Power wins Verizon P1 pole award for Milwaukee

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SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “We unloaded fast in the Target car and had a good first few practice sessions here at Milwaukee. We never seemed to get a clear lap in the second practice session so the times were a bit misleading. In qualifying I was just fighting understeer the whole time so we have some work to do tonight.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 Huggies Chevrolet): “When Will (Power) set that time I was surprised because I didn’t think that I could do that – I knew the track was better (than practice) but that’s typical Milwaukee qualifying. The car always feels much worse in practice than it does in qualifying. I think we’ve got a chance (at winning tomorrow). We’re starting on the front row and we’ve just got to do our thing. We’ve been showing how quick we’ve been almost everywhere – we just need to get a little bit of luck on our side sometime. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll challenge Will (Power) and some of the guys. I think we have a good car and a chance to win. ”

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): “I thought we would be a little quicker in qualifying than seventh since we were second in the afternoon practice. But this ties my best qualifying here (2006) and I am pleased with race car setup. Just wish I could have gotten a little more out of the Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevy today. I was faster on my second lap but I slid a little Turns 3 and 4. I have always loved coming to Milwaukee to race and even watch when I was younger. I like the history here and the tough challenge of driving the flat track. I feel good about coming into Sunday’s race. (on the new announcement) “I’m very excited for the future. But to be honest, I want to go out with a big performance for Ed Carpenter Racing in the last three races. This team has had a great year (3 wins and the Indy 500 pole) and I want to win again badly. Then move on to the future with Sarah (Fisher) and Wink (Hartman). We feel we can improve our performance with a two-car team. There is a lot of talent between the two teams.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Direct Supply/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): “We had a pretty productive day. We lingered right in the top 5; we never fell out of that which is positive. I think we learned a lot about what we need for tomorrow. Tomorrow is really going to be a day of attrition. It looks like tire degradation is going to be a big deal this year. Tires really fall off on a stint, so as long as we look after that we should be strong. We seem to have good race pace. We focused more on race setup in practice today. I think we did a good job in qualifying. We were pretty close, but it’s always hit or miss here with the clouds and sun. I’m happy we did our homework on the race because I feel like we have what we need to do a good job tomorrow.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): (About tomorrow’s strategy, how critical is it to start up front at this place:) “It’s traditionally a track position race. In practice, it was definitely hard to pass so I can see it, you’re going to be in traffic all day. You’re going to be trying to pass people.”
(About adding one more point to championship lead; do you ride a little more comfortable): “Not with that one point. There’s 100 points on the table at the last race, you know, but they all count. You’ve got to keep chipping away. Keep smiling and keep chipping away.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Mistic KVSH Racing Chevrolet): “It was obviously a tough day for the Mistic E-Cigs – KVSH Racing team. We unloaded the car and tried a couple of things, but with a limited amount of tires and track time, it is not easy to work some magic. We were hoping we had fixed most of the problem for qualifying, but it didn’t work out. Hopefully, we will get a bit of a break tomorrow because track position is quite key here. Right now it looks like it is going to be up to Jimmy (co-owner and team strategist Jimmy Vasser), the guys on the scoring stand and the Mistic crew to make it happen.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): “I wasn’t the first one out, but I knew that going out early was going to be a bit of a disadvantage. You could tell on the second lap that the track was just going to get better and better. Starting up front is good, but it’s not essential to winning. You can definitely pass here at Milwaukee and pit strategy is always key. I thought the Hitachi Chevy was decent in race mode. If we can find a bit more speed we can make it interesting tomorrow.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 Automatic Fire Sprinklers KV AFS Chevrolet): “Hard weekend so far for the Automatic Fire Sprinklers – KV AFS Racing team. Not being able to test here has definitely taken its toll unfortunately, which is something we have to accept as a team. We haven’t been very competitive and are trying to sort things out so that we have a solid car for the race tomorrow. It wasn’t our best qualifying, but I feel more confident on our race pace so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to catch up and move through the field.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet): “We caught a break with the cloud cover, but I really don’t pay attention to that. Our PPG Chevy is pretty good. I had a bit of an understeer in qualifying, but we’ve been pretty conservative on the wing here at Milwaukee. The track kept getting quicker as it cooled off so I didn’t think that would be a pole-winning run. Congrats to Will for getting the Verizon P1 Pole Award for Team Penske. The third position is a great place to start the race tomorrow. I was confident coming into the weekend and nothing so far has changed my mind.”

JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “I would like to think that we are that dialed in, but it is always the circumstances. The cloud cover came in and cooled the track down. But the guys really did a great job. We struggled this morning in practice. We found something towards the end of the second session and put a new set of tires on. The car felt good, I just didn’t get a good lap out of it. We opted not to change anything because we thought ‘as you get used to the car, you can get more out of the car and know what it is going to do,’ so that predictability really pays off.”