to be there at the end. But when you start up front, it's a different game. It's a lot more fun, I'll tell you.

This is one of the nicest tracks I've ever been on, but I'm definitely still learning it. The chicane and carousel turns are tricky. It's a high-speed track with banking that helps sustain momentum. The race should be a fun one, with passing on the uphill backstretch. It's long and with drafting, it'll lead to some passing or a chance to take advantage of those making mistakes. We were pretty happy with what we were able to accomplish last week at the test, but I think we can definitely still improve.

I'm very pleased with this result. Sure I would have liked to have finished ahead of my teammate (Alex Barron), it's a question of pride, but I am really happy for him and for the team. We had a good weekend. Qualifying wasn't that great, but we got it back during the race. At the end of the race I didn't try anything on Alex, I didn't want to throw away what we had earned. Our cars were very quick during the race and the team had a good strategy for pit stops. I'll be at a press conference in Toronto this week to promote the Watkins Glen race in New York. After that I'll head home to Las Vegas.

I'm very impressed with these cars. The biggest thing for me will be consistency. A 24-hour race is a completely different animal, and your whole mindset needs to shift. I'm hoping that everyone can get me up to speed real fast, and hopefully, I'll be in the Rolex 24.

It was a great day for me, but I'm definitely sorry about what happened to Alex. You always hate it when these things happen, and he's just ended up in the wrong place a couple of times this year. For me, it was very fun racing today. Things were a bit crazy at the beginning, but the guys calmed down and made the car a lot of fun to drive. This was by far my best race on one of these fast ovals. It was the first time that we were able to stick with the leaders, but it's not going to be the last.