WILL POWER (No. 8 Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia, fastest): “It was obviously a day to get used to the setup of (an IndyCar Series car). It’s much different than a Champ Car. The team’s done a great job and we arrived here with a reasonable setup. We definitely improved it after the first session. I think we’re in a much better position than we were last week at this time. It would be nice if we could repeat this in qualifying with another 1-2. We’re looking for a solid result to get some solid points, since we can’t perform this well on the ovals. “(About track conditions): “It was dusty this morning, but as the weekend goes on, the track does grip up. It’s dusty off-line, but for qualifying, I think it will be rubbered up. “(Is it slicker than last year): “It’s a combination of guys learning the circuit and having a harder compound tire, which makes it a little more slippery.”
ORIOL SERVIA (No. 5 KV Racing Technology, second): “We’re really happy. At Mid-Ohio, we expected to be competitive, and after the first day we were 19th and 20th. The team did a great job for Saturday and we picked up the pace, and on Sunday we were up there with the best. Coming here to a place that we know, it feels good to be top of the timesheets, but we need to keep pushing. The other guys are only on their first day here, and they’re big teams with very good drivers. I’m pretty sure they’re going to be pushing pretty hard tomorrow. “
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, third): “I think the track here in Edmonton is great, and it’s proven to be very challenging as well. We used the practice sessions to familiarize ourselves with the course and just find the lines out there. Our main goal today was to find out what the Team Penske car can do on this circuit. Now that we know, we’ll use tomorrow to see how much we can push that limit. Overall, I think we had a good day, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there. I think it’s great to be racing here in Canada; it’s only the first day of the weekend and the place was packed. The fans seem to be having a great time, and that is a lot of fun to see.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, fourth): “Things are looking good for the No. 6 car here in Edmonton. It’s my first time here as well as Team Penske’s, so we really used today to concentrate on dialing in the car, getting the gear ratios right and general setup work. The track started out a bit dirty in the first session, but it’s steadily improving. It’s an exciting circuit to say the least - it’s bumpy with a lot of fast corners. It’s pretty technical, and there’s not a lot of room for error, which is why we saw so many guys get in the tire barriers today. I think we had a good start here, and hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow.”
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, fifth): “I think the McDonald’s team is reasonably OK in terms of setup. It’s difficult to know when other people ran old tires vs. new ones. We know when we have and haven’t, and we feel like we are reasonably competitive, but I would like to feel a bit more confidence from the car. It’s not where I think we can be. We have a little work to do, but we’re on old tires running fifth, so I’m reasonably happy with it. This car bounces around a lot more than the Champ Car did, and there doesn’t seem to be as much grip on the track, so it’s very difficult to drive. I think everyone is seeing that based on how many cars are spinning off. It’s making life tough, but we’re going to have to try to make the most of it. I think the race is going to be interesting.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, sixth): “We had a lot of problems in the first session with front grip in the car, and we thought we had an idea how to get that fixed for session number two. The overall balance of the car is still off though, and we’re going back to discuss how to get the car where it needs to be. We were better off in the second session, but there is still work that needs to be done.”
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven, seventh): “It was not a very good day today. We’re still trying to improve the balance of the Team 7-Eleven/Frank’s Energy Drink car. We were able to find some speed, but we have to improve the balance of the car.”
PAUL TRACY (No. 22 Subway/Vision, eighth): “It went as well as you could hope for. We hoped to come in and have the car run all day, and we did that. The crew did a great job. They had a very small amount of time to get the car ready, only a couple of weeks. Derrick (Walker) and his group did a great job. Tony (George) giving us this car to use, but going from an oval setup to a road course setup, so it was missing a lot of the bits. We’re pleasantly satisfied with how it went. I haven’t driven since Long Beach, and I haven’t driven much at all – I’ve had one test day – since Surfers (Paradise) last year. Hopefully, things will come back a little easier tomorrow and we can work on the race setup. It’s going to be a tough one. It’s a tough race, and these guys have been driving all year.”
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 06 Rexall-Oilers, ninth): “The start of the day was all right, but I think we were a little too far off in terms of setup. We were close enough though that we decided to make this afternoon’s session a little bit of a test session. We went out on a limb and tried some things, and now we are a heck of a lot closer than we were at the start of the day. We’re pretty happy with that, but of course we still need to find a little more speed. We’re competitive at least. We’re right there with the top guys. We still need to work on some stability issues, but we have tonight to think about it. Then we’ll try to shoot for pole tomorrow or at least try to make it through all the rounds, because I can’t seem to make it through to the second round this year even if we are quick. This is such a different car than we are used to here. We showed up, and the car was bottoming like crazy. It was like getting punched in the face 10 times a lap, and it hurts. We made some improvement. To be fast here, quite frankly you have to be aggressive. The bumps are obviously the most important part of this because it is such a bumpy circuit. We made a lot of improvements, but there is still a ways to go.”
DANICA PATRICK: (About the six race stretch, which ends in Edmonton) “First and foremost, this six-race stretch has been the most difficult for the teams, the crews and the family members of the crews. These guys work long, long hours at the track and go to work when they get home, so I think they will all appreciate finally getting a week off. We’re all looking forward to that. There’s nothing better going into a week off than having a good result, that’s for sure because it’s the last thing you remember.”
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