"What They're Saying" from Firestone 600 Qualifying

Carlos Munoz (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): "To be honest I didn't expect that speed. I thought we would do something around 216 mph, but I was happy with the speed we were doing. It's my first (IndyCar career) pole - I was looking at the (Verizon P1) hat and it looks really nice! I'm really happy for all of my team after Indy and for everything, I have to thank everyone. It's a long race tomorrow and now we have to focus on that with practice tonight."

Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "Huge credit to the Target team. The car is fast and I'm excited. The amount of lanes you can use and the different configurations you can run here in Texas is really cool. I'm fairly happy with the qualifying run but we just missed by a little bit. The car was surprisingly good to drive. In these situations, you trim out a lot - you're on the edge and if you miss by a little bit it can be a bit of a handful. But the balance is really good. I thought the rear was sliding a little bit, which cost us a bit of speed. I moved the weight jacker a couple times and that was about it. It's nice to start at the front - I don't think it's a really big deal where you qualify as long as you're up towards the front. But it's always great to be near the pointy end of the field and congratulations to Andretti and (Carlos) Munoz for pulling off the pole."

Helio Castroneves (No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet): "We're very happy with the qualifying results. And not surprised at all. The AAA Insurance Chevrolet team is the best and have worked really hard on this car. The warmth is really a challenge. Racing at night is another challenge after a practice and qualifying in the heat of the day. We all know that tire degradation is critical and trying to manage that is pretty difficult. I like where we are starting and we hope to bring home a good result."

Takuma Sato (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): "We had a sketchy morning but the guys did a great job to put everything together and I felt pretty comfortable. Working with A.J., he gave a few little tips which worked extremely well on the 14 car, so we're very happy especially since this is our home track. The race will be a very different scenario because everything will cool down and we'll have more downforce and more grip available. The car is in the ballpark and we have the final practice tonight to fine-tune the race setup." 

Josef Newgarden (No. 21 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "We did a good first lap, for some reason the car just dropped off on Lap 2. The car was great, no dramas from my end. The car handled really well, we just lost some speed there on the second lap. We're starting within the Top 5 so we're pretty happy with that. We should have a good car tomorrow night; we've worked hard on the Fuzzy's special."

Simon Pagenaud (No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Team Penske Chevrolet): "The balance and the handling of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevy is good. I'm really happy with it. Qualifying is difficult here. We worked primarily on race trim earlier in practice and not a lot of qualifying stuff. Tire management is so important here, but it is fun to see who has the fast cars on new tires."

Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "Not quite what we expected for the Verizon Chevy. We'll need to reset up some things for tomorrow so we can get better in traffic. Just needed to run a bit more down force. Hard to predict what do with the car and what to do in traffic because it can be different every year here."

Tony Kanaan (No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet): "I wouldn't say I'm happy with where we ended up for qualifying today but I think it was a solid run considering how conservative we went with our setup. Even though we came out in first this morning, we had a pretty messy first practice session where we struggled to get a solid qualifying run in with all the traffic. We're in a decent starting spot for the race, so now we're turning all of our focus to tonight's practice. I think it's going to be a pretty fun session with everyone working on race trim and running in packs." 

Alexander Rossi (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda): "The car was so good - It's really a shame to give away good positions because you don't have a radio. We weren't able to communicate with the timing stand to adjust the settings on the Castrol Edge car, so missed out on where we feel we should be on the grid. But I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow and working on moving up through the field."

James Hinchcliffe (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I think the race is going to be similar to what we've seen here the last couple of years. Firestone put together a package that falls off to make it a little more challenging for us, make the show a little bit better, stay away from pack racing, keep it safe. The onus is really on us as drivers and teams to make the setup as easy on tires as we can be. We need to be patient and not just go flat out at the drop of the green or the start of a stint. I think it's going to be a thinking-man's race tomorrow night. Strategy comes down to playing it as it unfolds. You can make a plan A, B, C, D and they're all out the window by lap one, turn one. We just need to focus on taking care of the car and tires. Unfortunately, we never really get to run in the track temperatures that we're going to be racing at. Even tonight's session is a little early for us, but it's the same for everyone so we just have to be smart about it and hopefully the Arrow car is going to be up front."

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