PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING NOTES:
Ed Carpenter won the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the Kentucky Indy 300. This is Carpenter’s first career IZOD IndyCar Series pole. His previous best career start was fourth (Michigan 2006, Homestead 2009).
Carpenter is the 10th different polesitter in 11 IZOD IndyCar Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
Will Power qualified second, his 11th front row start of the 2010 season.
Dan Wheldon qualified third, his best starting position of the season. His previous best start was seventh at Chicagoland.
Bertrand Baguette qualified sixth, a career best IZOD IndyCar Series start. His previous best start was 13th at Infineon.
Mario Moraes qualified seventh, his season best start. His previous best start this season ninth (Texas, Watkins Glen).
PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING QUOTES:
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Panther/Vision/Fuzzy’s Vodka, PEAK Performance Pole Award winner):
“I love this track and this area. I won one of my national midget races in Louisville and won a lot of sprint car races in Salem, Indiana. The southern Indiana/Kentucky region seems to be good to me for some reason. The way I kind of look at it, I’m trying to keep my career going so every minute I’m in the car, I have to do the best that I can and get the most out of it. I’m just having a lot of fun right now; the Panther team is going a great job in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It’s just a lot of fun.”
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske, qualified second):
“My qualifying run was very straightforward. This was a typical oval run with lots of wind and low grip. It is good for the #12 Team Verizon car to start on the front row. I need a good result on a 1.5-mile oval this season and it’s important that we finish ahead of Dario (Franchitti) to keep the points lead. I feel that qualifying is very important but this track allows for passing and a lot can happen during the race.”
Click Here to Read More:
Ed Carpenter Wheels to First Career Pole at Kentucky Speedway
IZOD IndyCar Series: Kentucky Indy 300 - Race Line-Up
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, qualified fourth):
“At the start of the qualifying run the car was extremely loose and we still had a lot of driving to do. It is a windy day here and it doesn’t take a lot to get the cars out of shape. After all, it was a good day for the #9 Target car. After Dario’s run, we made a few changes, but qualifying is tough. For example, last week in Chicago we don’t know what happened during qualifying or why. There are strange things that can happen at these places.”
DAN WHELDON (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing, qualified third):
“It was obviously a great job by everybody at the National Guard Panther Racing team and we’ve been enjoying the good run we’ve had the last few races. The wind was gusting out there and I noticed it more in Turn Three during my qualifying run than I did this morning in the practice. This was just qualifying and we’re going to continue to work very hard in the warm-up session for the race and it’s such a great benefit to have Ed Carpenter with us this weekend in the Fuzzy’s Vodka car. Ed’s been a great addition and he’s really helped the team, as you can see by our performance today. It’s going to be a hectic race again and I’m excited for that. Hopefully we can go one position better than we did last race in the No. 4 car but that’s not to underestimate the competition; it’s extremely competitive out there and I’m just having a lot of fun right now.”
HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 06 Formula Dream/Panasonic, qualified fifth):
“It was nice to hold the fastest spot for a while and end up fifth fastest. It is more than we expected. The car was handling well so I really pushed it. We struggled a lot this morning and decided to just go for it in qualifying. We didn’t take off all of the downforce for qualifying; we went about half-way and it looks like it worked out well for us. We are going to focus on the race setup now and having a good, strong race tomorrow. “
BERTRAND BAGUETTE (No. 34 RACB/Conquest Racing, qualified sixth):
“I had a good qualifying run. I must admit I was a bit surprised with our speed. It’s faster than I thought it would be because we didn’t do any qualifying runs in practice. I made a small mistake on my second lap that cost us some speed so I didn’t think at the end of my qualifying laps that we would end up P6 on the grid. As a team, we placed both cars in the top ten and beat out teams like Ganassi and Penske, so that is very encouraging for us. We might be a small team compared to others but we’re doing great things.”
MARIO MORAES (#32 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY, qualified seventh):
“The KV Racing car felt pretty good despite the windy conditions this afternoon. The track was so different this morning with the cool, cloudy weather. Then, this afternoon, we had sunny and windy conditions. Almost the opposite. The wind makes a different feeling in the turns. You want the car to be neutral, no oversteer or understeer. That is difficult with the windy conditions. But I think we’ll have a good car for Saturday night’s race. It is supposed to be cooler and that could change the setups too.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, qualified eighth):
“Today the Team Penske car was not quite what it needed to be in qualifying. Certainly, the wind was a factor today. We will be working on our race set-up in tonight’s practice and I know we’ll be in contention Saturday night during the race. Will is starting up front and Ryan is starting in the row behind me so we just need to work together to have a strong result.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, qualified ninth):
“We kind of guessed on our setup for qualifying. We didn’t get a chance to do a practice run this morning because practice was shortened (due to rain). We knew it just wasn’t a qualifying lap that was going to threaten for pole. I think we still have a starting position where we can compete for the win tomorrow and if it’s anything like last year’s race in Kentucky, it’s going to be a really exciting race.”
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 36 Norcote Conquest Racing, qualified 10th):
“I’m really happy with my qualifying position. We only did race runs in practice but we trimmed a lot of downforce out ahead of qualifying and the Conquest guys did a great job to give me a qualifying car like that. I’m also really happy that Norcote is on board this weekend and to give them a top ten on the grid for their first race is great. As I said, we worked on our race setup in practice and had a good car so hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow.”
VITOR MEIRA (No. 14 ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing, qualified 12th):
“The run wasn’t so bad with the wind. Because of the wind maybe we weren’t in the best optimized gear. The balance on the car was good and for the race, it’s very good. Twelfth is a position that we can at least keep our nose clean on the start. Things are getting better - we definitely improved on qualifying especially with the competition getting as tight as it is. I think the ABC Supply/AJ Foyt Racing team did a very good job so we can go racing with our nose clean.”
ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 77 FAZZT Race Team, qualified 13th):
“It was a good effort from everyone, the car was a little bit loose in qualifying but we were faced with a lot of wind gusts, which was very different from the conditions in the morning. Our first lap was a P9 lap but we dropped off on lap two, I got loose and we lost a little momentum, but it was still good. The car was a little closer than it was starting in Chicago and we had a really fast car in Chicago so from where we start we can definitely make it to the front.”
TAKUMA SATO (#5 LOTUS - KV RACING TECHNOLOGY, qualified 14th):
“We struggled to find the balance in qualifying today. I think the reason was because, in morning practice, it was much cooler and we had some moisture. This afternoon, it was dry and much hotter. These big changes in conditions really affect the car and I think it caught out other teams also. I am confident we will find the balance and prepare the car for the race in the next session tonight.”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Meijer, qualified 15th):
“The Meijer car was way loose, there definitely was something wrong - we missed something in the set up and that opening lap killed us. This is more of a handling track and there is more emphasis on car balance. Ideally we’ll have a strong enough car tomorrow that our starting position won’t matter.”
SARAH FISHER (No. 67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing):
“The car just didn’t repeat itself out there. We’ve been having some gear box issues that are unexplainable at this point, so it will be a lot of computer work from here forward. I’m hoping that we can come from the back tomorrow, just like we did at Chicagoland last weekend. I’ve got a teammate out there with me tomorrow night so I’m hoping we can work together to get our cars to the front. We always seem to have good race cars, just struggle a bit in qualifying. We’ll get there.” -Sarah
E.J. VISO (No. 8 PDVSA - KV Racing Technology):
“On my qualifying run, the car was too positive on the front end. I had a big oversteer. I could have lost the rear of the car. I didn’t want that to happen, so I adjusted my bars in the car and survived that qualifying run. The track was so different from the morning practice with the heavy air and cool temperatures. Then we had the sun and windy conditions in qualifying. I feel pretty confident for the race. We have been coming from the back on the ovals this year, and we have driven into the top-five several times. I think we can do that again here.”
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 66 Service Central/National Tire & Battery/SFR):
“The setup of this car is something that I’m familiar with, but it’s just not translating at all. Our car is just flat out slow; it doesn’t build speed. It’s frustrating because the guys worked really hard to put a setup on the car that I knew. It’s just not working for us. It’s pretty frustrating to be flat and run like this, but we’re not giving up. We’ll just have to work our way through the field tomorrow night.”
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