IndyCar preseason: Will Power Press Conf. Transcript

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Barber Motorsports Park and discussed the upcoming season, working with AJ Allmendinger and other topics. Full transcript:

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO MOVE UP JUST A LITTLE FARTHER?: “Just get four points. I just need to score four more points. It’s not really to change much. We made changes within the team and had a relaxing off-season. I’ve never seen a team work so hard in the off-season really. Me personally as well so all we can do is bring what we’ve got, do our absolute best. My approach to the season is really no different than it’s been the last three years. Just going to keep chipping away and hopefully at some point we can get the thing done."

ALL THE WORK THE TEAM DID IN THE OFF-SEASON, DID YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT FEEL RIGHT FROM THE GET-GO?: “Actually you can’t change much on the car. We definitely made improvements, but it’s all such small stuff. The only thing the series allows you to do is change dampers and that’s it. I think pretty much everyone runs the same dampers now anyway. It’s going to be about putting the weekend together in the best possible way to get everything out of everything basically. I felt we’ve been strong in testing, but we’ll see the next couple of days will really tell where the engines stack up. Obviously, that’s probably or that really is the place that you can make the biggest gain in the off-season is with the engine. Chevy has been working really hard I’m sure."

IS IT A GREAT SOURCE OF PRIDE FOR YOU THAT YOU ARE ON TOP EACH YEAR WITH SO FEW CHANGES THAT CAN BE MADE TO THE CARS?: “Spec racing, it really does come down just to the driver and engineer or the team as a whole getting everything together on the day. As far as the whole team does a great job for us between myself, my engineer and having to go out and actually do it — spec racing can be cool and so tight. We see now where two tenths among 10 cars, it’s crazy competitive and it’s a lot of fun to drive."

WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM LAST YEAR’S CHASSIS AND ENGINE PACKAGE MOVING INTO THIS YEAR?: “The team I think has optimized everything we can with the car as it is. This is all details that you can find. I feel we’re definitely coming into this season and the way we started last year is definitely different, the car is different to how we began the year when it was brand new."

DID LOSING THIS CHAMPIONSHIP STAY WITH YOU LONGER THAN OTHERS HAVE?: “No, not really actually. It’s funny, not really I think you learn to finish second. I’ve finished there three times. A week after the race we were back in the shop talking about next year already. I have to say it was the most relaxed off-season I’ve ever had. I just kind of enjoyed it. It is what it is. I get to compete at a high level with probably the best team year after year and it’s just an enjoyable thing to do. It’s cool that we are always there in the hunt for the championship and it’s a real motivation to try and get that done."

DOES YOUR APPROACH THAT LIFE IS PRETTY GOOD HELP YOU DEAL WITH THE ADVERSITY OF FINISHING SECOND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?: “I just think that as you go on in life, just in general or with your job, whatever that may be and for me it’s racing. You become a lot more comfortable with your surroundings and the people you work with, the series and everything you’re in. You just become more relaxed naturally because it becomes more common to you. That’s what’s happened with me. I think that would happen to anyone in any job, you just become more comfortable."

WILL IT BE HARD TO GET BACK INTO RACE MODE AFTER SUCH A LONG OFF-SEASON?: “You have to get back into the process of working with your engineer and everyone on the stand. I think these two days will be great to get back to that mode because the tests that we’ve done have just been single car tests where you are just going through the normal process of going through a 30 minute session and we’re going to get this, this and this done. You have to give feedback quickly. We’ll have an opportunity over these next two days to get back into the process."

ON AJ ALLMENDINGER BEING PART OF THE TEAM: “AJ (Allmendinger), the small amount that I’ve worked with him, he’s a great guy, great personality. He’s funny, but on the track he’s very fast as we can already see on the data at Sebring. The lap time wasn’t representative of it, but he got up to speed very quick. You could see some very good sectors in there and I was already learning stuff off of him. I think he’s an asset to the team and so far I think he’s doing two races and I hope he does more. He’s good and I enjoy working with him."