JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 33 Camping World Panther Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest non-qualified driver): “The car’s just been fantastic. Panther (Racing) put it together, Vitor (Meira) drove it, the setup has been pretty consistent from where we started. We trimmed it out a little for qualifying, just been on qualifying mode and not running with any traffic. That lap is without a tow; I’m pretty happy with where the car’s at. Just have a couple things I want to do for me, feel-wise. They’re on it, I wish we could line up today and get it out of the way. One thing is if you’re qualified, the other is if you’re qualifying. I’d like to be on Ed’s (Carpenter) program right now, which is race stuff, but after two days, today was awesome. Yesterday was good, but with the weather today, everything just clicked. We made three (qualifying) runs today. The first was in the 219 (mph) average, the second was in the 220s, third was probably 221 average, so I’m pretty happy with that.”
I’d think you had some jitters before yesterday. Does that feel like a distant memory? Does it feel like 13 years?:
“I feel really good in the car. I was thinking last night, 13 years, why does it feel so unfamiliar to me, but I haven’t been here for three years either, even in a Cup car. They’ve ground the track since then and done some other things. If somebody’s really good through Turn 1, I’d like to talk to them, that’s probably the most frustrating corner to get to. It’s probably the most frustrating to get to because right now I’m arriving at it as quickly as I can, but I’d for it to somehow arrive a little slower so I can get my line (laughs). I’m all over the place down there, but everywhere else I feel pretty good about it. If I don’t clip the grass in qualifying, I’ll be OK. At least I won’t have Al (Unser) Sr. and my cousin (Michael Andretti) coming down and telling me I can’t do that. They told me, ‘Get off the NASCAR line.’ I don’t do it on purpose. I turn in, I’m going too fast and I can’t just stop and change where I want to be. And then when I try to do something different I mess up and not leave myself enough room on the exit. Everybody gets a push off (Turn) 1 for whatever reason, so I like to leave myself a little room, but then I get too much room clipping down there. If I can do that for four laps and do it right, that will dictate how fast I go because (Turns) 2, 3 and 4 have been really nice for me.”
What has been the biggest change from 13 years ago?:
“Some of the electronics and the shift in the car. I’m still trying to understand pieces of it, so I ask a lot of questions. Normally a gearbox guy you’d never talk to, now I spend a lot of time with them and Honda going through some of the different things to learn how to use them and take advantage of them. A 500-mile race here, pit stops are critical if they’re under green. I’m not a rookie, but I’m pretty much a rookie. That’s how I feel when I get in the cockpit. There’s things I haven’t seen before. Nice thing is I don’t have to adjust the boost. Every other race I had here I prayed I got a good pop-off valve and sit there and adjust the waste gates. There are some things that are easier in the car. Weight jackers, back then, used to be hydraulic, and you had to dial them and you didn’t know where you were at. Now you just pull a couple paddles and it tells you up on your steering wheel. It’s all gotten better, tremendously safer. The wings create more stability. I haven’t been in traffic, but watching traffic, I could have never run that close in the past. And the wind yesterday, we would never run in those conditions in the past, so that’s a big deal. It makes the cars more consistent, more raceable, more driveable in that regard. But they’re still plenty difficult, and I’ve got a lot to learn. I’ll be asking a lot of questions coming up to the race.”
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