Ron McQueeney/IMS
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest of the day): “Toward the end, when we were running over 50 laps on the tires, it started to get pretty sketchy and just the fact you’re starting to run with more cars at that point. It was hard to predict how far away you needed to be from the other guys. “ (About what can be learned for the race practicing in windy conditions): “You’re still trying to get grip on front-wheel balance and stuff like that. You have a much bigger window, so it’s very hard to narrow things down. I think with most of our races these days, you need to roll off (the truck) pretty decent. You don’t have too much time. You have a lack of tires almost. That why we sat (out of practice) for 40 minutes because you can’t really run. You have to save enough tires - five sets of stickers - for the race. That leaves you with four s ets and quite long sessions. “ (About racing with 28 cars at TMS): “It’s going to be tough, especially if you make a mistake and a few people go by you. It’s just a little easier when you’re running up front, no worse than fourth or fifth back. If you get back in that pack, it might be a little more difficult, but the great thing about this place is that you can pass. If you have a good car and have a bad pit stop and you drop back to 10th or 15th, you should be able to make your way through. It’s going to be, especially if the wind is like this and guys that haven’t really raced here before, you just hope they give a little bit more room then normal. “
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Blockbuster Dallara/Honda/Firestone, second-fastest of the day): “The wind was interesting. Even when we were running on our own, we were treating it like we were in traffic because of the wind. If you can get the car good in the wind, then it won’t be bad in traffic. We ended up working on our racecar the whole time. We had ideal conditions with the car so that’s why we were able to put it near the top. I think we’re a couple of changes away from our race car yet. “
JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 24 Roth Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, third-fastest of the day): “(Time sheets) don’t always tell a story, but for us it’s a good day. I’ve been around here in a stock car a lot of times, of course it’s a little bit quicker in an IndyCar (Series car). It’s a lot of fun and a new challenge. This wind is challenging too. We worked a lot on it and we learned a lot. I learned a lot, for sure. “ (About the windy conditions): “It was terrible. For me, I could feel it. Ironically, you could feel it more the slower you went. “
DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth-fastest of the day): “I think we’re starting a bit like we did at Milwaukee to be honest. My line was good tonight in the Polaroid car, and I think the Target team will be bringing another competitive package here to race with this weekend. It was very windy here tonight as well so we’ll keep an eye on weather conditions heading into race day. “
A. J. FOYT IV (No. 2 Lilly Diabetes/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fifth-fastest of the day): “The wind is tricky. The car is handling totally different in each corner of the racetrack. I’m pretty happy with how we unloaded the car; it seems to be pretty quick. I think we have a good baseline and we’ll look at it overnight and see what we have to do. ”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone): ‘’Today was a good start to the weekend for the No. 6 Team Penske crew. It was really windy out there, which made things a bit challenging at the beginning when we didn’t quite know how it would affect the car. Thankfully, it really didn’t seem to make things too difficult for us. We were working on our race set-up and were really happy with how the car was working in traffic. I’m looking forward to coming back out tomorrow to continue working on making it two in a row for the No. 6 car. ‘’
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was really windy out there tonight, so we couldn’t get as much done as we would’ve liked. We were able to make some progress with the Team Penske car, though, and I think we’re headed in the right direction. Hopefully, it won’t be as windy tomorrow, so we can get some solid practice in before qualifying. “
| 
| 