Firestone Indy Lights: Grand Prix of Alabama

Topics:  Grand Prix of Alabama

Peter Dempsey
Victor Garcia
Stefan Wilson
April 10, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

THE MODERATOR: I have to ask, second place finish, great run up there. Especially coming off St. Pete where you were 16th, it's tough. But talk about chasing them down the last two laps?
STEFAN WILSON: Yeah, we had a bad finish in St. Pete. We qualified fourth, and we just got taken out in that first lap. So it was unfortunate we didn't reach our potential.
We knew we were strong coming in here. In qualifying I just didn't get quite the lap I needed. It's pretty great that I just missed it by .300ths of a second, which is a blink of an eye, really. It's not much.
I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't realize quite how hard. I pushed them as hard as I could, and it wasn't enough. It was so hard for us. I brought pressure to him, but he did a really good job. Credit to him. He didn't make any mistakes, and he made it really tough for me to pass.
THE MODERATOR: It looked like you were going to lose a wing out there.
STEFAN WILSON: It really did. At one point, I thought I was.
THE MODERATOR: Peter, congratulations on your finish today. This moves you up to second in the championship point standings, which is great. So talk about today's race and conditions out there?
PETER DEMPSEY: It was really close. I had a run pretty well the last few days. So it was very hot though and I just ran this race safely and tried to keep my nose clean and bring the car home for my sponsors and (Inaudible).
So we just kept pushing and kept the motor as clean as possible (inaudible). And thank God we did because we are here on the podium. And we are really happy to be back on the podium. (Inaudible) We hope we get to next week and get a podium also.
THE MODERATOR: Talk about your strategy you had when you guys went in to today. Because you were starting pretty far back there so to accomplish the podium today was quite a feat.
PETER DEMPSEY: Yeah, as I said, it wasn't the car. But it was because I was feeling so bad. I just ran to keep it clean and to keep myself out of trouble. (Inaudible) We made the turn and almost ran into each other, so I just picked him off and made the podium.

Q. Stefan is this a physically demanding course?
STEFAN WILSON: Yeah, it is. It's 50 minutes on or an hour. Yeah, it was pretty physical. I knew it was going to be physical coming in. And especially seeing as I was pushing pretty much 110% the whole race, so, you know, just never really got a rest.
The last couple of laps you're just counting them down. But at the same time, I was hoping there would be another lap pushing him. But it was pretty physically demanding.
It's going to be a tough IndyCar race this afternoon when you have to do -- is it 90 laps that they have to do? Yeah, it's going to be tough to do that duration, especially when you have pit stops as well.
THE MODERATOR: Stefan, we'll let you get out of here. Congratulations on a great race.
We're joined now by our race winner, Victor Garcia of Team Moore Racing. Victor, congratulations on your win coming here in your second start in Firestone Indy Lights. Talk about today's race.
VICTOR GARCIA: Thanks very much. It's been a really, really good weekend. We started in practice not very good, but after in qualifying we made the pole, and today we have won.
It's been really, really great. I have to thank all my crew, all the people. I think it's not only that we are quick here. I think we have a good car, because in St. Pete we were quick too.
So really we have next week we have to take our mind on thinking all week of our next race.

Q. Peter, really quick, talk a little bit about the temperature levels of the track?
PETER DEMPSEY: The track temperature was pretty difficult. But (Inaudible) I had this heat in my car sometimes as fast as I. Can and I just wanted to be easy on them and they handled really well. So I was really happy. The track is a very long course. But the tires were fine.

Q. How much were you looking in your mirrors during the race?
VICTOR GARCIA: I was actually sometimes looking like three -- one time in three laps, so I was like pushing myself. I did not want to look behind because I knew that if I had my pace, he wouldn't go faster.
And I knew my car would run a little bit worse, and he was going faster. I said all right. Now with five laps to go, I have to start looking a little bit more and he's not going to overtake me. But we finished with a win, so it has been good.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you guys very much. Congratulations today on a great race, and we'll see you next weekend in Long Beach.