GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, first): “It’s a fantastic start for the McDonald’s team. First of all, for us to get a pole when we go to St. Petersburg, and then to do it again here at Kansas, I think it’s quite a shock. And obviously in memory of Paul (Newman), it’s great for us to have this success early in the season. Now of course there’s still a long way to go, but for us to get our first (oval) pole here, I hope it’s a sign of things to come.”
ROBERT DOORNBOS (No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, second): “Graham has more experience on the ovals. I’ve been watching some videos, and I think last year the Ganassi boys ran one-two and pulled away helping each other. I don’t think it’s a good thing if we’re not helping each other because then I’ll be sitting in an office in Chicago (team headquarters) probably explaining myself. It’s a team effort that we’re here. They’ve worked very hard in the winter. I went out first then the engineers saw what they could do and improve and he grabbed the pole and now we’re second. So I think it’s been a great team result, and I think we need to thank the boys in the race tomorrow.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Motorola, third): “I thought it was hard to get up to speed, and the No. 7 car was maybe the most loose it’s ever been on an oval. It was a handful, but we ended up finding a pretty good speed and were able to put the Motorola car up front. I’m looking forward to a good race tomorrow.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, fourth): “We need to get a good result. It’s been frustrating what we’ve had these past two races and before you know it you’ve let too many points go. We’re going to try to make the most of it. I’m going to try to stay clear of the Australian out there (Ryan Briscoe), and hopefully they’ll stop picking on me.”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Team Venom Energy, fifth): “Qualifying today was not a bad showing for Team Venom Energy. As the session went on, the track got better and better, and that’s the down side of drawing an early number, but overall not a bad result. We’ll work hard tomorrow to keep the No. 26 car up front.”
MARIO MORAES (No. 5 KV Racing Technology/Votorantim, sixth): “I think the KV Racing Technology–Votorantim team did a great job. This is my best IndyCar Series career qualifying position. The KVRT engineers made the right decision about changing the setup of the car. They did a great job, and the crew did an outstanding job preparing the car. Last year, I wasn’t able to qualify because my wheel nut came loose in practice and I had to start the race from the back. This year however, I am in a much better position and I look forward to the race tomorrow.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, seventh): “I’m not unhappy, but I definitely don’t think we got the most out of the Team Penske car in qualifying today. I just couldn’t keep it down in Turns 3 and 4 with the wind as strong as it was. But that’s OK. We should be in good shape for tomorrow. I think we’ve got a really competitive race car, and hopefully we’ll have a good run.”
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven, eighth): “The No. 11 car was really loose in qualifying today. I’m disappointed with were we ended up, but tomorrow will be a new day for Team 7-Eleven and we’ll see what it brings.”
DAN WHELDON (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing, ninth): “We were incredibly loose in qualifying, but that’s because we really decided to attack and have a run for the pole. The National Guard Panther Racing car will be strong for the race. Obviously there are opportunities to overtake here. We decided we were going to be aggressive, and it caught us out a bit, but that’s part of it. It wasn’t the wind really, it was just a shame that we were too loose. We haven’t had much running yet, but we’ll work on things in the morning warm-up tomorrow and make sure we’re strong for the race. It’s one of those things, and it’s certainly going to be an exciting race for fans of the IndyCar Series. I always seem to go well around here, so we’re excited about our potential.”
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing, 10th): “With just one practice before qualifying, we went pretty aggressive and overdid it a little bit for qualifying with the wind anyways. The car was really good through Turns 1 and 2 but there was too much understeer going through Turns 3 and 4. It’s too bad because I think we could easily have run in the 210 mph range with some changes. Today definitely wasn’t the day to be going out first, but that’s the luck of the draw. We missed a little on setup, so I’m not terribly happy with how qualifying went, but I’m looking forward to race day. I know we’ll make our way up to the front with the No.20 Menards car. We always have a good race car. I’m more worried about the weather (possibility of rain on race day).”
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