IZOD IndyCar Series: Honda Indy Edmonton

Topics:  Honda Indy Edmonton

Ryan Briscoe
E.J. Viso
July 24, 2010

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by two of our Firestone Fast Six qualifiers from today's qualifying session, E.J. Viso and Ryan Briscoe. Just a couple notes coming out of today's qualifying session. This is Will Power's sixth pole of the season. His fast lap was a new IZOD IndyCar Series record here at Edmonton. Helio Castroneves, who qualified second, has started no worse than third in his appearances here at this track. This is Scott Dixon's 43rd consecutive top 10 start, further extending a series record. Dario Franchitti is making his seventh consecutive top-five start of the season. Ryan Briscoe is making his sixth top-five start of the season. This is E.J. Viso's first appearance in the Firestone Fast Six.
E.J., talk about qualifying out there today.
E.J. VISO: Definitely a very tough place, extremely bumpy. Not the kind of bumpiness as Toronto here. It feels like the bumps are in high frequency. You get into some braking points, the thing just gets in your helmet. This is definitely a tough place to set up the car.
Really we did a good job, KV Racing, they've been working so hard. Just proud of them. Just a little off this morning. We couldn't use a second set of tires as everybody else did, but we knew we had the potential to make it up, and that's what we did in the qualifying.
THE MODERATOR: Ryan, another top-five start here. Tell us your thoughts about today.
RYAN BRISCOE: Really exciting as usual. This track, it's exciting. I mean, to put it in one word, it's really fast and bumpy, but you can really attack the bumps and push the car hard.
It's a lot of fun out there. My car wasn't really to my liking. We made probably too many changes going into qualifying just trying to find an extra couple of 10ths. Sort of went backwards a bit.
It was a little disappointing for me. I thought we would have a shot at pole today, but we didn't have the speed. It was good to get in the Fast Six. Tough to get through Q1. It was just really good. I mean, no yellow flags at all, so the whole field was very consistent on such a challenging track.
But, yeah, I mean, fifth is good. Started on the front row the last two years and it didn't work out for me, so maybe starting fifth will help.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. What do you think of Simona's run?
RYAN BRISCOE: I think she did great. I wasn't watching. I saw she was quickest in Q1. I know Dixon didn't run tires that session. She's doing a good job.
E.J. VISO: She just kept red tires for that session. They pushed hard. She's very fast. They've been doing a good job.
I've been in that team and I know they're working every time hard. Need to give a lot of the credit to the team and Simona being new in the series. They're doing a good job.

Q. (No microphone.)
RYAN BRISCOE: Honestly, I haven't looked at the grid. I have no idea what it looks like outside the top six. We've got the championship contenders all right there at the front, bar Hunter-Reay, I think, and Kanaan.
Yeah, it's going to be a really hard-fought battle tomorrow for sure. Another epic one between Penske and Ganassi. You know, I think Will and Helio will be strong off the front. My goal is going to try to get by the Ganassi guys and go from there.

Q. Was there a little bit of drama in the Fast Six, all the lightning coming at you?
RYAN BRISCOE: It was a bit distracting coming down to turn 13. You'd all of a sudden see a massive bolt. You would go, Holy crap. Keeping focused on the track, it was difficult.
E.J. VISO: It was pretty fun. We really rush to put some good lap times together at the very beginning of the session because there's always a chance that the rain was coming. Obviously we didn't have a new set of tires, a new set of stickers as the other guys did, except Ryan. Is tough just to be in not equal conditions with them. We just used our set of tires in the previous run.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let you two go.