RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 1 DHL Chevrolet): "Same thing as last year - almost the same exact circumstances; (Graham) Rahal put it into the wall and we didn't get a lap time in that was capable of carrying us onto the next round. It's part of it - it's part of street course racing. I think we could have advanced to the (Firestone) Fast Six had we nailed everything today, but we're just off a little too much at the moment. We're going to go back, work on it and hopefully get a good race car under us. We're starting better than we did last year so you have to look at the positives... and maybe hope for rain."
HELIO CASTONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "In qualifying today, it's one of those deals where on the odds you're thinking to wait a little bit and it might pay off because the track might be better. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off for us as the red flag came out and ended the second qualifying a little early. The PPG Team Penske boys will keep working and move forward so we can get that Chevy to the front in tomorrow's race."
ORIOL SERVIA (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet): "I'm confident for tomorrow because we've got the best car that we've had all year. We've been near the top six nearly every session and we just didn't have our best effort in qualifying unfortunately. We just missed it by a little. But the truth is we were in a tough group; the same lap time would have put me P4 in the other session. But qualifying is the first time you put on the red tires and that always changes the balance a little and if you're able to do the first transfer you can always tweak it and be strong in the next round. The National Guard Chevy was good, but we just didn't have enough. We can still have a great race starting in 17th, especially here where there are always a lot of things that happen during the race with yellow flags and restarts. I just wanted to qualify a little better for the National Guard and to show that we had the speed, but now we have to do that on race day - and we will."
E.J. VISO (No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA Citgo Chevrolet): "Well, qualifying wasn't right from the beginning. I think just waiting until the very last minute to go out and put a lap down put a lot of risk and pressure on us. We couldn't go through - I clipped the wall on the only qualifying lap I had and bent the pushrods in the back. I couldn't continue qualifying so we'll be starting from the back. Anyways, this is probably one of the tracks that you can make a different call on the strategy where you would be able to cycle back to the front; that's what we'll be looking for tomorrow."
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "I feel so happy for Team Target, they did a hell of a good job. We had a sensor failure in Q2, which almost knocked us out. Big thanks to Honda for figuring it out and fixing that in Q3. The car's been quick all week. I actually made a few mistakes on that lap and we were still able to pull it out. It's a good place to start here at Baltimore, and hopefully the weather stays good and clean tomorrow. It's going to be a tight race."
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "The Cessna car did not actually feel that bad. That's what I just said to my engineer Chris (Simmons), it's not like there's one area where you can say it was particularly bad or, 'Hey, the balance was out.' It was everywhere. I actually drove a pretty decent lap, that first quick-lap on reds, but it wasn't quite quick enough so I'm not quite sure right now exactly where I'm going to pick it up. We have Scott (Dixon's) data to look at and see if I can learn something from that but I'm just struggling with it. Like I said, it felt decent, so it's a little confusing."
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVRT-SH Racing Chevrolet): "We definitely are faster than we showed in qualifying. First we had a red flag and then I got held up by traffic and couldn't get a clean lap when I needed it. No excuses. It is the same for everyone out there. It is just disappointing. We will start in the back half of the grid again, but I think we have a good race car. We just have to make up positions during the race like we did last weekend in Sonoma."
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was a tough qualifying man, but we gave it everything we had in the Verizon Team Penske Chevy. Our chance to get pole really came the lap before our final lap but we just couldn't get there. It should be a good race tomorrow. With the chicanes, especially, there could be a lot of action and I expect it will be another good battle."
JAMES JAKES (No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Honda): "I think a tenth (of a second) would have put us comfortably in the top-six to progress to Round 2 which is a shame but that's the way it is. We just didn't get enough laps complete this morning. We lost the rhythm (during qualifying) when we were behind Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and I really think that if we hadn't had that happen we would have gotten through to the next round. We have a 10 place penalty anyway and it's supposed to rain tomorrow so I think we can do well. I've always gone well here in the rain in the past so we just have to be patient tomorrow and try to get the job done."
STEFAN WILSON (No. 18 Nirvana Tea Honda): "I have learned a lot each session that I have been out on the track. I have maybe logged about 2 1/2 hours in the car while all these other drivers have had almost the entire season in the car. So I try to keep that in mind when look at my lap times. I am getting some great IndyCar experience under my belt this weekend after not getting anytime in the car. I am treating this as a learning weekend with my expectations being very low. Hopefully with some luck, the #18 Nirvana-Tea Honda can have a great finish in the race tomorrow."
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I was very pleased with our qualifying performance today and it was nice to finally make the Firestone Fast Six after being so close the past two weekends. We improved a few tenths on our time in the last run on the red alternate tires. I am looking forward to the race tomorrow and hopefully bringing home another podium finish for the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America car."
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "We had a little improvement from our previous times. We closed the gap on the leaders which is good. We had some fortune today with guys making mistakes in our group. I think we made some good changes going into that session. I'm hopeful we are getting on to something for the race. There is definitely some potential for a lot of carnage in the race, especially the way things have gone in practice and qualifying. We need to keep working on getting a good race pace for here. We are just hoping for a clean race on Sunday. There are just so many places on this track that can create problems. The name of the game is to stay as clean if possible."
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Dr. Pepper Chevrolet): "I'm not going to blame anybody but me... I didn't get the greatest gap - and that's on me, ya know. I had to blow the first lap so we had one lap to do it and I didn't do it. I hope we can get the right set up on the Dr Pepper car to be able to get through the field tomorrow. We have the warm up, but not a lot of practice so we'll have to see. We have two teammates that advanced so that part of it is good, but it's frustrating. It's a double edge sword."
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 GoDaddy Chevrolet): "It's obviously really tricky right now. The track here is always a challenge with the bumps and the chicane still catching a couple people out, myself included over the weekend. You know, I feel bad; the GoDaddy guys have done a good job. We had a much stronger car in place. I was on a lap, which, I'm sure, everyone was on a lap sorta thing. But we were four turns in and already a quarter of a second up... would it have been (Firestone) Fast Six? I don't know. Obviously there are a lot of strong cars out there. Certainly we didn't want to back on the sixth row, but the car's good; we definitely improved it over the weekend. It's consistent which will be important in the race tomorrow, so I think we can do some damage from here."
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda): It was a great day. It's been a fantastic week, I think, for the Schmidt Hamilton organization. They worked really hard and the engineers worked really hard in understanding how to control the ride better. They dug really deep after Sonoma, and even though this is a completely different race track there were a lot of things that we understood and car was just absolutely fantastic this weekend. Very proud of the HP team, and with Tristan too, it's also a great accomplishment for the team. So thanks to them and hopefully we can put the Chevy guy behind us."
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KVRT Chevrolet): "I'm a bit frustrated with qualifying and where we ended up. I guess we're going to have to make it up tomorrow. We haven't been shiny all weekend; we've had some brake issues to deal with. I think we got that fixed for qualifying, so now we can start working on the car. Hopefully we'll have a good car and be able to move forward during the race tomorrow."
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda): "Overall, I'm pretty happy with a top-10 qualifying position. It's the third time in-a-row that we have started a race from within the top-10, which is something we really focused on heading into this season. We were pretty happy with the car. We made big improvements through the night. We saved a couple sets of alternate tires for tomorrow and we'll be ready to go racing from ninth position. Especially, if the weather does something different, we'll appreciate having those extra sets of tires. A lot of credit to the No. 83 crew because the car wasn't the greatest yesterday but we made some big steps overnight."
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "I'm happy we're up here. We're in good company for the race. We just want to be clean with everyone and hopefully have a good race. We've had some difficulties the last three, four events, and haven't really been able to complete a lot of them, or we've been six laps down just trying to stay out of everyone's way after having an issue. Everyone's been working really hard, we just need to have a good result, a clean race. I'm happy for the guys, they've done a really good job this weekend. We look strong I think for the most part in the long run. We definitely didn't have the car to beat these guys on the short run, but I feel really good about what we're putting out in the long run. I'm excited for tomorrow. I think anything can happen around this place, as we've seen in IndyCar over the last few years it's been really interesting, so I'm excited. Hopefully I can have a clean race for all of us at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing."
TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "We had a difficult morning session but we made a good recovery in qualifying. The ABC car is working well, it's a shame our second segment was stopped by a red flag just as we were going for our best lap. In the end finishing in the top 10 is not too bad. Hopefully we'll find more performance in the morning practice and have a good race tomorrow."
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 blu eCigs Honda): : "I'm disappointed that we didn't get to complete qualifying but what I'm more disappointed with is the fact that the session didn't go red. I don't care if people hadn't finished their lap or not; it was an unsafe situation to stay green and ultimately I got hit -- again. Luckily I saw him because I was watching the mirror and waiting for someone to do it. I was looking to my right and saw that they were waving the green flag. I was looking in the mirror and saw him coming to hit me. I'm alright. The steering wheel spun and I let go and the steering wheel spun around and hit me in the wrist. I'll be alright. We had been fourth at the time and lost our two fastest laps. I didn't feel that my fast lap was that good but I also feel that I was struggling for grip. The lap I crashed on, I was already up almost a 10th."
LUCA FILIPPI (No. 98 Barracuda Racing Honda): "We improved a lot during most of the qualifying laps, but I made a mistake on the last lap in the first sector. I lost enough at the beginning of the lap that we didn't make it to the Fast 12 group, but the Barracuda Racing car definitely had the pace to do it so it's looking good for the race. The Barracuda team is working hard and we'll be ready for tomorrow."
TRISTAN VAUTIER (No. 55 Environmental Rail Solutions Schmidt Peterson Honda): "It's always hard to get back in it when you have an incident, and you get back in the car and focus again. But I think first off we have to underline the effort of the team for this weekend, two cars in the Fast Six and Simon third. We're very happy, we unloaded very fast and kept the momentum going for qualifying, so that's really good. Very happy for the sponsor of this race, Environmental Rail Solutions, who are a good friend of the team as well, so it's very good. We're going to look forward to the race. We have to work on the car in the long runs, we're going to check it tomorrow in the warm up and try to work on maybe not using the tires up too much. But it's been good, it's been a while. We've not been in the fast six in a while, so to be back here. It's always better when you start up front for the race, a little less crazy usually, so hopefully we can keep it clean and have a good race tomorrow."
