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VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES: INDIANAPOLIS 500 QUALIFYINGMay 17, 2015Scott DixonINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Well, the pole sitter for the second time in his career, and he's been strong all weekend, is Scott Dixon. But I've done this for a long time, and I don't care what people say, it's the beginning of the week, middle of the week, we start seeing the similar faces and we get a sense pretty early on who's going to be a strong contender for the pole, and you've been that guy. Obviously you put together a big lap compared to what we had seen. You have to be thrilled with that because you knew you put a pretty big number down I would think. SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I was definitely a little shocked with the first number when I saw it. I thought the steering wheel was broken but broken in a good way. Yeah, it's a tough week, no matter which way you look at it, the curveballs that you get with the weather, but you understand that's part of the month of May. It's very tough, the conditions are tough, and especially when you're trimming out. Huge credit to Chevrolet. They've done an amazing job with these body kits. The low downforce, high boost, our car was extremely fast this morning in that configuration and then having to switch to the other configuration brings uncertainty because you only get‑‑ we had a 30‑minute session to try and work out what the competition had and what we needed to improve on, which makes it very tough. You know, for me the effort for qualifying and how it was for pole, you know, Team Target just did an amazing job. The whole Chip Ganassi organization did a phenomenal job, I think, to obviously set their sights on a different way to try and go for the pole that they had to for later this afternoon. Yeah, excited we're on the pole for the 99th running of the Indy 500. We've got a lot of work to do and a lot of laps before we can try and have a crack at the race win. Q. Going back to the Chevy, things like that, were you at all concerned, obviously this was done for y'all's safety, the switch this morning and stuff, were you concerned for your safety driving your car? SCOTT DIXON: Um, you know, safety is obviously a big part of the sport, and it's a big part of motor racing in general. I think if you look at oval racing as some of the most dangerous, you know, looking at data, the other week we were going into Turn 3 on Friday over 240 miles an hour. The speeds are definitely up, and I think when you have manufacturers spending money on trying to make the cars go faster with horsepower and aero kits, that's going to create these bigger speeds. You know, it's always in the back of your mind, but we've actually had such a smooth week. The car has been very good. It didn't start great but we worked on it, and even this morning when we were in high boost/low drag configuration, the car felt great. I think with the crashes we've seen, they've all been in very different scenarios, very different situations. Two were in low boost, one was a flat tire, one was very close in traffic. You know, we don't want to see cars getting in the air, and there's only a few tools that you have in the toolbox to use, and IndyCar, whether it's the right or wrong situation, for safety, it's kind of all they had. I think we saw today obviously the speeds came down. With the speeds down obviously I think the safety is going to get better anyway. Q. Two questions: One is right before qualifying, your engineer, your team manager, your managing director, they were all mad about the decision to switch because they felt that this morning you had found the setup that was going to win the pole, so to come back and give it to them with this setup, do you feel redeemed in any way? SCOTT DIXON:  You know, there's two races, right? You want to hedge all your bets for the race. The race for the pole is definitely prestigious. It's something for drivers you're very excited about, but it's not winning the Indianapolis 500. I think when the decisions were made, yes, everybody piped up and chipped in with their own points, but in reality, there's nothing you could do about it, so there was no reason to sort of moan about it. We just got on and put our heads down and tried to find the best configuration to go out there and have a decent run. We started way off in our first 30‑minute practice. I think I even did the first three laps at speed. So the team worked very hard, and Chris and the whole engineering team did a phenomenal job. But you know, the hard part in this situation is that you've got two very different‑‑ you've got Chevy and Honda with two very different cars, and maintaining a set of rules for everyone is tough to do. It's always a job I'd never want, that part. I'm good with that. Q. Also your series championships, we all know about how they're separated by five years, five years, five years. Last time you won the pole, you won this race. So talk a little bit about how important that is. SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, you know, if we could replicate 2008, that would be fantastic. That's the goal. It's very hard to pull that off. You know, unfortunately there's 32 other very good competitors out there and a lot of stacked teams, a lot of teams that this week we've been running with in traffic and they're very, very good. I think the tow and the draft this year is bigger than any other year, so it's not going to be one of those years. When I won in 2008 you could break the tow after three seconds and drive away if you had good speed, and that's not going to be the case this time. It's going to be flat‑out. We need to try and stay near the front and give ourselves a good shot come the last 10 laps. Q. Given the wash‑out yesterday and the changes this morning and the no Fast Nine and now you've had to wait for all these cars to take their laps, how does that stack up this year, waiting it out as opposed to maybe the pressure of the Fast Nine? SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think the pressure came before you even ran just because with weather conditions changing and you know that it can change the speed a fair amount, we thought originally early it was going to be very good, especially when we were in low downforce configuration just because it was going to be cooler especially on that day we were going to start at 11:00 and it would have helped. But I think when you know that you've got one run and you're done, that's when the pressure is on. You need to nail it. It's the scenario of going out of the pits and turning into full power at the right time, to cool the engine enough, to shifting the gears at the right time to start your lap. It's extremely close out there with the competition. For all of that to come down to one run, you need to get perfect. Yeah, the pressure was really tough there, and after you've done it, there's a sense of relief. But then obviously we were on the pole at that point with only three other cars that had run. You've got to wait another two hours to see how that stacks up, and it was definitely very daunting. I didn't watch hardly any of qualifying. I was actually back watching another race on TV and the team truck. Q. When the decision was made to run the different configuration with the same boost level like at the race, was the setup of your teammates' cars identical or very similar to your setup? SCOTT DIXON: I'm not sure right now, but I think after we ran in the morning, there was a few different iterations and comfort levels for all the guys. It's hard to change wholesale for something that you've been working on for a while. You know, I think basic setups were fairly close, but obviously springs and dampers and stuff that‑‑ our personal feelings were definitely of some difference. Q. I wanted to ask you, with all the hectic melee kind of that took place this morning, how did that overall affect your approach to how you qualified, and did you have any help from your teammates in terms of setups or how to drive with all the new changes? SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think with‑‑ obviously with five cars here and how the practices ran this morning, I think it was only me and TK in the first group and the other three in practice, too, but everybody was trying something slightly different, and I'm sure there were points where our engineers will be looking at all the data, so yes, the combined effort definitely helped. On what parts I'm not certain, but it's just trying to cover everything. It's just trying to get the gear perfect. It's trying to make sure the engine is going to be turned up to the full and right amount when you need it, and what gears, where to select the gear, what the wind is doing. It's just an endless count of things that you kind of run through with the engineers in preparation for the run. But you know, it's no different to other times you run for the pole here. It just was a little more complicated today. Q. Your kids are now old enough to kind of know what you're doing out there. Have you been able to experience‑‑ they've been able to experience some big moments in your career. How cool is that? SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. With Poppy obviously being five, almost six, five and three quarters, she is obviously‑‑ she loves it. She loves the motor racing. I think she actually likes Dario even more than me. Good thing Dario is not racing right now. But it's cool. You know, it's cool to have them at the track. Obviously Emma, too. She's been a massive support, and is always there for me, and she got to wave the green flag for the qualifying today. I told her when I got out that I actually waved and did she see me, and she's like, oh, did you really? I'm like, no, I didn't wave to you. (Laughter.) It's fantastic to have the family here, and Tilly is obviously on a steep learning curve around the racetrack, but they love coming down here. It's just fantastic when you live in Indianapolis and see the months change. When I dropped Poppy to school during the days this week, the checkered flag is at school and her telling all her friends that hopefully I'll be in the race and things like that, it's great to see. It's always very, very nice to have your family around you. THE MODERATOR: Scott, congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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