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INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 26, 2016Marco AndrettiTHE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined now by Marco Andretti. Marco, seventh fastest in the first session. What are your initial impressions of the Phoenix track? You were testing in November, I believe, earlier. MARCO ANDRETTI: Yeah, I love this place. I always have. I even drove the old configuration back when I started, which makes me feel pretty old. That was like 2005. Yeah, I mean, a lot of fun so far. Really it's a place that makes you work. In the middle of turn one in particular it gets pretty heavy. Not a terrible start. But they're putting up some pretty big times. We're just trying to hang in there until we get the car to our liking. THE MODERATOR: I know the easy answer to this question is 'to win'. But going into the 2016 season, what are your goals and aspirations? MARCO ANDRETTI: To win (laughter). Honestly, for me, that is definitely what is missing in my camp. That is my answer actually. Our consistency is not terrible. We finished every race except Pocono last year. But we really need to win, we really do. I still don't know what to expect in the speedway format yet. Hopefully we close the gaps elsewhere. It's still a little bit early in this test to even tell you that because we don't have the car exactly balanced yet. When it's balanced and pretty much wrung out, I'll tell you what I think. But right now there's probably a little bit more to come, probably from everybody. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marco. Q. Are you concerned it's going to be a one-groove track or is it too early to say yet? MARCO ANDRETTI: It's definitely too early to say that because I guess I have to run in the nighttime to see what happens with the track temps to give you a better answer on that. I think there's a little room in one and two to get some clean air up high. It would be a little risky to do that in three and four. You could catch the right front in the marbles. The problem is the exit of one. You could run sort of maybe two wide entry to mid. But it tightens up pretty quick at the exit. The guy on the bottom is going to come up. He can't hold the guys on the bottom. But I don't know, having said that, halfway through the stint, the tires will go out, there will be some degradation, dirty air. It's a little bit early to give you a full scoop on that. Q. As far as the tire deg is concerned, are you feeling that yet or will that only be once your car is moving around in traffic? MARCO ANDRETTI: We're actually not right now. I think the track has gotten better as the rubber went down. The track temps stabilized, then it got better. That's why you saw the lap times went down there. We thought the quick track time would be in the morning. We got a lot of rubber down and seem to still be improving. So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm not sure yet. Q. Marco, you're going to have a new teammate this year. He doesn't seem to be out there testing. I assume he doesn't have much oval experience, as well. Maybe not a fair question to ask you, but do you know why he isn't here testing this week? MARCO ANDRETTI: No, I don't. If it was up to me, and I was new, I would want to get out there as soon as possible. I guess it is pretty daunting to jump into an open test. I'm not sure the real reason actually. Oh, the car's not ready? There's your reason. THE MODERATOR: Marco, thank you very much. MARCO ANDRETTI: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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