DETROIT -- Akiko Sugawara honed in on Takuma Sato in the sea of autograph-seekers, waiting on a clearing for a photo with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver and to wish him “good luck” in the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix.

She also slipped in “…that was quite a race; so sorry it ended like it did.”

The Tokyo native smiled and pointed to the brim of his hat, which bears the slogan “No Attack No Chance.”

Sato doesn’t have any regrets about his ill-fated pass attempt of Dario Franchitti in Turn 1 on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500 on May 27.

"Not at all, because I was going for the win and I (had) a chance," said Sato, who started 11th in his first visit to the Belle Isle street circuit but was knocked out on Lap 40 of 90 because of contact with the Turn 12 wall (he was running sixth at the time). “If I have the same chance again, I do the same, but obviously having had experience on that one, perhaps I would do slightly different. But it was very close, anyway.

"I tried to overtake the Ganassi cars (at Turn 3) in an earlier part of the race -- it was impossible. I tried a couple of attempts and I knew it could not be done, so it had to be done in Turn 1, I knew it.”

Sato, who had finished in the top 10 in the past two IZOD IndyCar Series road/street course events, and Franchitti briefly discussed the finishing lap of the race that featured an event-record 34 lead changes. They hold divergent views of the incident -- Sato maintaining that Franchitti was pinching him on the bottom of the racetrack.

"It was just one of those unfortunate incidents that didn't come out as we wished," said Sato, who led a season-high 31 laps at Indianapolis.