Drivers who have yet to qualify
Oriol Servia (No. 17 The Rahal Letterman DAFCA Special):
“It’s been a crazy last three months. Everyone has been asking me today if there’s any pressure being a last-week and reduced program. I haven’t felt this relieved in a long time. Finally I am in a car, and I know I’m going to be in the race. I’m in a great team, and there are great people around me. I felt great right away from the first lap. We want to take one step at a time, but right now, I’m really excited and happy.” (About showing speed so early): “When you are driving for Rahal Letterman, you better step on it. They won this race in 2004, and honestly, the car felt great the moment I stepped into it. That makes the job of the driver a lot easier. It’s only our first day. Hopefully, we have another dry day tomorrow, so we can prepare for qualifying and just keep the focus on the last lap of a 500-mile race. It’s probably the most important race of my life, so I’m very happy with the way things have started.”
E.J. Viso (No. 13 PDVSA HVM Racing):
“Today we had a productive testing day. We started working on the race setups and longer runs and with traffic and more fuel, and so far things are going pretty well. Our car feels pretty comfortable in traffic, and that’s important for this race.”
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Robert Doornbos (No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing):
“It was good to get back in the car, get back to work. It was horrible watching other drivers play and have fun while I was in my bus. Unfortunately, we had a bad day today. We seemed to be going the wrong direction with the setup a little bit, and I haven’t been enjoying driving the car. The wind condition was a bit tricky today, as well. The speed is definitely in the car. This is the same car that we did good things with during Rookie Orientation, and over the next days we proved to be in the top 11. Now we just need to show it again, it’s somewhere in the car. We’re trying to find the sweet spot for Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We have another day tomorrow. We’re going to work hard overnight and should have a good day tomorrow.”
Nelson Philippe (No. 00 i drive green HVM Racing):
“I’m just really uncomfortable with the car. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I think when the guys put the car back together - I think something is wrong. They already checked it out, but it feels like something is wrong. And if there is nothing wrong, then I guess I need to get my (act) together. It’s just really frustrating. It’s very hard. It’s the first time in my life and in my racing career that I asked can I please get out of the car. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. The steering wheel is very light. It feels like I have power steering, which is really bad, because I don’t know what the car is doing. And when I actually do feel the car, it’s pointing too much, so the rear is getting loose. My fastest lap was 205, and I’m just scared to go faster than that.”
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Buddy Lazier (No. 91 Hemelgarn Johnson):
“Today was an interesting day. Our first day was one of the slowest days I believe of the month just in terms of a slippery racetrack. I guess that is good and bad. It is good, because it helps us work on our race setup, but it is bad because we can’t really see what we have got for speed. Hopefully the qualifying days will be fast.”
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