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IZOD INDYCAR SERIES: MAVTV 500October 18, 2013Helio CastronevesScott DixonWill PowerFONTANA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our post-qualifying press conference. We're joined by Will Power. Will, talk about today's qualifying run and getting the pole. WILL POWER: Drove out the pits today, car was pretty quick in qualifying trim. I thought we'd have a pretty good shot. The way the order worked out, Scott was after me. I was after Helio. It would have been nice for Helio to get the point, but Scott didn't, so it kind of still keeps it alive. THE MODERATOR: We're also joined by Scott Dixon. Scott, talk about qualifying and passing here. Easy to get to the front? SCOTT DIXON: Hope so. Yeah, it's a 500-mile race. For us it was more paramount to change the engine and make sure we took maybe the performance gain than sort of just have the straight-out speed and go off whatever qualifying we would have qualified. Can still get pretty messy back there. I guess we'll be 17th. THE MODERATOR: Tiebreaker is whoever went out first. SCOTT DIXON: It's rigged (laughter). Should be highest in points, c'mon. I think we're happy to start there. We'll be 17th. Three-wide should be pretty interesting around here. It's fun to come back to Fontana for the championship finale. Also with the Triple Crown, me and T.K. have an opportunity to win two of the three races. I don't mind if he wins actually because that will help me in the points. We'll see how that goes. Excited to be here this weekend. It's fun to be in this position and to fight for the championship. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. You hear so much about guys saying, Do whatever I can to help Helio or Scott in the championship. Will, what can you do to help Helio win the championship? WILL POWER: Obviously, if he's coming up behind me, definitely make it easy for him to get by. He needs to lead the most laps. Yeah, do whatever I can to help him out. I want to have a good race. If that means just sitting behind him all day, that's fine. It's about the team. THE MODERATOR: We're also joined by Helio Castroneves. Helio, talk about qualifying. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yes, good effort for the entire Team Penske. AAA boys, they did a helluva job putting everything together. Certainly in the morning we had a little issue with the right rear shock. The good news is we found it and it was awesome. The car was exactly how we left here, pretty fast. It was good. Unfortunately we didn't have a crystal ball to tell me buddy here to slow down. Those guys were behind him, so I'm glad he went for it. That's what the car was able to do. We showed that we did our homework. I'm proud of those boys. Q. We saw a NASCAR manipulation of the finish being a big issue. Will, if you're leading, at the end of the last lap, the 10 points matters to Helio, can you give him the win? WILL POWER: Really, I can take a very high line, let's just say that. Well, no, c'mon. If you just sit there and say, I'm going to race my teammate really hard for the win, what are we talking about? Everyone knows what the deal's going to be. That's what it's going to be. Every single team in this pit lane in this situation would do the same thing. Not just back off over the line. It is what it is. Not going to let him go, but not going to race him hard. Q. Would you give up a position and would you guys accept a position if that meant the championship on the last lap? HELIO CASTRONEVES: We're going to race as hard as we can without taking each other out. We'll see what happens. If we got in that position, that's a great problem to have. Hopefully it will be like that, then we'll talk about it later. Q. On the flipside of that, if you two end up tied, he gets the tiebreaker for most wins, it comes down to the point for the pole. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Nobody knew, including us. Like I said, he could go out there and take that point. In that position, we didn't have any kind of feeling. If Tagliani would be ahead of Will, maybe we would think about it. But still it's a game, but you got to play the game on the odds. In that position, it was the right thing to do. Q. Do you think that you have an advantage, Helio, because there are three Penske cars versus two cars? Unfortunately Scott doesn't have his regular teammate Dario here. And what do you think about Allmendinger who hasn't been in a car since Detroit? HELIO CASTRONEVES: First of all, great job he did. To jump in a car after five months, putting the car up there, I'm very, very happy. That's our goal. That's one of the decisions that Roger and Cindric decided to make. So the plan is working. That's what we're looking for. What was the question again? Q. The advantage for three cars. HELIO CASTRONEVES: I hope is an advantage. But, c'mon, Scott and Ganassi, not the first-time rodeo for them. They know what they need to do. We know what we need to do, as well. Q. Will, considering how close you came last year, how hard you fought to get back in the race, how much more determined does that make you to win here tomorrow? WILL POWER: Well, yes, I've been thinking about this race actually a lot. I would love to win. But we'll see what happens, you know. Like I said, I'm fine sitting behind my teammate there. If he wins the race, it helps him win the championship. But it's a track I want to finish very well - after last year. Q. Will, you started off slow, but you're ending strong. How satisfying is that? WILL POWER: It's actually been a good year for finding my weaknesses. I really have enjoyed the racing because I haven't had to think about points or anything. I just raced hard. It made me realize you can race hard all the time, whether you're in the points or not. I'm glad I had a bad year, I really am. I said it, I wish I finished sixth or something. I don't want to finish second again. Q. It seems that the Chevy engine, at least from practice this morning, the top six or seven were all Chevys. You follow the other drivers, you get a sense. Do you think Chevy has more power than the Honda? What are you expecting in the race tomorrow? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know about the fuel mileage with Honda. We're happy with the power of the Chevy. They did their work intensively. But again, this is a place that's not only about the speed, you got to have a good balance as well. It's 500 miles. It's interesting for you to go and do two laps, but it's different when you're going to do 200 laps. In that particular area, yes, I feel that maybe our Chevy has a little bit more power. But when you go into the race, it evens out. I think the best combination, setup and engine and driver, will be the winner. THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you for joining us today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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