Mikhail Aleshin loves oval racing

Aleshin on pole at Pocono

Who would ever think a Russian driver would love oval track racing, but Mikhail Aleshin does, a lot.

Q. You have been very good on the ovals since you came to IndyCar. Oval racing is obviously not your background. How do you think you've become so strong at running the oval races?

MIKHAIL ALESHIN: I just love it. I mean, I heard some of my colleagues from Europe that came over here and tried IndyCar, they told me that I'm going to hate the ovals because it's just completely different thing, completely different idea compared to what you normally do in Europe.

But obviously I came over here. The first time I tried, it was test. Actually I loved it straightaway. I felt that it's just so interesting. It's very intense racing, you know, on the ovals. You need to think like two times faster than on normal tracks because you're just going a lot faster. That's definitely what the racing should feel like.