Bruno Junqueira Q&A

"I thought I could qualify in the first or second row. One thing I have learned in one year of racing ovals is you have to be patient, especially in the race. But today I was the first one to qualify. That can be good or bad - you never know what can happen. There is more pressure because you don't know what time you need to do or how much to push."



"The car had pretty good handling. Today the wind is blowing and that made Turn 4 really difficult. But the car was really good and everything worked fine for me. Maybe I pushed too hard on the first lap or I could have been more consistent, but I think I did my best."



"I live here in Indianapolis so I know that you cannot predict the Indiana weather. The forecasters are right 90 percent of the time, but to say it's going to rain at 1 o'clock or three o'clock is difficult. For sure I knew today was a big day for me. I slept reasonably well, but I knew this morning after practice I was really concerned because of the wind. My car was really loose and luckily everything went right for qualifying and I got good laps."



"It was difficult because I ran from 8 to 8:30 this morning. It was really cold, and now it's a little bit hotter and the handling was a little bit different. But it was really, really good. The last two laps my drop (in speed) was a little bit bigger than expected. I went 231.6 the first lap, and I wanted to have less than half a mile per hour difference from the best lap to the worst lap. I think it was 0.7. But the car was perfect. If I had another chance I would do 0.2 faster. But I did my best. Because you never know the conditions, you have to go on the safe side."



"Last year I had small experience on ovals. The only time I had raced on an oval was at Nazareth. That was the shortest oval that we raced, and then I came here to the biggest oval with a completely different car. I did a rookie test, but that's one day. I did 30 or 40 laps and didn't know the track that much. I wasn't even supposed to drive at Indy, but on (the last day) I had an opportunity. I did four laps and I went to qualify. But the car was really good and I just put the car in the show with a good speed. The race was the biggest thing for me because I started 21st. I had no experience, so the first half of the race was difficult. I just tried to keep the car on the track, keep safe and I actually started to learn how to pass and how to run in traffic. Then I started to go forward and I was really happy to finish fifth."



"I think I'll have a good car for the race because my car was good in windy conditions today. This year I have experience. I already finished fifth last year and we are going to try to finish a little bit better than last year."