STARTING POSITION: 3rd

QUALIFYING TIME: 57.7361 seconds

OF NOTE:  Starting eight spots ahead of championship leader Scott Dixon // Trailing in the points lead by 26 points entering the penultimate race of the season

“I think at the end of the day you have to take the good with the bad and it’s unfortunate to not get Pole. It’s disappointing because I don’t think our car had the pace that Will [Power] did and he’s been kind of the car to beat all weekend and we’re struggling to find that extra little bit. The positive is obviously we are ahead of Scott [Dixon] so we have to maximize that tomorrow as best we can. Hopefully, being on the inside for Turn 1 is a good thing because I know it’s definitely tight down there and it’s a long run down. On the outside you are exposed and that’s not a good thing. Third is better than second but definitely worse than first, so we’ll put our heads together and try to come up with a car to run up front.”

“It’s been a pretty rough weekend just on rhythm. Trying to get a rhythm, trying to get laps in with traffic and everything else, but we had a nice little turn around from yesterday. The DHL Honda really wasn’t doing what I needed it to do. I don’t think we’re out of the ballpark completely, but we made some good changes, and really worked with the teammates. Marco [Andretti] has been fast all weekend, so we worked with him a bit trying to get the right setup on the car for today and it definitely gave me what I needed and that was nice. We just need to put our heads together now and try to figure out what we are going to do for the race. It’s going to be completely different. All in all it was a pretty good turnaround today and we’ll look forward to tomorrow. Zach Veach did a really great job. I’m really proud of the kid. If you got to see some of the data traces and what he is doing, he’s really committed, super committed. Some of the sessions that are really, really hairy and could have huge consequences, he’s sometimes the best – it’s cool to see that. He’s done a really good job and he’s a great teammate.”

“I think [securing a best career starting position] is a little bit of confidence, understanding the car, knowing where the speed is at and I’m very lucky to have the teammates I do. Every weekend they set the bar insanely high, I’m trying to close the gap. Each weekend it gets easier and easier. You see where that level is going to be, that’s what you strive to get to. I’m lucky. The past three places that we ran at, I think lot of it’s an experience gap between rookies and guys that have been doing this, lucky to test at Gateway, Pocono, here about a month ago. That really helps you get up to speed a little quicker and have a better understanding how to get towards the top of the charts.”

“The car today didn’t have the potential that it had yesterday. We were battling with both ends of the car and I’m bummed we didn’t stay with the track because we went from running the best all weekend to the worst on the team when it counts – so I’m pretty disappointed but we’ll come back fighting tomorrow.”