Montoya takes pole at Pocono, first Verizon P1 Award since IndyCar return

JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “The car felt pretty good. We picked up a little push as the run went on, but that is the quickest we have run by 2 or 3 miles per hour. I am fairly happy with it. I know it isn’t going to be good enough for the top 12 or maybe even 15, but I think we have made a lot of progress from the practice earlier today and I think we are going in the right direction. Hopefully we are in good shape to race tomorrow. It is going to be a long race so we will try to stay out of trouble and just try to survive.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): “The track conditions and the wind the way it’s been, practice was a little tougher than last year, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect coming into qualifying. As always, the Andretti Autosport cars were super strong and big credit to the United Fiber & Data boys – this is UFD’s home race, they’re based not too far from here. We’re definitely happy with the run we put in. Having teammates is one of the big benefits of having a multi-car team like this because we can all help each other out. I know I got information off Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and Marco (Andretti), and we were able to relay a little more information to Carlos (Munoz).”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda): “I mean not bad, not great you know, but good. I think we had a decent shake at it, but I think we ran too much downforce. I mean I want to perform well here. I want to definitely capitalize and win. The Snapple car ran strong, we just need to win.”

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM Honda): “For sure having teammates, getting all that information, it helps you, helps you for what you can expect; that’s a great thing about having so many teammates. This time I was the last teammate (to run), and normally I’m the first one to go out, so I’m usually giving the information. But our run was great, the Cinsay car was great. I’m happy to start on the front row for the race – third position. Tomorrow is a long race, 500 miles, but I have a really good car to fight for the lead.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): “We don’t really know what happened right now. We’re obviously going to try and find an answer before tomorrow. It was a very strange crash, probably the strangest crash I’ve ever had in an Indy car. The front end felt like it skipped. It felt like something caught under the front of the car. As soon as that happened the front was completely gone and we went straight into the wall. Very odd crash. I think we have a fast car. We are really confident in what we were doing in practice. We did a lot of race running so I think we should be good for tomorrow.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet): “I’m getting there. To be honest, I’m happy to be here in the Verizon IndyCar Series. This week we have the PPG car and everybody at Chevy and Team Penske has worked really hard for me. It’s really exciting. Am I back? Well, I’m getting there. I feel like I’m getting there every week. We keep working harder and keep finding speed and more results. So it’s exciting. I think we’re going in the right direction. (The track is) so different (from NASCAR). We run wide open all the way around here. I think the average speed is 30 or 40 mph faster than we do in a Cup car. It’s fast.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “We kind of went for a guess on the balance of the car and it wasn’t right. We had some issues. So I think our teammates were able to learn from that. We were kind of the first hat to fall there. We were the one (my teammates) were going to take the balance from and they were able to have a good run.”

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): “A very good day for us. We were strong here last year so we knew we had a good package. The ABC car worked very well straight into practice and we were in the ballpark. We worked on all the small details. It would have been nice to get the pole, but I can’t be too greedy. We had a good solid run and I really enjoyed it. It is so challenging here because Turn 1 and Turn 3 are completely different. You have to move the tools every single lap. The car worked really well so good job by all the boys and Don (Halliday), our engineer, did a great job. Hopefully we continue the speed and strength tomorrow.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “It was a pretty good run. I had probably too big of a lift on my first lap, too much understeer. But apart from that, Juan ran a bit more downforce, so I thought if he can be flat or have less of a lift, he’s going to be very tough to beat. But still very good for Penske to have a one-two.”