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VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES: HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA

April 20, 2018

Spencer Pigot

Birmingham, Alabama

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our Verizon IndyCar Series post-practice press conference. Pleased to be joined by Spencer Pigot, driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy's Vodka car for the team. Spencer finished second faster in today's session, certainly no stranger to Barber Motorsports Park here. Obviously some experience here on the track to say the least. Take us through your day and ultimately what got you to second place.

SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, it's great to be back here at Barber. It's one of my favorites tracks, and I really enjoy it. It's very fast, very flowing, and I've always -- most of the time I've had success here. Happy to be here, and yeah, the day was really good. We started off this morning with a little bit of balance issues but made some obviously really good changes from P1 to P2, and the car felt really good. On blacks I think we were right up there, and when we put the reds on, was just able to get a little bit more out of the car.

Sometimes putting reds on can cause some balance issues or differences, and this time we really nailed it and was just able to kind of push harder and get more grip out of the car. Very happy with the changes we made on the Fuzzy's Vodka car, and yeah, excited for the weekend, and hopefully we can keep it up there.

THE MODERATOR: We haven't talked to you a lot since the beginning of the season. We're three races in; how would you rate or describe the start to the season for you so far?

SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, it's not been ideal, not been what we had hoped for. We've definitely, I think had some potential to have good results at a few places so far, and just things haven't gone our way, or we've had issues that have really hampered our races. Hopefully this is the weekend where it can all turn around a little bit, and we can just have a nice, problem-free weekend and finish where we feel that we should.

Q. We saw like 10 or 12 spins today. What would you attribute that to?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, I was kind of surprised by that, as well. You don't often see that many spins or people going off, so I think the wind changed a little bit throughout the day. I think we had a tailwind going into Turn 5. In that last session you saw a lot of guys locking up, and also, it doesn't feel like we have a huge amount of grip from the track, especially in the braking zones, like Turn 5 it feels like we're just braking a little bit sooner than I would have expected. Just the track doesn't feel like it's really rubbered up yet.

Maybe that'll change a little bit over the weekend, but for now, to go fast, it's definitely on edge, and you're slipping and sliding around, so the margin for error is very small, and if you just push a little bit too hard, you can have a moment.

Q. Given the lower downforce this year, if it does rain or Sunday like they're expecting, is that going to be a problem?
SPENCER PIGOT: No, I don't think so. I think if you see spins, it won't be solely related to the lower downforce. I think it'll be a combination of different things. You know, in the rain, it's more about mechanical grip and feel from the car rather than downforce, I think, so I think it'll be an exciting race, an unpredictable race, and if it rains, I think some of us will be happy with that. Either way, I love the rain, so whatever it does, I'll be happy.

Q. How has your success here in the past helped your confidence now and over this weekend?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, like I said, it's been a good track for me. I love coming here. I love the high-speed corners and just the flow that you can get into around here. So I don't know if it suits my driving style or what, but it definitely gives me the confidence I know I can be fast here, and obviously IndyCar is a whole new ballgame, and to be fast here is something different than in Indy Lights and pro Mazda, but now we've shown that we can be quick in practice, and we just have to keep it up there.

Q. With all the different championships that are running this weekend, all the different tire compounds rubbering in, how does that play a variable?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, that's something that we encounter every single weekend because there's always different series, different types of tire on the track, no matter if it's a road course, street course. But I think it doesn't play as big of a role at a track like this on a road course. I think when you're at a street course, I think the rubber gets laid down a little bit quicker, and it just kind of builds on top of each other. It doesn't have as long to kind of set into the ground. I think on street courses it's a bigger issue, but here I don't think we'll have -- at least we haven't seen it so far to be an issue.

Q. Does this car with the less downforce, does the Indy Lights IL-15 match up a little bit better to the driving style and how it feels here?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, I think it does. You know, I wouldn't say that the two are now identical by any means, but it definitely, I think, brings it a little bit closer in terms of just the overall grip, power-to-grip ratio and downforce as the Lights car. So I think that's one thing that's nice to kind of be able to draw back on that experience, so yeah, it's definitely a little bit closer than it was last year, but still, there's a lot of differences and a lot of things that you have to do differently to get everything out of an IndyCar.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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