JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 33 Camping World Panther Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth-fastest unqualified driver):
(About his first day on the track): “I think it was productive, just because now when I go to bed at night, I won’t have to worry about getting out of pit road or … well, I still have to worry about it because I’m not that good at it yet. I just learned a lot of things today. It’s a lot to digest, and unfortunately the weather didn’t want to cooperate today as much as I’d hoped. I kind of wish this weather would’ve been last week and played havoc with those guys a little bit and given us nice weather. They say tomorrow is going to be really nice weather, and Saturday and Sunday are going to be really nice, so we can go after it. ” (About the low line he was running early in the day): “It’s OK for stock cars, but yeah, they came over (and told him to run a higher line). I still think it’s OK for Indy cars. I just haven’t quite figured it out, but I’ll be down there in the race, I guarantee it, because I don’t know any better. They all do, but that’s the good thing about not knowing any better. Sometimes you do things that are unthought of. It taught me a lot to learn my line, though. The problem is the car turns so fast that I got to the point to turn in, and the car turned and I was down there. I guess it was a good thing that I turned too early. Michael (Andretti) came over after my first run and said, ‘Man, you can’t run down there, ’ and he said that they need to fix my helmet. Bell Helmets came over, and they’ve done a good job, and the team has worked on the car and got things worked out, too. We had some issues in the cockpit because when they put the seat in the car, it didn’t have suspension on it or anything, and then when we got here, you do some laps, and then it’s like, OK, there’s things that can change. But when you’re in a stock car, there it is and I know the measurements and off you go. But I feel great about today. Considering the weather conditions and all that, and as quick as we ran, we’ve got nothing to be ashamed about. We came out and had a good, solid day, and if this was last week, this would be a fantastic start. Our window is just starting to get a little bit closer. ”
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth-fastest driver of the day):
“The conditions weren’t the most favorable again today, but we were able to work through it and put up some good times and get some things accomplished. We were still able to go out and accomplish a lot, but still conserve our tires and mileage, so it was really a successful day. The crew is just working so hard right now to get everything right, and they’ve been doing a great job, for sure. Hopefully tomorrow the conditions improve a bit, and we can work on more race setups. ”
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fifth-fastest of the day):
“It’s the second day in a row that the weather has kind of not been that great. It’s a little cool and the cars have so much downforce in these conditions that it can be a little deceiving when you are working on race setups. So we just went out and worked on a list of things that we wanted to test, which really aren’t altered by the weather or conditions. Other than that we are just saving some tires up for when it gets a little warmer this weekend. ”
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