Detroit GP Race 1 Post-Qualifying Press Conference

Alexander Rossi on pole for Race 1

Participants
1st – Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport Honda
2nd – Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevy

Perhaps the shortest Press Conference in History

THE MODERATOR: We are here in the media center with the number two qualifier, Josef Newgarden, who went in the first group, will start second by virtue of his lap being slower than Alexander Rossi.

Josef, talk about the lap, how difficult it was sliding around. Was your car stuck or did you have some adventures out there?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I felt pretty good about the lap. The track was getting quicker every run. Obviously there's a lot of progression.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]But yeah, I mean, there was a lot more grip than yesterday by virtue of the cooler temps, a bit more rubber laid down. Lower track temperature really helped.

A good starting spot for us. Front row is great. Going to be a clean start. Let's see what the weather does. Big ingredient today we don't know about. We'll try to have our game plan.

THE MODERATOR: Also joined by Alexander Rossi, who will start on the pole the sixth time in his career, second time this year. He also won the NTT P1 Award pole at Long Beach, won that race.

Yesterday you came in here, downplayed a little bit your lap time. No downplaying this one, this was a quick lap.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Thank you. I think the team has done a good job all weekend. As I said before, I think Andretti Autosport has been strong here in the past. To be able to carry that momentum forward is a positive thing as the competition gets ever tighter.

The hardest thing I think for a race team in the off-season is to continue to develop the tracks where you've been good at in the past. It's always easy to focus on the bad ones, but they do a good job of continuing to learn more, try to be better at places we've been strong before. All credit to them.

THE MODERATOR: We'll get right to it.

Q. Talk about Firestone and the longevity of the tires in the alternate format.
ALEXANDER ROSSI: I think yesterday reigns true still. I don't think it will be any different doing one push lap in qualifying. In a condensed weekend like this, you're trying to get information from the snippets and clues you're going to have in the condensed practice session.

I feel like it's going to be the same. I think that's kind of the general consensus. We've been surprised in this series before, so…

Yeah, I guess we'll wait and see if someone can do a lot of laps on them, we'll have to react.

Q. Alex, television commentators spend a lot of time talking about you driving in anger. Your driving style, your motivation change much?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: No, no, it was just last weekend for obvious reasons. It's been discussed. I don't really drive angry a lot. There was a lot of stuff that went down in that race.

Yeah, it's now a week behind us, so we're just on Detroit and moving on.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. See you in a little while.