IndyCar Series: Honda Indy Toronto

Topics:  Honda Indy Toronto

Ryan Briscoe
Will Power
July 12, 2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our post race media briefings. We're joined by Ryan Briscoe, who finished second today. This is Ryan's fifth time in his last six races that he's finished second. Just as a side note, his teammate, Helio Castroneves, finished second eight times last year. Don't know if Ryan is trying to chase that record or not.
Then we're joined by Will Power, his second podium finish of the year. Will has finished in the top six in all four of his starts this season.
Ryan, we'll start with you. Talk about your day out there.
RYAN BRISCOE: It was exciting. I thought the track really provided a lot of really good racing today. Also the large pit windows for fuel didn't require us really to save a lot today. So I thought the racing was good.
You know, it was unfortunate on the first lap somebody cut my rear tire down into turn three. I guess probably not entirely unexpected just with where I was starting and the nature of the track and everything. But we had to pit on the first lap, change tires. That really set us back. Probably close to a lap down.
We caught a caution during that stint. That packed us back up. We were at the back of the field. But we just went off strategy a bit. We had some good pit stops today. We made some pretty big changes to the setup coming into the race today, guessing a little bit with it. I think it was all positive and the car felt the best it's been all weekend.
When I was out there on my own, I was able to put in some fast lap times, make up ground on the alternate strategy. I think that's where we made up the track position and found ourselves racing at the front at the end of the race.
It was good. It was one of the few street courses I've ever been at where you could actually pass cars and really go racing. So it was a lot of fun.
THE MODERATOR: And, Will, for you, how about your day?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, it was similar to Ryan actually. I cut my tire right at the start. Graham Rahal's front wing got into it. Went to the back. Almost a lap down. From that point, we ran real hard. Had a lot of fun. That's what I call a race.
Actually, I didn't realize that I hadn't done two laps on my red tires, so we had to put reds on at the end. That was good. They held up well.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. A lot was made going into this race about these type of cars on this track. Don't you think the package kind of allowed for the ability for you to pass anywhere on the course?
RYAN BRISCOE: It looked good. Maybe Will is a better one to answer. Go ahead, Will.
WILL POWER: Yeah, it made for great racing. The track, having a really long straight going into a tight hairpin-style corner with heaps of room to pass is what tracks need. Just makes for great racing. If you're fast, you can get through the field, you don't have to sit behind and save fuel. That's what the fans want to see.
Yeah, all those tracks out there, start extending.

Q. A question about local yellow, full caution yellow, that really helped Dario in the race. It might have helped you also, because, Ryan, you indicated you had to pit early. You actually pitted three times.
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, I don't know. But I know Dario did get a bit lucky on that caution. Similar to what happened to me in Watkins Glen, but they didn't let me pit.

Q. Will, can you take us through the last restart. Looked like the guys ahead of you, Dario and Ryan, got a pretty good jump on you on the last restart.
WILL POWER: Yeah, they did. Caught me off guard and took off (laughter).

Q. Ryan, can you talk about you and Justin had a pretty close moment there in turn one close to the end. Talk me through that.
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, I was a bit annoyed because we were running so well. Yeah, I don't know what happened. I think he was maybe a little bit quicker in turn one and just carried too much speed. You know, we were on sort of cold tires. I felt him sort of whack my rear tire. I was just thinking about what happened on the first lap when that happened, and it cut my tire. I was just scared to death that my tire was gonna go down.
When I saw Will slot in in front of him and pass him, I thought, That will be the safest for me going to the finish. Yeah, luckily it didn't cause any damage and we were able to continue on, you know, no problem.

Q. Ryan, you've been pretty calm about finishing second all these times. To win the championship, you're going to have to win or your rival has to have bad luck. What do you think about all these second places? When do you start to worry about it?
RYAN BRISCOE: I'm trying to win, don't worry. I'm just getting these second places. I think in the last two races I've gained 13 points in the championship to the lead. So, you know, it's not going all bad by far. Obviously, I'd like to go out and win races. I'm doing my best. Hopefully we'll get some.

Q. (Question about the last lap.)
WILL POWER: Yeah, you know, I didn't want to attack Ryan. He's my teammate. You know, yeah, I was happy with third. I just wanted to stay there, considering the day we had.
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, no, I certainly was gonna expect Will in the closing stages of the race not to make any bonsai moves on me, which could come from guys that aren't my teammates. You know, I thought Dario was a little bit better right off the bat on cold tires. It looked like, you know, I had at least as much speed as him once the tires came up to temperature, so I was just working hard on trying to keep the pressure on Dario.
I could see Will was back there, had his hands pretty full. I think Dixon had some good reds on, had come through the field, was pretty fast. But, you know, we were definitely -- if I couldn't pass Dario, certainly just trying to bring it home and get the points.

Q. A couple of words of back-to-back races in Canada, looking to the race in Edmonton.
RYAN BRISCOE: Very excited to be here. I think there's a lot of enthusiasm when we come here to Canada. Fans are great. Edmonton is another challenging track. But seems like the fans really get into it up there. Last year the three-day weekend, you know, even the Friday, you just couldn't move in the paddock. It's really great to see.
I think Canada has a lot of open-wheel knowledge and there's a big fan base for open-wheel racing in general, which is really nice to see when we come here.
So, yeah, it's good. We'll take this weekend off and then be ready to go get 'em in Edmonton.
WILL POWER: Yeah, same. I love coming here. It's great racing, great fans. You know, I've won here before. I've been on pole in Edmonton. Really looking forward to that. It's awesome to come back after having not driven since May and start here. Yeah, I hope we continually come here. It's good fun.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, looks like that is it. Appreciate your time. Enjoy your off weekend.