IndyCar Series: Indy Japan 300

Topics:  Indy Japan 300

Ryan Briscoe
September 19, 2009

MOTEGI, JAPAN

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our post race briefing. We're joined by Ryan Briscoe, who is now third in the championship points with one race left. Ryan, if you would, talk about your day out there, in particular your incident.
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, it was pretty frustrating. With the accident leaving the pits, it was a huge opportunity for me to get the race lead. I just gassed it too much leaving my box, and the car spun. I hit the wall. We had to change the front upright. The team did a great job doing it in the time they did, but unfortunately that was our day done pretty much. Just sort of brought the car home without pushing too hard at the end.
The good thing is that it's only eight points to Scott. I feel real good going into Homestead. We've been strong on all the one and a halves this year. This track is unique. Ganassi had the upper hand on us this weekend. Homestead, Team Penske I'm confident is going to be the team to beat. Eight points is the difference between first and second. It looks like is it's going to be a pretty tough battle to see who can win the race.
THE MODERATOR: You're the only driver that's led in back-to-back races. Being in first place is not necessarily a position of strength.
RYAN BRISCOE: Yeah, no, neither of the other two guys have led two races in a row. Maybe the odds are against Scott at the moment. I'm going to put this behind me in just a minute and my focus will be on Homestead.

Q. How interesting is it to be a winner-take-all shootout?
RYAN BRISCOE: That's right. I think it's exciting for us. It's exciting for all the fans. Certainly it's going to be an awful lot of hype in the weeks leading towards Homestead. It's going to be a tough one. I think it's a flip of a coin really who is the favorite going there between myself, Scott or Dario. I think all of us are fully capable of winning at that track. We're just going to have to be on our game, make everything absolutely perfect, be strong.
I can tell you, I'm going to be as motivated as I've ever been after this race. Hopefully I'm going to be the favorite to do well there.

Q. How was your car up until the accident? Was it getting better, worse? Could you get the two Ganassi cars?
RYAN BRISCOE: It was tough. They were 1 or 2/10ths quicker than me. Felt like the track was getting a bit more grip and my car was getting better. I'm not sure if that's the same for them as well. I don't know what lap times they were doing at the end of the race.
I thought as I was getting more competitive, I was really struggling in the beginning. I really had to change my setup in the cockpit, move my crossweight to the right corner, change my bars to try to get a balance that was more comfortable. I was really working hard in the cockpit to try to make the car better and I felt like I was making progress.
I was looking forward to the second half of the race.

Q. Would you describe how you felt at your crash.
RYAN BRISCOE: I was aware the caution lights were on, I didn't know who it was. How did I feel? I was pretty upset with myself. You know, I was just apologizing to the whole team really. Really just disappointed. I was fairly confident that the car was broken, you know, we were going to have to lose laps fixing it.
THE MODERATOR: Ryan, we appreciate your time. We'll see you in Miami.
RYAN BRISCOE: Thank you.