Q&A with Alex Lloyd
Q. Alex, you've posted back to back finishes in the last two races, including a fourth-place at the 500. You have to be very confident heading into next weekend's race at Iowa Speedway.
ALEX LLOYD: We're all -the team -very, very happy. Things started off a little rough for us and I guess we started off a little behind the eight ball in terms of preparation because everything came together last minute. We suffered the first few races, but after Kansas, everybody knuckled down and really worked hard knowing we had to step our game up. We came to Indianapolis with a good package, and we knew that straight away from our first run.
Really the momentum we have going now is fantastic. We were really competitive the whole weekend at Texas. It was nice to get out of the car and be slightly disappointed with an eighth-place finish, because under all circumstances, it was a great race for us, but there were a couple of little things that happened that kept us from a top five, and we knew we were racing with the big guys. Doing that, two races in a row, is exciting and I can't wait to get to Iowa because our oval package seems really good right now. In fact, we're at Watkins Glen right now to see if we can get our road course package to the same level of performance. Things seem be going in the right direction now with the team and hopefully we can keep this momentum going for the race of the year.
Q. Next weekend is the race at Iowa Speedway, where you won the last time you raced there in Firestone Indy Lights Are you looking forward to getting back there?
ALEX LLOYD: I've got good memories of the place. It's going to be very different in an (IZOD) IndyCar Series car. There's just that extra speed around the tiny track that Iowa is. It's going to be very exciting. I've been told to expect it to be like flying a jet fighter through a gymnasium. It's that kind of experience. It was a little like that in the Indy Lights car. I can imagine it being three or four times that in the Indy car. But I do have good memories from being there. Obviously, when you've been in Victory Lane at a race track, you look forward to going back. It's been a little while now, that was 2007, but for sure, the first few laps will be used to get used to everything again but I can't wait. It was a fun track to drive, and I'm sure it will be extra fun in the Indy car."
Q. Talk about the "resurgence of Dale Coyne Racing" A lot of people may have written off the team when Justin Wilson and Bill Pappas left before the season, but you and the Boy Scouts team really seemed to gel.
ALEX LLOYD: One of the reasons why we had a slow start to the year is that the team changed a lot. Bill Pappas and Justin Wilson and a couple of other guys within the team left. It was really a new bunch of guys working together for the first time and trying to learn during the race weekends because we didn't have any testing prior the season. It was tough. It takes a while for thing to start to gel, and we had a little reshuffling before Indianapolis on how we were going to engineer the car and changed our plan with that. That seems to have paid off and seems to be working for us. At the same time, it's the continuity of working with these guys week in and week out, and there are really some good guys on the team. We have some smart guys who have been around and can give me a good race car."
Q. And now you're leading the Rookie of the Year standings. I know there is a lot of racing left, but what would it mean to you to be Rookie of the Year?
ALEX LLOYD: It would be a big thing. There's a good crop of rookies this year and one of my goals was to get that Rookie of the Year. The last couple of races have put us in a good position as we start getting towards the end of the first half of the championship. Obviously, there's a long way to go, but my other goal was to get the car in the top 10 in points. With the start of the year we had it makes it a little tougher. But we're chipping away at it, and if we keep getting the results we've been getting, then maybe it's still a possibility. We just need to keep doing what we're doing and there are a lot potential goals and good things that could happen this year. We just need to take it race by race and improve on our results and improving the package. I want to be like we have been the last two races for the rest of the year and be contenders for every race and qualifying up front and racing up front and being there and being in a position where we can get top-five finishes. If you're in that position week in, week out, then you're in position to win the race, and obviously, that's the ultimate goal. We need to keep putting ourselves in good positions and keep working on what we've got and not let this momentum slip away. I know from my side and from the team side we're going to do everything in our power to keep on this run.