Dale Coyne Q&A

"He took to the speeds of the circuit very well. He did a very good job. It was his first time out here doing that kind of constant speed of over 190mph which we run on ovals, and that's a unique challenge for a road racer. He gave some great feedback on all the different aerodynamic situations which we wanted to test here. He was a proper racing driver on a proper race circuit - it all went fine."



"Yeah, I think he's enjoyed it. The thing is you never know until you've tried driving an oval with a wall on your right hand side and you're going through corners at 200mph, it's a unique experience for people. It's not just like one little kink at Spa, you're doing that all day long. I think he was comfortable with the car and found it easy to drive. I think once you've done it, you realise it's still racing. I think he'd enjoy doing a race."



"Real well. We threw a lot of different things at him today and, like I said, he threw a lot of good feedback at us. We tried some different things which affected the total downforce loads on the car and that's always dangerous with a rookie, so to speak, but he was able to handle it. But I guess Nigel [Mansell] was a rookie once, so I guess it's fair enough to call Johnny a rookie too."



"He's a driver who has won in Formula 1 and won Le Mans, so I think this is something else that they want to conquer because the ovals are an unknown to them. They know road racing and they know endurance racing, but American oval racing is something that's unique. That's what people will see here at Rockingham, and I'm sure it will be a good show."



"Very much so. Obviously with the wealth of experience he has, coupled with his ability, I think he'd do a great job. To be able to come here today and run as quick as Alex Barron is a good statement for Johnny."



"I think they've done a great job. I was very impressed when I drove up here, because I didn't know what to expect - all I'd seen was blueprints of the track. I think everybody here has done a really good job and it's going to be great for the fans. From what I've seen of the place there's going to be really good sightlines from the grandstands to see all the way round. There's not many places in Europe that I know of where you can sit and watch 100 percent of the racetrack."



"I'm looking forward to that also. Rockingham is a very unique track in that it has four distinct corners. Germany is more like what we're used to with two corners on each end, so to speak. We hear that the German people have turned out well for the exhibitions and things over there, so we're looking forward to what should be a pretty good event for us."



"We've got to evaluate the data. Each time we ran we had a look at the speed curves and the thing is to try to create a little less turbulence behind the cars, to allow them to run closer together. It's all in the interest of making an even better show for the fans. I expect the whole field to be covered by around eight-tenths of a second on a track like this, so it's going to be competitive racing."



"It's a little difficult to say because the track hasn't officially been measured. If you count it as 1.5 miles then we ran at 198mph today, so it's going to be quicker than that. This car is down on downforce over this year's car, so I would say pole will be about 206 or 207mph."