DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, PEAK Performance Pole Award winner): "I think I got my first pole here in '97, which is an awful long time ago. So that was '97. I'm trying to remember what I did right back in '97 this morning so I could kind of put it to practice with the Target car. Usual story. The guys worked really, really hard to improve the car yesterday. Then with the rain this morning, we didn't do too much running. And it was good actually with the changes we made in qualifying. The car was good out of the box. The lap that I did in the Fast Six, I came in afterwards and said basically, That's it. That was a helluva lap. That was as good of a lap as I've driven around here. If they can go quicker, let them have it, because that's all she's got. I was very happy with the car and the job I did today."
WILL POWER (No. 12 Penske Truck Rentals, qualified second): "My crew just walked in this weekend; the first time they've been back since May and same with me. They did a fantastic job. We're really happy to be second. We would have been a lot happier with first, but second is great. The car has been good since we rolled it off the trailer and the same at Long Beach. I'm just doing my job."
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald's Racing Team, qualified third): "At the end of the day, the McDonald's car ran extremely well and we made great improvements and it shows what this team can do. We're happy to be third today."
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 18 Z-Line Designs, qualified fourth): "I thought it was a reasonable day. Things went quite well. But we weren't just quite quick enough. We started out quite loose, struggling to get the power down, struggling for grip. We kept working on it, kept making improvements. Quite pleased with what we managed to do on the used reds. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to beat Dario (Franchitti). He was on good form as well as Graham (Rahal) and Will (Power). I'm pretty pleased with fourth. Hopefully we'll have a trouble-free race and we'll move forward."
ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 34 King Tut/Conquest Racing, qualified fifth): "It was a great job for the Conquest Racing team. All of the boys did a fantastic job. We didn't run as much as we wanted to yesterday. I think we left a couple things on the table by not running a new set of tires on Friday. I think the car was decent. We missed a couple of attempts at the end to improve our lap and be in the top three but it was a great effort from all of the boys."
RAPHAEL MATOS (No. 2 US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing, qualified ninth): "I'm a little bit frustrated that we didn't make it into the fastest six. We had a car that could fight for a top five, but I just made a mistake and hit the wall in turn 11. It bent the right toe link and we couldn't go back out. It just means we have to work harder for tomorrow's race."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, qualified 10th): "I have to say, what an incredible crowd. It's great to be back here in Toronto. In qualifying, unfortunately, I got caught in a lot of traffic. I lost about three laps there because of traffic in front of me. This is a tough street circuit. We have some different drivers and teams in the Fast Six, so it should be interesting tomorrow in the race. Team Penske will be ready and we will go for it on Sunday."
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, qualified 11th): "It's tough out there. I just had a difficult time finding the balance on the Team Penske car. It was tough to get the tires to come in, and I just couldn't get enough grip. We're starting further back than we'd like but we'll just have to work a bit harder in the race tomorrow and work our way through the field."
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 14 ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing, qualified 12th): "All in all it was a pretty good day. We definitely made some gains with the ABC Supply car today. We moved on from the first knock-out session which is an accomplishment. In the next session, I think we had a car for the top 10 but I just bottomed the car out going into turn 8 and locked up the fronts and cooked the front tires. I think we could have been 10th and we're 12th so we can work from there. It's real tough, the competition is incredibly tight and the track is just so bumpy. There's a fine line between putting a fast lap in and making a big mistake."
PAUL TRACY (No. 15 Ontario Honda Dealers/woundedwarrior.ca, qualified 15th): "I am super disappointed. We just missed advancing by a hundredth of a second. The times are so tight from fifth to eighth, and I just couldn't get any more out of the Ontario Honda Dealers/WoundedWarriors.ca car. We had a very good car the first practice yesterday when the track was slippery and a good car on the wet track this morning. I am very frustrated. As far as the race tomorrow… it is going to be tough, but it is a street circuit and anything can happen. I have to get the car through Turn 1 at the start and not get collected in a crash. Then just settle into a pace, work our race strategy, save fuel and the tires and see what happens. "
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola): "It's been a pretty interesting day for us. We had a pretty decent car during this morning's session, even though it was the worst track conditions you would drive in. But once the track dried, we lost all the grip. I don't know what the solution is, but as a team we are all behind the eight-ball and it's really frustrating for me and my teammates. Anything can happen in the race tomorrow, so hopefully things will fall our way."
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Nestle Pure Life): "It's been a frustrating day. The Nestle Pure Life guys worked really hard after this morning's incident to get the car back together. This isn't where we wanted to start for tomorrow's race but we are up for the challenge. I have to thank the guys for all their efforts today and hopefully we will have a better result tomorrow.
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE/iShares): "It's been a rough day for AGR as a whole and all around I think the starting grid is a bit surprising. It's a tough circuit, for sure and the rain this morning made it tough to dial in on a qualifying set up. The NYSE iShares car is definitely starting farther back than we'd like. We've had a couple decent comebacks on road and street courses so hopefully we can do the same tomorrow."
HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 27 Formula Dream): "It's been very tough day for the Formula Dream team. This course is very challenging and we haven't been able to find the perfect setup. We will be working tonight to figure out what we can do between now and tomorrow that will lead to better results."
***
When Dario Franchitti won the pole at Toronto in 1997, Bobby Rahal qualified third. On the first lap, Franchitti and Rahal made contact going into Turn 1. This weekend, Dario scored his third pole at Toronto and the next generation of Rahal - Bobby's son Graham - will start third.
DARIO FRANCHITTI: (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing): "(Laughing) Looking at the grid, I think Graham is third. In 1997 when I got my first pole, his dad qualified third and took me out in the first corner. So I'm going to have a word with the next generation and talk to Graham and work things out for tomorrow morning so we can get through Turn 1.
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