IZOD IndyCar Series: Iowa Corn Indy 250

Topics:  Iowa Corn Indy 250

Will Power
June 22, 2013

NEWTON, IOWA

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations Will Power, you qualified second tomorrow for Iowa's Corn 250. This is Will's second front row start here at Iowa and he also gets eight bonus points in the championship for finishing second in the heat races. Talk about today's qualifying.
WILL POWER: Yeah, car was definitely better than what we had in practice. Really came on there during the race. Yeah, happy, happy with second. Had a moment; I crossed the line there on the bottom of the track and won two and had a big moment and then I just decide to settle for second.
But yeah, the car was very solid. Obviously everyone's going to go back and work on theirs tonight, but you know, hopefully we have a good car tomorrow and another good result, because we need to keep chipping away on the points.

Q. Talk about this year, it seems like you're really making progress on the ovals here, especially some great starts and great finishes here these last couple oval races?
WILL POWER: Yeah, the oval's been my best results this year, and you know, I haven't been slow on the oval. I've just had rotten luck, you could say, or just there's always a reason for some sort of mistake but the last few years that's been the case.
Yeah, definitely having fun on ovals this year and enjoying them and hoping I can bring a good result for the team tomorrow.

Q. Did those laps help you know more about what the car can do for tomorrow even though the conditions may be different?
WILL POWER: Yeah, they did, definitely. Definitely gives you a bit of a heads up of what your problems are or where your car is strong and where you can run in traffic and so on.
I don't think the conditions will be much different tomorrow. I just‑‑ I hope it doesn't cool down any, because the cars are just stuck. They are just stuck. So if you ever had a moment or ran into the wall, it's just going to be so hard. I think the downforce is too much‑‑ although, it's helping me. I'm enjoying it (laughing).

Q. Obviously a lot has been made, this is six trips for Team Penske to Iowa and you've always had some of the strongest cars and the team has never been able to break through, and you're one, two, this week; I have to figure this is as good a time as any for Team Penske to get that first win?
WILL POWER: Yeah, you can never tell in these races, there's so many competitive people. Hopefully, yeah, I really need to gain some points on those guys, Helio, Hunter‑Reay, everyone in front of me. There's a lot of people in front. But at some point the championship is going to become out of reach.
But, I'm not racing with a head like that. I'm just racing to be smart and get a solid result each weekend.

Q. You normally are at the pit out end of pit lane as far as placement, and I'm wondering, in this case Helio is a lot farther back because he didn't have very good qualifying in Milwaukee; do you like the way IndyCar has set up the policy that you bring your pit location from the previous qualifying and how does that effect you?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it's a method. You know, it puts‑‑ yeah, it's good for me. I've had solid qualifying results. I'm always up the front. Yeah, I've had my fair share of pit lane incidents in the past and it's usually due to the fact that you're back there and around people that you're not used to being around, so, yeah.

Q. Just some quick thoughts, we saw you watching your IndyCar teammate, AJ Allmendinger, celebrating his Nationwide victory, any thoughts there?
WILL POWER: Yeah, real happy for him. I know how seriously he takes racing and how down he gets when he doesn't do well. You know, he puts everything into it.
So really happy for him, and it's actually his first NASCAR win, so everything that he's gone through, I think that's just brilliant to see him win a race.
It's great for Roger, too. He'll be enjoying his vacation with a win in the heat race and a NASCAR win. Hopefully they can do it at Sonoma tomorrow, too, and we can do it here.
THE MODERATOR: Great start to the weekend for Team Penske, congratulations and best of luck tomorrow.