MONTOYA: “I think my Texaco/Havoline Dodge car was pretty good and everybody at Chip Ganassi, you can see, they’ve done a really good job in that week off. We had a really good car. I thought I had something for Reed and I had to get out of the gas coming out of the last corner. I went a bit too early wide-open and just stepped out. I thought I rather lift than flat-side the car.” DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT FROM PRACTICE THIS MORNING? “It was a little freer for me but I think we had something for the pole. I think it’s good to see Reed up there as well.”

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It’s cool to win the Raybestos money and we appreciate all they do for our sport. We started out a little on the slow side but we got better as the day went on. That’s the biggest thing that we made improvements and the car wasn’t bad in race trim. We made several qualifying runs and we pretty much run what we practiced so we were pretty happy with that.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO START UP FRONT HERE? “Oh here it’s big. It’s hard to pass here so starting up front is big. Any of these big tracks like this, it’s really hard to pass and starting up front makes the day a lot easier.” THIS WAS A BIG DAY FOR CHIP GANASSI RACING. “Yeah it is. I’m happy for everybody, the whole organization. Everybody has done a good job. We had three good cars. David didn’t quite qualify as good as he ran in practice but still, all three of the cars are really good here all week.

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA INSURANCE FORD: “Not as good as we wanted. I would have liked to have picked up another few tenths. We practiced at a 49.90. I wished we could have picked up at least four tenths and we picked up three. It’s better than what we ran in practice but still not where we wanted to be. We’ll probably be back somewhere in the 30s but it’s a long race on Sunday and certainly a lot of stuff can change between the first of the race and the end of the race. Hopefully we can keep up with the track and you know, the more laps I run here the more comfortable I get. I wish we were just a little bit better.” YOU WENT OUT EARLY IN THE SESSION. WAS THAT A DISADVANTAGE? “As long as sun stays floating in and out of the clouds it’s not going to be a lot. The track temperature was 30 degrees, 25 degrees hotter than it was today in practice so the last thing I wanted to do is take a chance and jeopardize a race car and tear it up for no good reason. Yeah, it might hurt us a little bit, but still, if we would have been a little bit better, I wish we could have been up there in the top-25.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 BURGER KING/THE SIMPSONS MOVIE TOYOTA: “We’re not going to make it. We tightened it up. That’s the worse that it’s been all day and we had to do it when it counted so it’s not going to be fast enough. It’s hotter so it’s a little bit slower but the car was so, so tight compared to what it was earlier in the day. I don’t know what direction we went with it but it was definitely the wrong one. It’s going to cost us a chance of getting in.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “We had a great lap going and one that would have put us comfortably in the field until I hit the wall in Turn 4. I just wish I could have turned more laps here. This is a unique track with a lot of nuances and I needed more than the 20 laps we got in practice to become comfortable with it. I hate it so much for my crew. At least Brian will be able to represent Team Red Bull tomorrow on the track. I know he will do us proud. As a team we just really need to get our momentum back.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/JOHNS MANVILLE CHEVROLET: “We picked up a half a second from practice. We didn’t really concentrate at all on qualifying for once this year and got the race car pretty decent in race trim. It was kind of going to be what it was going to be in qualifying. Actually a lot of teamwork between all four cars and Mark Martin helped me quite a bit and picked up that half-second so we’ll be alright.” THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR THAT YOU HAVEN’T STRESSED OUT OVER QUALIFYING. “It’s so stressful when you’re outside the top-35 that sometimes you probably hurt yourself just thinking and over-thinking it. Sitting in the car right before you go you didn’t have to worry about that. My heart wasn’t pounding like it normally is.”

MONTOYA PRESS CONFERENCE

“I thought I had a chance at it and I knew it was going to be very close. I thought coming to the last corner I just went wide open just a little bit too early and the car stepped out and I just couldn’t keep it wide-open. Everywhere else I managed to keep it wide-open when it stepped out. Just a little too greedy. Reed has been really fast all day today. We started really far back. We struggle and my whole Texaco team did an amazing job to a competitive stage. And it’s good, I think we should have a competitive car tomorrow. I think it’s great. It shows indications of where the team is going, where the team is heading. There’s going to be great weekends, there’s still going to be some bad ones but it’s nice to show everybody what the team can do.” DID ANYTHING FROM YOUR INDY 500 RACE TRANSLATE TO TODAY? “It’s completely different animal. It probably helped me a little bit through Turn 1. I changed my line for qualifying a little bit and it paid off. I was really bad getting to the bottom, I was really loose, so I went like a groove higher and it worked really good.” YOU’VE SAID THAT YOU’VE COME TO APPRECIATE YOUR INDY 500 VICTORY A LITTLE MORE AS TIME HAS GONE BY. HAVE YOU GOT A BETTER APPRECIATION FOR WHAT THIS PLACE MEANS TO CHIP? “I think it’s a big deal, a big deal for everybody. Coming to Indianapolis is a big deal. To sit here as I was here coming to Formula One, it was funny. Most of the years we came here we had great cars and had the worst luck. Being competitive again is great. We did it with the 500 and hopefully either of us or any of the three drivers can win tomorrow. Of course, I would rather be me than anybody else, but if it’s not me hopefully any of the other two Ganassi cars.” IT’S BEEN SAID THAT THIS IS A ROAD RACE WITH NO RIGHT-HAND TURNS. IS THIS MORE OF A ROAD COURSE FEEL FOR YOU? “Not really. It’s the same feel that I had when I came here and drove the open wheel. It’s four corners. There supposedly equal but each one is a little different and each one has got its little tricks. In open wheel I was very good around this place and in a stock car, I’m still learning a little bit of where to go and where not to go and what to do. There’s a lot of transitions in the racetrack that are very important to run good and we’re just learning them.” DOES KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD CAR CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK TO WIN THE RACE? “I don’t know [laughter]. I think the guy to beat tomorrow is going to be Reed, to be realistic. I think he will do a good job through the day and we might have a chance but he was just very quick in practice. It’s good to see him doing well. He won last week and it was great for the team and for the whole organization to be competitive again is great.”