This is Will’s fourth win of the season. He previously won at Barber, Sao Paulo and Texas, too. This is Will’s sixth podium finish of the season.
I know coming off of Toronto last weekend, you’re on a high with this win. It’s really the first full race with you with Tim Cindric calling the strategy. Talk about that.
WILL POWER: Yeah, it was an interesting race. I think the track provided chances to get by people. We had the restart with Conway, he went late, I got a really good run. I think that pass right there was the pass for the race win.
So as far as strategy went, car setup and everything, I think we did everything right. Struggled a little bit at the end, but I was able to keep the guys behind. Yes, it’s exactly the day we needed.
Q. Will, how much did the pass you made on Takuma to take the lead, how much was that you pressuring him or him making a mistake?
WILL POWER: I could see him starting to weaken and struggle. I kept pressuring him more and more. Then he made a little mistake and I got a run on him. I think Dixon must have tried to get him as well. We all went down the front straight. Yeah, that was important, I think, to get in there.
Q. Will, you had some concerns about the driving in Toronto in terms of the crashes. Do you feel like this race with four drivers getting drive-through penalties there was more of a zero tolerance policy out there?
WILL POWER: I had no clue what happened in the race. I don’t know about any penalties. I can’t accurately answer the question.
But, you know, I think that’s what needed to happen because it will deter people from doing it again. They know if they’re going to hit someone, they’re going to get a drive-through and end up at the back, as well.
I think all the drivers, all the drivers I spoke to, they all feel the same: it needs to be more strict in every way.
Q. What are you doing making up with Dario?
WILL POWER: I know. I know if I looked the guy in the eye, I was going a to smile or laugh. That’s why he sat there and didn’t look (laughter).
Yeah, I think it broke the ice this morning after warm-up. He walked by. That was the first time we made eye contact (laughter). I started sort of smiling.
I put it behind me. I guess we were both playing a bit of mind games with each other there. But at the end of the day you go out there and race how you race.
Q. Do you think you put too much mental thought into this, maybe it was getting to be a little bit of a mind game going on?
WILL POWER: No, it wasn’t affecting me. I was kind of laughing about it. It’s sort of funny to me. I wasn’t putting any emotional energy into it. Yeah, we just basically didn’t talk. That was that. I was very focused on the weekend. I felt great today.
I find it tough to be nasty to people. I can’t help it. If I’m angry at someone, I look them in the eye, I’ll start laughing. Even if he came up to me after Toronto, maybe I would have laughed about it, too.
I can definitely be angry behind their back (laughter).
Q. So you’re saying deep down you’re a big cuddly Koala bear?
WILL POWER: No. I think I was definitely upset with what happened, no question. But you do have to put it behind you. There’s no better way than to come back with a win like this.
Q. The restart where Conway was leading the field, it didn’t happen. Did you get pretty close to getting stacked up and running into anybody?
WILL POWER: I was just going to go by him. We were told in the drivers meeting if you haven’t gone by that fence, go on green. They went green, I just drioe on by him. He must have not been listening in the drivers meeting, and he didn’t realize you had to go by then. I didn’t understand why he was going late. The only reason you’d do that is because he thought he had till the start/finish line to go.
Q. With 80 laps under your belt, what did you like about the track, what did you not like?
WILL POWER: I think it was most definitely good for racing. It wasn’t quite as physical as the old track. I think the old track was a pure driver’s track. But this was good. I think it was plenty physical for me. I was mentally drained after that race. Physically I wasn’t too bad.
Q. Will, can you talk about what it took to keep Helio off your back there. He was tucked under your wing for half the race there.
WILL POWER: Yeah, that was really hard. They caught me by surprise. I went out and I thought, I’m going to really save my tires, we’ve got a gap. I was being way too conservative, to be honest. When they were at me, I was at 100% the whole time trying to keep them behind. I couldn’t gap them. We just had a bit of a braking problem, and that was where we were losing all the time.
Q. Any thoughts of last year’s race go through your head?
WILL POWER: It did actually. I thought, Wow, it’s Helio. I was happy to see that we were both having a good day. I thought after last year, you know, it was very unfortunate for him because he did win the race, then sort of taken away from him. I ended up second.
So for both of us to finish 1-2 I think is great. I was really happy to see him there.
Q. Can you talk about in terms of your prerace strategy you might have had yesterday and this morning, how much of that you actually wound up executing today and how much might have changed in the race?
WILL POWER: Today our strategy was basically what we thought it would be in the first stint, except it went yellow on lap 25. Very straightforward from there on.
Q. Moving forward, today was kind of a big day for you to whittle away on the championship lead. Dario said earlier the points are going to ebb and flow from here on out.
WILL POWER: Yes, I predict that’s exactly what’s going to happen. We need to keep finishing ahead of him to keep the points down. In reality it can come down to if there’s 10 points between us, it’s whoever wins the last race sort of thing.
Plenty of racing to go. We just got to stay on track. As you see in these races, so much carnage and mayhem that happens. I’m glad the officials are coming down harder on the guys who are doing dive bomb moves who are not coming off.
Q. Can you compare your first win here and this win in terms of degree of difficulty?
WILL POWER: My first win was very pivotal in keeping my ride at Penske. This win was I guess very pivotal in keeping in the championship points race. Both had pressure. I knew I had to execute that day if I had any chance of keeping my ride.
| 
|