Carpenter and Power talk about getting ready for Indy 500
WILL POWER
ED CARPENTER
THE MODERATOR: Well, this is an audition for Riverdance and right now I'm not quite sure how you're doing it good lap, 223 and change, last time I looked up there. You generally know how strong you went, but the real litmus test is how you felt about it.
WILL POWER: Yeah, apart from the speed, it's great, to be at the top of the speed charts, but the car felt really good, too, today and we got to do quite a few laps, try to get the mileage up. You know, just anticipating that it might be wet the next couple of days. Yeah, you can't it's only practice, first day, always handy to be at the top.
THE MODERATOR: You're a professional, obviously, and do this for a living, but was it weird at all when you first got out after having competed yesterday?
WILL POWER: It was just weird waking up the day after a race and having to get straight back into the car and on a different style of track. But you know, as soon as I finished up today, like as soon as I got into it today, I just felt normal again, back to back, focus on the 500 and get the most out of the car. Can't believe we actually raced yesterday, had totally forgotten about it.
Q. So it was weird switching from the two cars, but did it take very long? And were you in the same car as you were yesterday?
WILL POWER: No, we were in a different car. No, it didn't take long. It's such a different discipline. The oval is so different from the road course, tires are different. Just get back into the swing of the oval feel, basically.
Q. We didn't get to have you in yesterday, but you and Dixon had the moment in turn three and four. Can you explain what happened there and just was he pushing too hard to get inside?
WILL POWER: Yeah, he went he went for a move up his side and hit me and spun. I mean, I didn't see. I felt it, felt someone hit me. Obviously come around the next lap, and he's bumped (ph) yeah, he had a much better view than I. Hit my back wheel. Yeah, it's a tough place to pass.
Q. When I saw it, I thought to myself that guy cannot get a break at this racetrack, speaking of you. Do you ever have that thought about particular racetracks, and do you know if I always go here, I have success here or I have some tough luck a time or two here?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I would say that about this place.
But although, I would say that my performance in 2009 to finish fifth with Penske kind of gave me a chance to be full time there. I think Roger saw that, running five seconds.
I think it's really time to have a good Indy 500 finish, I really do. I think after what's happened over the last few years, it's time to have a good finish, which is a win.
Q. You won the last 500 at Fontana, how much confidence does that give you?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it just was a great off season, obviously water under the bridge. Since then, we have four races, all preseason testing. Just, man, you know, it's just more experience. Obviously it does a lot better for your confidence than not finishing or having a bad day.
Q. Do you just throw everything away and start from scratch, or is there anything that you can pull from what you've done or is it just a completely different experience?
WILL POWER: It's the first oval that we do all year. So you've been in road course mode and you get to the oval, and it's a lot different, and the way you race around here is a lot different with the drafting and pretty close quarters all the time.
So, you know, you could say that, yeah, you're starting kind of this is the start of the oval season when you start. Obviously Brad's obviously got three years with this car, so quite a bit of data to go off, but it's a slightly different tire, too.
Q. What is your plan when you do get on the track? Is it more race training earlier in the week or qualifying later?
WILL POWER: Yeah, actually we did a bit of race work today, just anticipating the rain here.
I think it's important to get some race stuff in, because you get to the end of the week and you get to thinking about qualifying, which pays big points, too. So you have to be pretty honest with that. But the whole race does pay massive points, double points. Honestly, I think it's way too far but it is what it is right now.
Q. Saturday also pays some pretty good points. Right now you have a one point lead over Ryan Hunter Reay, but come Saturday, if you're the fastest on Saturday, you'll get 33 points if he has an issue and Sam gets ten points and all of a sudden your lead increases. What do you think of the whole point structure for qualifying here? There's a lot of points available for that.
WILL POWER: Yeah, it's a big deal. Although, it's a very you know, between points, it's not a big spread. So generally all the guys who are in the championship are in good teams and up front anyway in qualifying.
So I expect I expect maybe to gain five points or something if you happen to be on the pole. But like I say, who knows what can happen.
Q. And also, were you surprised at how brutal yesterday's race ended up being, on equipment, on drivers, a lot of things?
WILL POWER: It was a surprise. It was aggressive. Yeah, it was a lot of yeah, I couldn't believe it, some of those restarts. I actually had a drive (ph) penalty, so I just backed off and watched one of them, and sure enough the car goes flying into the wall and bits of debris going everywhere.
It just seems to get rougher and rougher in IndyCar all the time. Like it's just becoming I can't tell you how many times I was hit yesterday, like side to side, and you kind of the cars are almost too strong now. Man, we bang off each other a lot. But it's made for some good racing, but I just don't want it to become dangerous.
THE MODERATOR: You've been sitting here watching other people race, had to feel good to get in the car.
ED CARPENTER: Yeah, I've been looking forward to it. Obviously like I said, I don't think it would have mattered, really, if I had been running all the races up to this point.
The start of the month of May is always special and it's always exciting to get it started, so happy that we had weather that cooperated today and let us run all day
.
THE MODERATOR: By the way, your crew was working to get Mike back into action, really did yeoman's work. I was back there watching.
ED CARPENTER: They did a good job yesterday, and J.R.s guys for the 21 car were back kind of just working on the speedway cars, and I think everybody in the garage jumped in and got us back out.
Sometimes you do that and it's not really worth it, but we picked up five spots and that kept us we dropped from fifth to sixth in points instead of seventh, and we are that much further ahead of eighth, still. So I'm glad that we've put in the effort.
Q. In terms of the pole run last year, which was so spectacular, and I know it was a highlight in your career, do you build on that here or is it just the race that you think about and how you improve the actual running the 500 mile?
ED CARPENTER: I always focus on the race, but I think after last year, the excitement of winning the pole, and then the disappointment of finishing tenth in the race with what was a fast car I think has made us even more focused on making sure we're I don't want to say more prepared, because I think we are prepared for the race.
But just more focused on getting the right amount of race running each day and running in enough different types of conditions, and not necessarily maybe worrying about qualifying quite as much.
I tend to worry about speed a lot, which makes me want to work on going fast. So trying to not trying to not think that way as much this year, but at the same time, I think that the team has built a couple fast cars, and feel pretty good about where we are at the end of the first day.
Q. You've been out of the car I think since Fontana, or maybe you've had a couple refresher or test days. How hard is it for you to get back in since you've been the sidelined person?
ED CARPENTER: I don't know that it's any different for me than guys coming from the GP yesterday to this. It's so different. The car feels so different from road course spec to oval spec.
I don't think that I was at a disadvantage at all. I've done as much oval testing since the last race at Fontana as anybody. You know, we did two days at Texas and two days at Fontana. So I don't really I didn't feel any rest. I'm always so excited to get back out on this track, you know, so just glad being here.
Q. After being in the timing stand for the first four races, do you almost feel like, it's my turn?
ED CARPENTER: Yeah, I feel like I'm back home. I don't know what I'm doing on the timing stand all the time. I'm just trying to stay out of the way and I probably talk more than I should. But the guys on the team do a great job and they don't I think I'm a better asset to them in the car than I am standing up on the timing stand.
So I'm happy to be getting sweaty again.
Q. You made the comment during the TV broadcast yesterday that the standing starts were yet another with the incident there. Can you talk a bit about what that has done, whether you think it should be changed? There is also the issues on a couple restarts, as well.
ED CARPENTER: Well, the restarts are a separate issue. But I think when I look at the standing starts and the series, I can think of maybe two where every car went off the grid. So I just don't think that we have all the pieces of technology that we need to do the standing starts.
It's not that I'm against standing starts, but you've got Juan Montoya stalling, who has probably done more standing starts than anyone in the field with all the years he ran in Formula 1. They don't go off well.
They are exciting when they work, but I think maybe we've had only one or two where everyone's went. Luckily I stalled on one of them, Charlie stalled on one. This just happened to be a race where guys stalled up front and it made it even worse.
But more of the ones we've done or not, cars haven't gone, and I don't think that we all just don't know what we're doing. It's really hard to do with the way the system is that we have.