IndyCar Texas Post-Race Press Conference
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| A pumped up Will Power |
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Will Power, who ties Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy for ninth on the all-time win list with his win here at Texas Motor Speedway. Will, congratulations. It was definitely a hectic I guess you could say race out there. Take us through your win and eventually how you ultimately survived.
WILL POWER: Yeah, it was beginning it was a matter of getting to the front. We talked about that in our pre-race strategy meeting, that track position is going to be everything because I know whoever would have the lead and the bottom of the track would be very difficult to pass. And the guys did phenomenal stops all night. Obviously that was the key, to keep getting out first. But a really good restart on Dixon that one lap, that one restart where he got out ahead of me, and it was a pretty intense battle there at the end with Scott. I was kind of working out in my head how I was going to get him over the line because he was kind of able to side draft me and be ahead on some laps, so it was really going to be an interesting finish.
And yeah, just over the moon. Over the moon to win here, my second home, and my wife is from here, so we spend a lot of time down here, so just an amazing feeling.
THE MODERATOR: This is the first time that the Verizon IndyCar Series has raced on the new track surface here at Texas Motor Speedway. What fact did that play in the race tonight?
WILL POWER: Just meant that there was zero degradation with the tires. It didn't matter what lap you were on, it was like you had new tires on, so it made for a very tight, close racing.
THE MODERATOR: Coming into the race weekend throughout the practice sessions and qualifying, obviously a little bit of a rain delay when we started the weekend. Did you have a feeling when we came into the race weekend that you might have a shot to win this?
WILL POWER: It was hard to say based on the Indy — the speed that the Honda had at Indy. But those Chevys definitely got a good package. You know, especially on the top end of the engine. They were very high up on the revs all night, which really helped us. Where we qualified, I was like, hmm, this could be tough, but as soon as it went green, I was like, yeah, we have a shot. We definitely have a shot to win this.
Q. Did you have to compromise your setup at all because I thought in the opening laps you dropped to 12th. Did you have to compromise your setup at all to have it able to run well in traffic before you got to the front?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I made some in-cockpit adjustments, but my car was pretty good from the beginning. I was able to drive forward after that.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Q. We know how you are.
WILL POWER: Yeah, I was able to — is that what it is? Yeah, I was able to drive forward pretty quickly and get into P3. I was kind of trying to think about how I was going to set Josef up, but then it went yellow, obviously a good pit stop, then he got drive through, and then we really never lost the lead after that.
Q. A lot of people suffered blisters tonight, particularly Josef and Helio. Did those two do anything different from you and Simon on setup?
WILL POWER: No, not really. We're all pretty similar, I guess it just depended on where you ran and how aggressive you were with the wheel. I mean, you could stop blisters by not punishing the front. You kind of know when you are, but yeah.
Q. Will, did you feel going into this race that it was going to be pack racing —
WILL POWER: Yeah.
Q. And do you feel that maybe this was a little bit too much?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, I sold the series, next to Jay Frye, this will be an absolute pack race. I didn't say whether it was good or bad, I absolutely knew it would be a pack race. There was no doubt in my mind. Anyone who didn't — I mean, the first time we ran here, I said, yeah, this will be a pack race. Yeah.
Q. You said you knew it would be a pack race, but yesterday talking to drivers after even the warmup, 80 percent of them said that there won't be a second lane in Turn 1 and 2.
WILL POWER: Yeah, I knew there would be.
Q. Were they just not reading it right?
WILL POWER: They didn't go up there. Some did, but it's just so obvious that once the rubber goes down, there's just a lot of grip. It just gets better and better and better. It was so obvious to me, and anyone who said it wasn't going to be, I can't see how you could not see that.
Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: I like tire degradation so at least you can work on the car. It's fine to do that for the first half of the stint, you know, 10 laps, but I think there needs to be a bit of falloff to create some separation because it gets — you know, when we're doing it every week, people got good at it, and need to give some respect and understood it. When you just do it once, as I know it all happened behind me, but it gets pretty intense. So yeah. I don't know what to say. I won the race, though.
I mean, when you're leading, it's the easiest night. Until you're leading, the last 10 laps or six, you're driving around wide open. The tire never fell off. And I always said that, like the easiest day of your life if you lead a pack race. The easiest day of your life.
Q. Much of the second group came in. You were pretty happy where you were?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, that's what happens is distance matters. You actually don't take a racing line, you take the shortest line around and that's the quickest way because there's no limit, at least we hugged the white line. Yeah, that's how it was when I first turned up in 2008.
Q. Those final laps there when I think Sato tried to make it three wide there through 1 and 2, could you see that, hear about it? What did you think of that?
WILL POWER: Yeah, my spotter is always keeping me — when it becomes three wide, I'm on the white line on the bottom. There's nothing more I can do. It's up to the other two guys to make the right decision on that. The three wide, it wasn't three wide for long if it was. I heard three wide maybe once or twice in the race, and yeah, there wasn't a third groove.
Tony Kanaan
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| Kanaan and Pagenaud were 2nd and 3rd |
Post Race Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our post-race press conference. We would like to welcome our second-place finisher Tony Kanaan from Chip Ganassi Racing. It was quite a night, wasn't it.
TONY KANAAN: I guess. I guess I don't have a lot of friends out there.
THE MODERATOR: You have friends everywhere. Just kind of take us through your evening, how the race shaped up for you and obviously there were a couple incidents.
TONY KANAAN: Yeah, obviously I haven't seen all of them. Apparently I got blamed for all of them, got a penalty, paid a penalty, and we finished second. So I guess it is what it is. It was a pack race, and I really expressed my feelings about that, but yeah, tough night. Very intense from first lap to the last lap. I'm glad it's over.
THE MODERATOR: Even with the penalty you were able to get back on the lead lap and you were up there battling for the lead at the end of the race.
TONY KANAAN: Yeah, that's what we do, man. We never give up, and obviously we got lucky with the competition yellows so we could get the two laps back and fought our way back. Intense race, a lot of things happened, had to avoid a lot of contact, as well, got really frustrated in the middle of the race and then towards the end. But I guess races like this, at one point in the race you're going to get mad at somebody, and eventually the entire field — when you have 19 cars running half a second from each other, fighting for the same real estate, that's what happens.
THE MODERATOR: If you can just take us through the incident with James and Mikhail.
TONY KANAAN: Honestly, I didn't see it. There was a bump going into Turn 3 there, and I think — I guess I moved up, and I really have to apologize to Hinch. I'm definitely going to go see him if he wants to see me or I'll call him. But yeah, and I guess it was a close call. I moved up, and we hit. I'm really — it's sad. I don't do those kind of things. I race people clean, and I want people to race me clean. It was definitely an honest mistake. You never — especially in a place like this, you don't crash people on purpose, and you don't do — I've been around it way too long to do any silly things like that, and if I did, it was really a mistake, and I apologize for it. Obviously I had to pay that in the pits for the longest 20 seconds of my life.
Q. Obviously none of you guys had predicted it was going to turn out that kind of racing tonight; what's your feeling as far as whether we can go on having those kind of races here?
TONY KANAAN: I think it's pretty obvious we can't. I mean, what you have — five cars finished the race, six cars? I mean, plus in our type of cars, we can't do that. That's my opinion. I mean, I know people will agree and people will disagree with me, but it was a new track. They did a great job — this track, back in the days, with the rain that we got two days ago we probably wouldn't even be racing here today, so great job that they changed the layout and actually I thought it was going to be different. It was our first race back because of the construction we didn't really have a lot of time to test here. Yeah, man, this is my opinion. I don't think we should be doing this the way it is. We should be coming to Texas. The fans are great. This track is awesome. But I think we should change the format a little bit. How, I don't know, we've got to figure it out.
Q. Did you agree with the idea of competition yellows because some people were suffering from blisters, but I don't think you, Pagenaud, Power or Dixon were having those —
TONY KANAAN: We never did, but I have to say, at those kind of speeds, if somebody is getting a blister we can't afford to have a problem like that. Do I agree with that? I have to because it's putting everybody else's safety in check, right. It takes one guy to have a problem, and he will take five guys out, as we saw. Not for a tire problem, but…
So I think it was okay, but the thing is when you have a pack race, the longer you go green, the better it is. You keep bringing yellows back and you put the whole pack back together, and that was the problem. But I think the bigger issue was definitely the blistering, and we had to address that. I don't disagree.
Q. At what point in the race did it feel like it was going to become a pack race because early on it was strung out and a couple guys tried high and it didn't work. When did that second and third lane come in?
TONY KANAAN: Lap 6. I mean, Vautier passed everybody on the outside, I'm like, I was not expecting that. And then he started to clean it up there. So no, honestly, if you look at my pre-race interview, I'm like, no way. Oh, boy, I was wrong. So wrong. So no, right away, honestly, right away, maybe lap 10 I would say. Nobody is pulling away.
In the past, we had tire deg. With the new asphalt, we don't. The tires were so good that everybody was able to hang in there, and you started to clean the high lane, and that was it. I mean, we went three wide quite a few laps, and that's what caused some of the problems.
Q. You guys are pretty good about reading what a track is going to be like. For instance, at Phoenix you guys are always on target what the race is going to be like. How did so many drivers really kind of miss it tonight in terms of it not being what they expected?
TONY KANAAN: I don't know. I have to say, one guy was 100 percent right. I spoke to him last night, and it was Simon. Simon told me the second lane is going to work, and I said, if you make it work, you're going to win the race, and he almost did, and he was right. I don't know, honestly — I talked to Dixon, we talked quite a bit. We were like, I don't think it's going to happen, man, I don't think it's going to happen. And it happened. So why, I don't know. I guess we make mistakes sometimes.
Simon Pagenaud
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome our third-place finisher tonight and the reigning series champion, from Team Penske, Simon Pagenaud. Simon, a pretty wild night; how was it from your perspective?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I don't think I'm going to get any sleep any time soon really. It was pretty nerve-racking out there. But the NTT Technology car was phenomenal. Just we did a lot of teamwork, really, to get that win for Penske. Was really awesome to work with Will that way. It was really hooked up, and we decided to try to break away from the pack by NASCAR style a little bit to try to draft each other and forget about the others. But it was more difficult than we thought. Cars create such a big hole in the air that it's actually difficult to break away, even with a great car.
Overall I felt like — I feel pretty happy we finished third because so much could have happened. Obviously Sato was pretty excited out there, and I'm glad I didn't get into that mess. But yeah, getting some good points here was very important for the championship. I guess we'll get back to second. So very happy night. I wish I got two guns and a cowboy hat, but maybe next year. I'll pick up one at the airport actually. I don't know, I've got to get my face on those pictures.
THE MODERATOR: It seemed like for quite a while you were kind of content working with the team to ride behind Will and try to pull away.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, there was one moment I asked the team, can I pass him, and he said, it's no team order, it's just us working the strategy, but they said, no, it's better you stay behind because for the long run it's going to help you. And ultimately the rules about the tires happened, which really didn't help us because we had a tremendous car on the long runs. But yeah, it was — wow, there's so much going through my head right now, it was pretty exciting. There's so much going on up here. But yeah, it was all right. I don't know what else to say. I lost my train of thought. Choo-choo.
THE MODERATOR: Are you remembering any particular events or anything that happened tonight?
SIMON PAGENAUD: There were a thousand events, so no, it's all a blur.
Q. Simon, I guess a two-part question. Do you think that this style of racing was maybe a little bit too crazy for this track, and I guess the next question, obviously as a side note, your countryman and former teammate Tristan Vautier was having a really good run. Do you have any thoughts about that?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yes, after qually I actually talked to Brant James and we talked about how the race was going to play and exactly what I thought was going to happen. We were able to run second lane on a dusty track already, so I thought it was good fun. I thought it was good racing. Yes, it was some pack racing. You didn't have to pedal the car all that much. You still had to chase it with the setup, but you couldn't get away with a good car. That's the only disappointing part, but I thought for the fans it was a great show.
Now it's our responsibility as drivers to respect the others and not unplug the brain completely at times. It's our responsibility to know that someone on your side — not to crash into them. To me that's where I would leave it at. That's the bottom line.
Q. And about Tristan?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Oh Tristan. Tristan did a great job. I was very happy for him. Man, it's incredible, he came back three years later and got back in the car, qualified fifth. He was running up front all day. I think he got caught up in that crash; I don't think it was his fault. I saw on the big screen. But he was doing very well. I hope he gets more outings because he's definitely showing how much he's grown as a driver and that he has the intellect to be a frontrunner. So I'm very happy for him. He's a good, good friend, and yeah, he just showed a lot of talent this weekend, I think.
Q. At what point did you realize that whatever we're seeing in qualifying in terms of Honda being, whatever, occupying first four rows, when did you realize that Chevy could match Honda tonight?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I thought after practice, practice last night, I thought, we'll have a good car. We passed the pack twice. I didn't get to see Dixon unfortunately. I wanted to run with him and see how good he was, but I didn't have a chance. But I ran with TK, I ran with Hunter-Reay, and I realized we were strong. I think we picked up the right amount of downforce.
I also think it's a testament to our team, how much development they're doing on the contact patch and how good the chassis was I think is really what happened tonight, so thanks to them and thanks for the hard work. I think all that research and development they're doing really helped us tonight.
Q. With four to go, did you want to see them red flag it so you'd have another shot at it?
SIMON PAGENAUD: No, no, especially on restarts, I had such a good car, I wanted to go again. The road was clear without Sato and Dixon, so I thought maybe I have a shot. I could run the high side, I could run the low side, so I knew — that was a bit more trim than Will, so I thought maybe I could do it, but it would have been pretty intense, but I thought I had a shot, but you never know. But yeah, it was a shame, but the rules are the rules. 248 laps, that's it, that's the end.
Q. You may have already mentioned this, but at the end, what was your view of everything that kind of happened in front of you on that last crash?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Last crash I didn't see. I saw sparks. I saw Sato sideways, and I thought that was going to happen. That's all I thought about. I just saw a hole and I went for the hole on the right, kept my boot in to make sure I was going to clear the crash, and that was it. But Sato was all over the place and was going to crash someone. I don't like to bash on people, but he was really out of control tonight. It's unfortunate because he's a tremendous racer, but yeah, glad it wasn't with me.
Q. (No microphone.)
SIMON PAGENAUD: No, it was cooking, and it was a shame because what I saw when he came in the mix, he really started chopping things around and that was when I realized it was too late. I should have been leading at that point. But it's racing.