IndyCar Series: ABC Supply Company A.J. Foyt 225

Topics:  ABC Supply Company A.J. Foyt 225

Ryan Briscoe
May 31, 2009

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

THE MODERATOR: We have Ryan Briscoe, his third top five of the season. Won earlier in St. Pete in April. Now second in points, four points behind Scott Dixon.
Ryan, a second-place finish. Take us through your day.
RYAN BRISCOE: It was a great day until about, whatever it was, 40 laps to go, and Scott got me. You know, it was hard work out there. Traffic was a huge factor. Very difficult at times. I was struggling with quite a bit of mid-corner understeer, which I think is ultimately what caught me up with the traffic. I was down the inside of Scheckter. Scott was able to line us up, get a real good run through the bend and get a run on me. Once he got the lead, he was fast. I couldn't really keep up. He was a little bit quicker. That was it. It was all about trying to hold up Dario.
Apart from that, it was a great day. We had great pit stops. Very consistent car. You know, all in all, it's been a great weekend.
THE MODERATOR: Did you see him getting a run on you coming off of turn two?
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, I mean, I saw him when we came off the corner. I was hoping, being two-wide through one and two, that that could have been enough to slow him up. But I think he's a smart guy and he would have backed off early and just got a good run.
Same way I got Dario earlier on when he was leading. I just got to time the traffic. He got the better of us there.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. It did seem that traffic was tough, lapped cars hard to pass. Were these guys more difficult to get around, and if so, why?
RYAN BRISCOE: Well, my teammate in particular (laughter). You know, obviously Helio is very good. I was being very patient because I didn't want to put him a lap down. We were able to keep him on the lead lap there when that first caution came out, so that was good.
The second time, it's hard, 'cause you get in traffic, you start following guys that are a bit slower, and you lose the front. It starts stressing the tires more. Everyone else can start catching up. It was tough. So all day long, anytime you'd be catching the traffic, our pace would drop off about half a second to a second, and you start stressing the equipment quite a bit more, as well.
It was hard. But it's no surprise. I mean, we come here knowing that's gonna be a factor, and you need to just deal with it.

Q. Was the move-over flag used properly today? Graham Rahal and several others were complaining. They didn't think Barnhart was doing a good enough job.
RYAN BRISCOE: I thought they could have been a bit more aggressive actually. After you're following a car for 10 or 15 laps, just a standing blue flag isn't enough. They need to be waving it, maybe a bit of radio communication to the teams. You've had your chance, but let's let the leaders get on with the race here.

Q. You lead the most laps after sitting on the pole. Is there one portion of it that's a little bit disappointing?
RYAN BRISCOE: Oh, absolutely. Certainly I wanted to win today. Certainly had the opportunity and the chance. But Scott got the better of us.
But, you know, we got a point for the pole. We got a couple of points for leading the most laps, 40 for second place. It was a good points day. We're four points out of the lead. That's the important thing. If you can't win 'em, you got to take what you can get. I thought we really did a good job this weekend.

Q. You mentioned once Scott got around you, he was going to be awful hard to catch. Were you as fast as him when you were leading? Were you holding him up?
RYAN BRISCOE: It looked like I was kind of flip-flopped from last year. I was a little bit quicker on the new rubber. Last year I was slower on new rubber. Then I was able to get them on the older rubber. It was a bit flip-flopped today where I was able to pull away a little bit right at the beginning of the restarts. He would sort of pull me in a little bit, especially when I started getting some dirty air. I really just struggled with the front tires a little bit, you know, with the understeer, couldn't carry as much momentum through the turns.
That's really where I was hurting a bit today, what we need to work on for next year.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us.