Milwaukee - Quoteboard IV.

With the Indianapolis 500 safely out of the way, the CART FedEx Series returns to action at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday. Alex Tagliani, Bruno Junqueira, Nicolas Minassian, Michel Jourdain Jr, Oriol Servia and Tora Takagi give their views on the weekend....

Alex Tagliani (Player's Forsythe Racing) on racing at the historic Milwaukee Mile:
It's always fun going to Milwaukee because you can actually see and feel the tradition of racing on that track. There's also some tradition for Team Player's on the Milwaukee Mile because Greg Moore had two podiums and a win when he raced there, my team-mate Patrick [Carpentier] has won the pole and a podium, and I got a podium when I was racing in Atlantic. It's a fast short oval, but you've got to be alert at all times because it's quite narrow in places and passing is difficult.

Having the week off after the race in Japan was helpful because it allowed Team Player's to regroup and just go through everything on the car, from A to Z. The car is still one of the fastest on the track, but we've had some problems with reliability that has prevented us from contending, and that's frustrating when you're as competitive as we are on Team Player's. I'm convinced, though, that our luck is about to change.

Bruno Junqueira (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) on his growing sense of comfort at FedEx Championship Series oval events:
I am really starting to enjoy the ovals. That is easy to do when you finish fifth in your first Indy 500. Normally, I am not happy unless I win a race. But last Sunday, I was very happy with my fifth-place finish. I feel I am getting better and better with each race and it is now just a matter of time until I get my first win. I am excited to race on another oval this weekend. Especially at a track where the car that I am in now won last year.

Nicolas Minassian (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) on competing in his first Indianapolis 500:
I'm very happy to have the experience of competing in the Indy 500. It was an incredible feeling to be in front of all of those people. We had a solid run going until we had a gearbox problem that ended our day early. I think the experience of racing in the biggest race in the world will help me this week in Milwaukee. I was able to go through a three-wide start, several restarts and a few pit stops.

Michel Jourdain Jr (Herdez Bettenhausen) looking forward to competing at The Milwaukee Mile:
I feel very good about our chances coming into The Milwaukee Mile. I think we have shown this year that we have very good set-ups for the ovals; both for qualifying and the race. I am very comfortable in the car and that puts me in a good position to fight for results. We've been getting better every race so for Milwaukee, I am focused on getting my best result of the year. The whole team has been working really hard and I'm confident we'll have a good result.

Oriol Servia (Sigma Autosport) on the importance of qualifying at The Milwaukee Mile:
Milwaukee is always a special place because it's a track that's hard to overtake cars on, so more than ever your qualifying position will be important. I'm optimistic, as we seem to have a good set-up because this is similar to Nazareth, and we had a good set-up there. We learned a lot about the car at Motegi, so we should be in pretty good shape at The Milwaukee Mile.

Tora Takagi (Walker Racing) on making his first competitive appearance at The Milwaukee Mile:
It is another new challenge for me to go Milwaukee as it is another kind of mile oval with low bank. For me, it is not so difficult to learn ovals as there are only two turns and I have already run at ovals from Texas to Motegi. I am afraid that I will forget how to drive street and road courses that have more than two turns! Anyway, after Motegi, the team fixed the stuck throttle problem that prevented me from finishing Motegi, and we have new pieces to try for Milwaukee. I am just hoping to do better out there and try to score my best result on an oval before we go to the road course at Detroit. I can feel that the team is improving race by race and overcoming all sort of teething problems which is good.