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USA
Qualifying report

"What They're Saying" from qualifying at Road America

Top 10 quotes from qualifying for the KOHLER Grand Prix Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 4.014-mile Road America.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

IndyCar Series

Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske Chevrolet
Polesitter Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Conor Daly, Dale Coyne Racing Honda
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske Chevrolet
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Alexander Rossi, Herta - Andretti Autosport Honda
Sébastien Bourdais, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda

Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was a session of all traffic. Every single run I had was traffic. Took a risk in the second round and got through on used tires and that gave us the best shot at the pole because (Scott) Dixon has been very quick. I am really excited to get pole, I really am. Been kind of a rough start of the year for us, but we are firing on all cylinders now. A lot of guys used new tires on every run, and we were the only one on used. I really had to lay it out. We are going to do everything we can to win this damn race. That is what we have to do."

Scott Dixon (No. 9 Clorox Chevrolet): "I think there were just too many mistakes made to get the pole. We definitely had the car for the pole. I messed up the last two corners in the Clorox car, which in turn costs us 2-and-a-1/2 tenths and ultimately the pole position today here at Road America. There is massive fan support here, it's great to be back and I hope we put on a good show for the fans tomorrow."

Tony Kanaan (No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet): "We've done really well here all weekend until the Firestone Fast 6. We left the pits after sitting with the rest of the field and waiting to go out and almost immediately my steering wheel just completely froze. We were trying to figure out what we needed to do, but because we didn't go out right away we were really running out of time. That's the price you pay when you run those strategies and then run into issues like those. We finally got it figured out when I was in Turn 12 on my out lap, but at that point I could only get in one more lap. Thankfully we were able to get the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet up to third. Obviously we'd like to be on the pole, but with only having one full lap out and that electrical issue I'm happy with where we were able to qualify."

Simon Pagenaud (No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): "The Menard's car is actually very good around the track. It was awesome. I thought this track was beautiful. It's great to be back here. The fans are really amazing, and I'm just very excited, I think, for IndyCar. This is a great opportunity. The campers -- we're sitting here in the bus, and it's amazing to see the traffic at night. It's a good sign. The run was good. We didn't manage the tires the way we should have, I think, for the Firestone Fast Six, but overall we had a good pace. Scott (Dixon) seems to be very strong this weekend, but overall pretty happy."

Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "We really did a lot of science projects out there with our setups to be honest, but in the end I was able to follow a little bit from my teammates and ended up working pretty well. The Hitachi car was good. We had a good pace, and we made some adjustments on the last qualifying run, and I'm not sure if it was the right direction or not. I just think the fans here are awesome. The race, to be honest, whatever happens happens, but just to have so many people here, I'm just excited. Obviously it's a high-speed track, you know, but anything can happen. But at this point I'm just glad we're back in this beautiful place."

Graham Rahal (No. 15 Gehl/D-A Lubricant Honda): "We're surrounded by our championship competitors and the top Honda so it feels good to be in that position. I feel like the Gehl / D-A Lubricant Honda is pretty good going into the race. We've got to improve it a little bit but these guys have worked extremely hard to get us in this position. Yeah it would be nice to be on pole but I didn't think that we had enough to get that once I saw the times those guys did. The 2.5 (1:42.55) I did in Round 2 was just about as good of a lap that I thought I could do. On the last round, we decided to go with new blacks (tires) instead of used reds because maybe used reds will be better tomorrow so I didn't want to put a second run on them.

I thought we could still do a high two on blacks, and we probably could have but I chased throttle extremely hard coming out of Turn 5 and almost looped it so we lost that lap. I haven't raced on a track this difficult in a long time. It seems like every lap you do, the track gives you a little something different each lap. It's always a challenge. We need a good win this year and want to get a win for Honda and be the team to get them back in Victory Lane at Road America. It's a big race for our championship this year. If we can have a good day tomorrow, it could really catapult us up. It's pretty clear that in this part of the world there is a great amount of support for Indy car racing and it's awesome to be here."

Max Chilton (No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "Gallagher and the Ganassi team gave me a great car for this weekend here at Road America. I was on my hot lap in the second segment of qualifying and Power came out in the pits in front of me. I followed him out through Turns 5-6-7 and then into the Carousel turn. I was four car lengths back and just had to keep lifting and lifting. The stewards reviewed it and didn't take any action which I just find maddening."

Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 DHL Honda): "I have a fever and all that stuff today - the shakes, the sweats, the whole thing - not feeling so great, but anytime you're in the race car the adrenaline just pulls all that out of you. I feel like junk, but (Josef) Newgarden has plates in his shoulder and is out there, so I can manage. The No. 28 DHL car was really good, we just had some issues under braking that ended up sealing our fate today. But P8, we can definitely work from there at Road America. Especially around a track like this with such long straights. It's phenomenal to be back at Road America. It feels like it's been way too long. Every driver up and down pit lane loves this place, and the fans make it special as well."

Conor Daly (No. 18 Jonathan Byrd's Hospitality Honda): "We have a goal every weekend to try and improve on our last road race result and to keep improving. We got our fifth place qualifying taken from us in Detroit which is a shame but this was more of a legit qualifying session. The car felt good. We weren't at the tail end of that second group either and that means a lot for us and we got held back on our fastest lap as well which is a shame because of an overboost penalty, but it's part of the game. To be qualifying in the top 10 that's what you need to take advantage of things in the race, this gives us better options on strategy and it makes it a little easier on the brains up in the stand to make the calls."

Carlos Munoz (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): "First I have to say I have an unbelievable crew. That was a team effort to put the car back together after some technical issues we had in the practice this morning. It's a shame we didn't get to practice this morning before we qualified. But, we are going to start 10th and we'll see how the race goes. I thought we had a little bit more in the car than that, if I'm honest, but it's a long race and anything can happen."

INDYCAR

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