BRIAN BARNHART (President, Competition and Operations, Indy Racing League): “I think it’s been disappointing the last couple of years we haven’t had a chance to (use the qualifying format). We’ve had such a solid week of practice. When you look at about 22 cars between 222 and 227 (mph) - 5 miles per hour separating 22 cars. Technically, you’ve got 28 cars going for 11 spots, but you’ve got 22 of them within 5 miles per hour, I think it’s going to make for a very exciting day, very dramatic and should be very entertaining for the fans. “
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest of the day): “I think this morning as everyone could see lots of people were running early on the track when it was cooler. There was pretty good grip because it hasn’t rained that much. On our first run we had a bit of understeer and for our second one, we took some wing out, and it just went quicker. We got a bit of a tow off of Sam (Hornish) Jr. and got a 227. (About qualifying): “Clean laps, healthy cars on the track, time of day (will affect things). I think both of our cars are very quick at the moment. (Tony Kanaan) looks very strong. I think just running the speeds he did out there looked pretty clean. Last year, the groups were quite split, and you didn’t have people to work with. I think it is easy to start a lap but then fight traffic quietly on a run and you normally get to see what passes over the length of four laps. We were even talking about it in the meeting early this morning about not running those decisions. I think we will have to do at least one base line but not get too caught up to them. “
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, sixth fastest of the day): “We worked a lot on the car today and tried to get some laps out there by ourselves. We’re pretty happy with where the Team Penske car is going into Pole Day. Tomorrow morning we’ll fine tune the car and then go out for qualifications and hopefully put it on the first or second row. “
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