IZOD IndyCar Series: Honda Indy Edmonton

Topics:  Honda Indy Edmonton

Scott Dixon
Dario Franchitti
Will Power
July 25, 2010

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our second- and third-place finishers. This is both their sixth podium finish of the season. A very interesting race out there today.
Will, starting with you, your thoughts.
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, we had a pretty good car. A lot of traffic out there. It was a very green race for the first half. That's why Helio got past me. Tomas was coming into the pits. Wasn't his fault. I just backed off; wasn't sure what he was going to do.
And then obviously we had that late restart and Helio had the inside line. I tried to go around the outside, sort of got pushed wide, and Scott got through.
You know, it was a good day. It was a tough battle. Still a good finish for us points-wise.
THE MODERATOR: Dario, a really exciting day for Ganassi Racing and for you. Another podium finish as you work on championship points. Your thoughts?
DARIO FRANCHITTI: Yeah, it was a good day for Chip with Jamie winning at the Brickyard and us having a 1-3 here. It was one of those races. As Will said, it was pretty green at the start, no yellows. Just pushing like crazy to keep up. After the first stop, we kind of got in some traffic, trying to make some time on Scott. Went off in turn nine and lost a fair amount of time there. Then there was that section of the race where it seemed like there was yellow after yellow. Broke up the rhythm.
I guess ultimately it all came down to that last restart with Helio blocking and Scott getting a run on both Will and Helio, getting past Will. I tried to follow him through. We ran side-by-side through the first part of the chicane in turn two, gave each other room. I got to the exit and I was on the marbles. That was it really. Had to back out of it. Ultimately finished third.
Yeah, pretty good day for Team Target. Scott did a helluva job. We absolutely gave it everything. Just came up a wee bit short on the 10 car. Dixie did a pretty amazing job.
THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by our race winner. This is his second victory of the season, his first on a road and street course. This is Scott's 23rd IZOD IndyCar Series career victory. This win gives Chip Ganassi teams 126 victories.
Scott, exciting race. Talk about it out there.
SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, it was definitely exciting throughout the race, especially the first stint on red tires. We got into a bit of traffic. Got offline. It was really hard to get the tires back. It was very loose and struggled with the rear-end of the car. Over the course of the race, it definitely affects that. The car was very good on blacks. We seemed to be able to catch quite quickly, but then got some traffic for quite some time. Meira... Everybody got held up by somebody else. Made it a little tougher.
All in all, not what I expected to happen at the end. In some ways, I knew those two, Will and Helio, were fighting pretty hard. You could see that the first time Helio passed Will. But to go that far to the right I think in turn one, I just continued on with the regular line where it's nice and clean and figured or hoped that they picked up a lot of debris and were going to make it tough through two and one. That's kind of what happened.
But pretty strange to not lead a lap and actually win the race.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTT DIXON: You know, until it got to that situation, you didn't really know what was going to happen. It kind of depended on how much of a run Will got on Helio. Then Helio started to defend. Once I started coming to the brake zone, that's kind of where I went to the left. They were still going on the right in the marbles and things like that.
We get told every meeting, in the drivers meeting, that you can't protect your line. I guess you got to give credit to Brian for actually standing up and doing something about it because it's definitely going to make everybody understand and probably not do that again.
THE MODERATOR: A black flag penalty cannot be protested or appealed.

Q. When did you know you were the leader?
SCOTT DIXON: The team came on I think probably halfway through the first lap of the restart and said that Helio was getting a stop-and-go. Then when I continued on, saw he wasn't actually going to come into the pits, I figured something was going to happen after. Pretty much within half a lap of the restart, I knew Helio was going to have a penalty of some sort.

Q. Will, did you talk to Helio after the race?
WILL POWER: No, I haven't seen him.

Q. Does what Helio did violate some unwritten code as a teammate?
WILL POWER: Had the inside line. I tried to go to the outside. I got in the marbles. Scott went past. That's basically what happened.

Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: He had the inside line.

Q. (No microphone.)
DARIO FRANCHITTI: I put 50 bucks on Charles.

Q. Do you give the guy credit going after a guy two and a half times his size?
DARIO FRANCHITTI: That would be like going after A.J. You're never going to win.
SCOTT DIXON: I didn't see it. It's not the first person I'd look for.

Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: I'd say it's pretty tough. Pretty tough penalty there at the end, I would say. I mean, in the past the worst penalty has been having to give up the position.

Q. (No microphone.)
DARIO FRANCHITTI: There's precedence for black flags. Dixie has been black flagged at Indy before. Graham Rahal was black flagged at Indy this year. A bunch of people have been black flagged for it.
SCOTT DIXON: I was black flagged twice for the same thing. It can be a little grayer on road courses. What they stipulate in the drivers briefing is if you're on the other half side of the track from where you would normally start the corner, then you're subject to penalty.
Obviously Will had a pretty good run. The only way from stopping him was blocking. So if that's what you call it, yeah, that's blocking.

Q. Does it devalue the win?
SCOTT DIXON: It's not a way you want to win, for sure. When I win, I want to win being faster or putting in a good pass on someone. The way our season is going, I'll be taking anything at the moment.
DARIO FRANCHITTI: Dude, I thought your pass on Will was pretty good from where I was sitting.
SCOTT DIXON: I was trying to go for Helio, but not quite.

Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: On the restart? I mean, you want to get position on restarts basically. You know, I got a good restart at Watkins Glen, I won. I got a good restart at Toronto, I won. Got a good restart here today, but didn't quite work out. Plus I had Scott on me, and he was going to be very aggressive.
So, you know, you try to get the best possible restart.

Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: Yeah, at the end of the day I was always going to do a clean move on Helio. I wasn't going to take a risk of taking us both out. I wouldn't do that to a teammate, yeah. Basically that's it. I race my teammates clean.

Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: Yes, of course. Of course.

Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTT DIXON: No, that's what I was going to say. It's the first race I've won without leading a lap. I guess it will go down in my own little record book.

Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTT DIXON: Rules are rules, man. You win races and lose races or lose positions by the same thing. I've been subject to calls like that where you don't think they're fair.
But, you know, obviously it happens, and sometimes people take it to the edge. Brian or whoever was up there has to make a call. You've got to be stern. You've got to know that those calls are out there so you don't keep doing it.

Q. (No microphone.)
DARIO FRANCHITTI: I was trying to get a jump on these guys. I knew Scott was going to be aggressive. I was going to see how close I could get to Scott, see if I could make a clean move. If Scott made a move on Will, I was going to try to do what I did try to do, which was to get past them. Scott created the hole. I tried to go through two. I'm talking a foot or two. We came up a foot short of making that move happen. That was my mindset there. To start closing the gap in the championship, we've got to start finishing ahead of Will.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We'll see you at Mid-Ohio.