Friday driver quotes from St. Petersburg
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): “The No. 3 Hitachi Chevy ran strong this morning. We decided to go a different direction in the afternoon and we learned a lot of things. We ran over something on track in the afternoon session but there wasn't any damage to the car. The Hitachi boys will keep working on it and we're looking forward to Saturday when we can improve even more."
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “First of all, I'm grateful to be back at the track and back in my first race weekend since May. The No. 5 Arrow Electronics crew guys did a great job prepping the car over the winter and we came out of the box pretty strong. The first practice was a bit rough, just getting used to the new tire and the new (aero) kit but we made some changes over lunch and seem to be at least at the sharpish end. There's still a bunch of work to do so we'll work hard overnight and hopefully have a strong qualifying tomorrow."
MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “It was my day being officially back in the INDYCAR season and it was great. The No. 7 SMP Racing team has been working all day and we found some good setup solutions. We had some issues in the first practice but the second session was much better, and for sure we're going to continue improving tomorrow."
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “Pretty happy with today. St. Pete is a bit of a thorn in Team Target’s side. Second practice we made some wholesale changes and pretty good gains. Put the one set of new tires on, halfway through the run and actually got some traffic. I think the car has some good potential, which you can see. Hopefully we can carry that through to tomorrow."
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Team Hydroxycut Chevrolet): “I think the Hydroxycut KVSH Racing car is pretty good. We are struggling a tiny bit with the balance…trying to get the lap together. Then we got some traffic on that last run of tires. It seems like we have a very small window of operating range where you have one lap to pull it off and after that it just fades away pretty quick. So we will take a look at the data tonight and decide what we want to do. It is definitely going to be quite difficult this weekend. You can tell that there are going to be a lot of cars fighting for the same spot, so we are going to have to work hard."
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “The No. 12 Verizon Chevy definitely had a bad start with the accident this morning, but full credit to the Team Penske guys to get the car back out there, so I could get some laps and get my head around the track and so on. It was a good session. Ran in circles with the setup. Finished P1, pretty happy."
TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): “Glad to be back in St. Pete—great atmosphere and the fans are so enthusiastic so I always enjoy this track. This year we have a new package again and the car feels fast and is fun to drive. Looking from the outside, it is quite a competitive field—the pack is very tight. But we had a very good first day and hope to have an even stronger day tomorrow."
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda): “I’m pleased with the performance of the Steak ‘n Shake car there in the end. The guys did a great job getting the changes we needed done over the lunch break and putting us in a pretty good spot. We’ve got a little bit of work to do but all in all we are closing the gap."
SPENCER PIGOT (No. 16 RLL/Andersen Interior Contracting Honda): “It was good to be on track in St. Pete getting my first laps around the track in an Indy car. Everything feels pretty good. We tried a few things that we can improve on for tomorrow and hopefully we can move up in the pack. This was a totally different experience for me in an Indy car. The speeds are obviously a lot higher but just the size of the car makes you really feel how close you get to the walls. I’ve got to kind of readjust my distances with the bigger car so that was probably the biggest thing to get used to. Tonight I will study all of the data, look over the video and see where I can improve compared to Graham. I will try and visualize it and come back tomorrow and hopefully put it into action."
CONOR DALY (No. 18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality Honda): “We made a big step forward from Session 1 to Session 2. It was just difficult because we didn’t start in the zone that we thought we would. We just had to work from a bit of a deeper hole than we’d like, which is fine. We tried something but it didn’t work and that’s OK. The field is so close, there are six cars in the same tenth of a second so we need six or seven tenths to be in the top 5 which is not a lot, but these days it is. We just need a few more things, a few more pieces to the puzzle. It’s cool in an Indy car driving here. It’s different, I’m still getting used to it. For us, it’s just about getting the car dialed in and we need to do some work on that but that’s why we have a full race weekend."
LUCA FILIPPI (No. 19 Sonny’s Bar-B-Q Honda): “We tried some things that we thought were going to work well but unfortunately some of them didn’t work as we wanted and as expected. So there are some things that we will keep and some we have to go back on, but we were exploring. It’s good now that we have a night to look everything over and get ready for tomorrow. The position is for sure not what we expected and what we wanted to do, but it’s just because we tried different changes and for some reason they didn’t work out as we thought. There’s no drama, we know what to do for tomorrow and we should be good for qualifying. I like this course very much. It’s challenging, so tomorrow when we all go to Firestone reds for the first time it will be a question mark for everyone so it will also be down to the drivers to take the most out of it."
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "It was nice to get back on track and get back to working with the guys. It’s always fun for me getting to go to a race weekend and go through the process. It really is a process when you show up to a track. It’s how you change the car practice to practice, how you continue to develop it through qualifying and then how you race it. I think we started off a little slower than we wanted to, I think we’ll be solid tomorrow. We have a lot of smart guys. We can figure it out and be in good shape for qualifying."
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet): “So far it's been a good start to the weekend. I am super proud to represent HP Enterprise. They are new to the team and they're here this weekend and I'm so excited to race for them here in St. Pete. On the racetrack, we've really just been trying to keep up with the changing conditions. It's not easy but we'll keep working at it and see how we do in qualifying tomorrow."
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): “It’s nice to be back at the streets of St. Petersburg, back to the season. It was a positive day for the No. 26 Honda, I think. We were in the top 10 and everyone is really close. I think for tomorrow, in qualifying we’ll have to put everything together to be in the front. We still have some work to do. We are missing little tenths out there, so we will work hard overnight and see what we got tomorrow."
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Snapple Honda): “(The afternoon session) was pretty messy, actually. We sort of got derailed trying something new with the Snapple car, and in doing that it, messed up my last new tire run. I think before that I was top six. I think Honda made a step forward and today shows the potential, but from a team standpoint we are still working to get up there and to be the first Honda."
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “Not really the first day we’d like to see here. We just ended up with too much imbalance in the car – lacking grip. We need to put our heads together tonight and come out with a better package because we have a good half-second to find tomorrow. Nonetheless, it’s good to be back at the Firestone Grand Prix here in St. Pete. We’re looking forward to the weekend and hope to get the DHL Honda up front."
JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 41 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): “The ABC car was really good all day. We did some good running in both practices so it was a very successful day for us. I think we’ll just rub it tonight and give it a bit of a tune but there’s not much work to do." (About being further down in the second practice): “I just didn’t get a lap in at the end—there was so much traffic. I think we have a very good car so I’m not worried."
ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda): “This afternoon session was a big step forward for the No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda from this morning, in terms of little issues, me knowing the track better, and us understanding the car. This is only our third day out working together, so every time we go on track is a little bit of a learning experience still, but I would say the progression from morning to afternoon was very positive. We’re still not really close to where we want to be but we took a step in the right direction and we will keep working this evening to do the same tomorrow."