THE MODERATOR: Currently joined by the second-place finishing qualifier, Christian Lundgaard. Second front-row start in this event. Won from pole here in 2023.
Your thoughts on a front-row start here today.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Does that mean I finish second, like '23?
THE MODERATOR: You don't want that.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I started first and finished first, so...
Not really I thought we were going to be whatsoever. Just been on the struggle bus all weekend. Balance has been very tough to read. I feel like we just lacked a lot of grip to the faster cars. Obviously you see Louis being I think 4/10ths faster. I don't have that, so...
I think it's fortunate for us to at least be on the front row. Could have been sixth and we would have used that last set of tires, it would have looked a little tougher tomorrow.
I think we're in a good position. Hopefully the race car is better. We made some progress.
THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.
Q. How do you think the race is going to be on this track?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: There is some sections that's going to be a potential disaster. I think the first three corners are tough just from a visibility perspective. I think we saw it in the NASCAR Canada race: when you're following close behind, it's very easy to clip that inside wall. The next inside wall shows up real fast.
I think we saw turn 10, 11 be tough, obviously with Will's accident in practice two and a couple in qualifying, as well.
Yeah, I mean, there's probably two real good passing opportunities, which is five and six. Yeah, there may be some carnage.
Q. Can aggression get a driver in trouble on this course?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think it favors aggression in many ways. It's tough to extract lap time if you're not really pushing. One, from a tire energy perspective. But it just seems like aggression and pushing hard rewards lap time.
Q. You mentioned what happened to Will in turn 10. What about that area makes it tough to keep it together? How does that bode for the race?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I think we've seen it's bumpy, it's tight, it's fast. There's a tire wall in the way.
Q. Is it in the right spot?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: It is. I was talking to Harvey, Jack Harvey, just before qualifying. If they would have made the corner a lot sharper and a lot slower, it would be very similar to turn 10 at St. Pete. But again, that has a concrete curb with the barrier obviously separated, so you have visibility. Here you don't. If there's a car in the wall, you can't see them, then you're going to be in it, as well.
Q. How much grip can everybody find overnight, or is just going to be managing how little grip you have?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I think we saw a lot of track evolution, which I think purely just comes from obviously rubber being laid down, but also the track getting cleaned up.
There's a lot wider of a line in qualifying than there was in P2, at least for me. A lot more areas that you could explore and use, where I feel like the margins were very slim.
Obviously it all comes down to a consequence. Some sessions from yesterday in some of the support series got caught out, but I think we all would have liked to have had a P1 on Friday, a night to sleep on it, figure out where we need to go from a direction on setup.
Q. To clarify, did you use a new set to qualify P2?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yes.
Q. So you only have one new set of reds?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think everyone did in the Fast Six.
Q. Foster didn't. At least that's what he's claiming.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Well, good for him.
Q. So much has been made about the new surface here. Is that going to help with tire wear or hurt it tomorrow?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think it has its pros and cons really. I think luckily we haven't seen any graining. Tomorrow morning we'll definitely see some graining because it's going to be cool and you're going to cook the surfaces before you get the car up to temperature.
But from a tire wear perspective, I don't see an issue in running a full stint on alts, if that's what you're leaning towards.
Q. Where do you see the best passing opportunities that fans should be watching out for?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I probably would say turn six, after the long back straight. I assume everyone's thinking it's going to be into turn five. It's not. You'll make it around, but you're going to lose more by running two more on exit. Very dusty.
THE MODERATOR: How many lines are there going into five?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, go look at the USF Pro race. Everybody who tried to stick their nose in had a worse exit and got passed by another car.
THE MODERATOR: Learning from the other series.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: We have to.
Q. What does front row mean to you first time here at Markham?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, obviously it's the right end of the field. I think it's always fun to come to a new track. Everything is new. You've got to explore. You've got to figure it out.
Obviously we were on the struggle bus all weekend trying to figure it out. That's probably what is the most rewarding at this point, is I think in practice one we were 18th or 19th, 1.5 seconds off the pace. I guess we only gained 1.1 of those. We at least got to the right end of the field. We'll see how it races tomorrow. There's so much that can happen.
Q. The real star of the show had to have been the sun today. What was the difficulty driving through these kind of conditions?
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I actually thought the Fast Six was a lot more pleasant because the sun had gone down so you didn't have it right in your face. That braking zone going into 10 was super tricky.
Yeah, I mean, I guess it's the same for everybody.
THE MODERATOR: Christian, congratulations on the front row. Good luck tomorrow.
CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Thank you. Have fun with this guy (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Louis Foster, his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES P1 of the season, second of his career.
What made the difference for you?
LOUIS FOSTER: I think we've been the lead car all weekend. We started with a particular setup that Mick and Graham migrated towards. So I had time to adapt to mine.
I like this track. It's fun. I enjoy street circuits. It levels the playing field when we go to new tracks as we see time and time again.
From the get-go I felt comfortable with the track. Car was on fire. It was a pole that I felt like Road America last year was a surprise, this one isn't as much as much of a surprise, seeing FP1 and FP2, where we were.
Definitely when I saw everyone put the new reds on in the Fast Six, I was a bit more worried. As soon as we were all going, the reds seemed to be all right.
THE MODERATOR: So those were new reds in the Fast Six?
LOUIS FOSTER: I had all reds. We ran used reds the Fast Six, yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.
Q. Nearly every driver said they didn't have the speed that you had. What was it that you guys were able to find, not your secrets, but how do you get that big of an advantage on everybody?
LOUIS FOSTER: To be honest with you, I drove Fast Six pretty pissed off because we made a massive mistake in Fast 12. I got through by a bee's tail, nothing. We should have cleared that easily. I was pretty annoyed. I was driving with a bit of a rage.
That was damn good as well, to be honest with you. It just clicked. As soon as I did my first couple corners, I was expecting the (indiscernible) to have faded a little bit. I could feel they were still there. Just the heat soak, it cooled down over the five minutes, whatever we had, and stiffened them up a little bit.
It felt good. I had no dramas. The tires didn't fall off too bad. Like I said, I was expecting less grip than I had. Yeah, pretty much every corner was damn perfect on that lap. There really wasn't much more in it.
Q. Does it give you a little bit of comfort that you are leading the way going into the hairpin, not somewhere behind that?
LOUIS FOSTER: We start in turn six, right?
THE MODERATOR: On the backstretch, correct.
LOUIS FOSTER: Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, on a track like this where it's end of the season, people are making more silly moves, and it's a street track and it's new, it's dirty offline, there's going to be a yellow. The further back you are, the more likely you are to be caught up in that.
Clean track in front of me. We've got good pace here and we've got clean track. The target is just to stay in front and drive away.
Q. Turn 10 was an issue. What's it going to take to keep it together in that specific turn for the entirety of the race?
LOUIS FOSTER: That corner's really hard in qualifying spec because you're coming at it at an angle and a bump. It's really difficult.
I think once we get into the race spec, everything slows down a little bit. That brake zone will become a bit more calm and I don't see as many people making the same mistakes because of how aggressive it is in qualifying spec, especially if fuel saving comes into consideration, because you are (indiscernible) quite a lot. You're coming a lot calmer.
I've had brushes with that wall today a few times. It's a nasty wall. But yeah, luckily we didn't hit it. I plan not to hit it tomorrow.
Q. You mentioned in your post qualifying interview at times you sacrificed the race to qualify better. Now that you have not sacrificed qualifying and still managed to qualify on the pole, what does the race look like from your perspective tomorrow?
LOUIS FOSTER: We'll see. I mean, we haven't ran in race trim yet. We'll get a better feel for that when we get to warm-up.
But yeah, it's nice to have reds, right? Lundgaard behind me has one less set of new reds. We have to run two new. So we're already at an advantage.
We have to optimize everything we've got. That's something we've done good this year, is making sure everything works well. If we have good pit stops, good strategy, good speed, good balance, there's no reason why we can't win tomorrow. We have to do what the top teams do every weekend.
Q. Christian said he thought the reds will last a full stint. Are two new sets of reds still an advantage, given that thought process?
LOUIS FOSTER: I mean, yeah. I'd like to think so. I've never seen, apart from qualifying, I guess, but I'm sure they're going to be an advantage.
Maybe it's less of an advantage because they are holding on longer. Especially on the out laps, the new tires have a little bit of peak grip. Maybe after a couple laps it evens out. The out laps, the new reds have a lot of grip. That makes it a lot easier. I still think it's an advantage.
But like I said, we just want to start up front and just drive away. That's the plan.
Q. Where are you going to be watching your mirrors? Where do people have the best chance to get past you tomorrow?
LOUIS FOSTER: There's a few spots. We'll find out tomorrow. I don't want to tell people where (smiling).
Q. You were quick from the get-go. Is there something specific that really aligned with your driving style?
LOUIS FOSTER: I don't know. I think we just rolled off with a good car. From the get-go I felt comfortable and confident in the car from FP1. I think we had a good car from the get-go.
It requires a lot of risk, this track. It requires a lot of balls. I was willing to throw everything at it. I think that's probably the combination of those couple things.
Q. It's the first year, how does it feel to be kind of a track record holder now?
LOUIS FOSTER: It's cool. But end of the day records are meant to be broken. I'm sure next year with progression, it will be beaten.
But it's cool.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports