Power earns Verizon P1 pole award for Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): “We made good progress since yesterday because the car felt more competitive. We found some grip but not enough for qualifying. We tried hard but it was a difficult one.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVSH Racing): “Well that definitely was not what I expected. I’m very disappointed. The problem was we developed some understeer. We will just have to get that resolved tonight and give it our best tomorrow.” (About the qualifying interference penalty): “I didn’t see him and no one told me he was coming. Suddenly I looked into my mirrors and there he was. My bad.”

MIKE CONWAY (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): “We had a huge lockup with the front tire entering turn five on my first flying lap. That flat spotted the left front tire and the car wasn’t balanced then. It’s tough for the crew but I know they will fight hard to come back in the race. We have come from behind before and I believe we can do it again. We’ll concentrate to have a good race car now.”

CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “[Qualifying] was good, I think. Some people in my group used two sets of red tires and I only used one set. One of my laps I made a mistake so it could have been faster but, overall, I am happy. I hope that saving that set of red tires will help me tomorrow in the race.”

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Racing Honda): “Our qualifying result was not what we expected today. The No. 77 car was very fast in practice and the first round of qualifying, and then we lost grip in the second round. You can only drive to the limit of what you have and we just didn’t have the lap time today. When you start within the top-10 at Barber it’s always possible to win though. It will make the strategy a little bit difficult but we have a good race car. We’ll move forward tomorrow and try our hardest to keep scoring big points.”

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda): “After qualifying today I’m happy to say that we’re improving. I’m certainly feeling more comfortable on the Firestone red tires. One of my biggest challenges has been learning how these tires respond because you really only get to practice on them during the qualifying sessions. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has worked hard and I think you could really see our progress today. We’re moving in the right direction and I’m very encouraged. For the race tomorrow, I’ll get my second chance at a rolling start. I wasn’t ready for it in St. Pete so my focus will be not losing positions during the start. I’ll need to be aggressive during the race to make sure we maximize our result tomorrow.”

RYAN BRISCOE (No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet): “Qualifying definitely did not go how we had hoped that it would. The No. 8 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet struggled to find much grip throughout all three practice sessions and then even into qualifying. We ran fairly consistently in the top ten throughout practice, so it’s just disappointing that we didn’t get past the first round of qualifying. We have some work to do tonight and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Chevrolet): “It was a disappointing qualifying here at Barber Motorsports Park for the #83 NovoLog FlexPen Chevrolet. We definitely expect more out of ourselves here at Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing, but we’ll figure it out tonight and be ready to go racing tomorrow. We’re going to get some great information from the No. 9 car with it getting into the Firestone Fast 6, which is great for the team. We’ll just see what direction they’re going to go with the car and then work on making sure we can keep the same pace we had with the Firestone primary tires during the race tomorrow.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chevrolet): “Two of our four second-place finishes here we lost out on pit strategy so I hope we’re due for a win. Heat was a big factor for us today and we were able to make the right changes with dampers for qualifying. In third round of qualifying we could have done another lap looking back, but we need to work on finding more speed for the Target car.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 GE Reveal Chevrolet): “We’ve been struggling all weekend with the car. We tried something different for this session and obviously it just didn’t work. It’s just really too bad for the Target boys. It’s just not a place you want to start, but I’ve been here before. I want to make sure that everyone keeps their spirits up because there’s still a long race to go and anything can happen. My teammate made it into the Firestone Fast 6, so we’re going to look at his setup and probably go to that tomorrow and see what we can do.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 AFS KVAFS Racing Chevrolet): “Since the beginning we had the car, but we just couldn’t put a lap together. I think we went a little bit too early with tires and unfortunately I had nothing at the end and so Montoya bumped me out of sixth spot. I think we do have a great race car for tomorrow and hopefully the changing track conditions during the race won’t surprise us too much. My KV AFS crew has done a great job this weekend and tomorrow should be a good day.”

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