Drivers' Quoteboard: Races 15 and 16

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, p1 and 2:

 "It's awesome to qualify on pole here and stand on the podium both days in all four races. It's been an awesome weekend and I'm leaving Austin very happy. For me I've always known I could do it but needed the team and equipment. I always had personal goals and I'm starting to tick off some of those. Understanding the engineering group and feeling the adjustments in the car are key to that success.

"We were very fortunate that we rolled the car out of the truck very close to how it needed to be raced and qualified. I can't really put into words why but it was fast in qualifying and race trim. Then we were able to tune it and bridge the gap to Triple Eight and snag a win.

"Obviously it was a very short turnaround from Perth and the car's run faultlessly so it's a credit to the team. They've done an amazing job."

Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p2 and 5:

"We let ourselves down a bit in Qualifying for race four (16) but other than that, we fought back and it was a great weekend for myself and the team.

“It would’ve been nice to get that win, but three second places is a great result and gives Red Bull I think seven podiums from a possible eight. I can’t wait to come back to Texas.”

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p3 and 1: 

“I couldn’t be happier. 

"What an unbelievable event. The team did a phenomenal job and we really couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. We had a good battle with Fabian (Coulthard) and probably didn’t have quite the same speed as the day earlier but we got it done and we leave here very happy.

“It’s a state of the art facility here in Texas and we love good quality places and it means a little bit more to get that win over here.”

Shane Van Gisbergen, TEKNO Team VIP, p5 and 3:

"Finally in that one I just got a good start. Yesterday we had a pit lane indiscretion and we started last … Qualifying has been a weakness, but it has always been a bit of a weakness of mine so I need to keep working hard at that. Once we're in the races I'm away … Each race we've taken four tyres and we've been really strong at the end and been able to come through and that one was the first time we had two because of the safety car. It was pretty good."

Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max FPR, p7 and 5:“We started to make progress today and that is a good sign but the day has been frustrating as while we haven’t had the best weekend, to get to the lead and then have things go wrong is not ideal. In the final race we had a pretty good car but once you are in the pack it is hard to pass. We know what we need to do to address the pit stop issue and I’m sure we will so it is not all doom and gloom.”

Rick Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, p9 and 8: 

"To find some points this weekend and do our best to stay out of trouble whilst we've got such a great car is very exciting.

"The team has worked so hard to deliver this project, it's really good to be able to deliver that solid result for them and they should hold their heads high with that.

"We've got a great team, the car was fantastic all weekend, so we tuned it really well, all the stops were great, everything really went to plan this weekend. 

"Obviously the straight line is still hurting us here and the other frustrating thing is we got ran off three out of the four races by the same guy and not much has been done about that, which is a little disappointing. 

"All in all we've got to bereally happy with that and we learnt so much. The next round might be a little bit tougher for us, but I'm really glad we made some good progress while we had the car to do it."

Will Davison, Pepsi Max FPR, p12 and DNF:

“It was a really tough day and after qualifying poorly we tried some things with the car but just got caught up in the mid-pack madness. Everyone acts pretty crazy back there so it makes it tough. I was probably a bit conservative in the first race and got shuffled back so it felt great early and I was easily able to attempt passes on Craig (Lowndes). I got a run on him and as I was passing him into Turn 12 it got quite close between us and I locked the rear wheels and unfortunately hit the car in front of him. The car felt good and I had to get through the pack but I slightly miscalculated the move.”

James Moffat, p14 and 14:

"We just dropped the ball today. We qualified poorly, had a few issues in Qualifying (15) which led into Qualifying (16).

"We just lost the balance of the car overnight, thinking we were doing the right things but they didn't work.

"When you qualify 22nd for the last race, it's so hard to recover. I got turned around and I was in last place for a bit. The Safety Car did help us, but I'm frustrated because I feel like we haven't really ended it the way we should have.

"The positive for today is that I managed to collect two mid-field finishes. We ticked the points over, but I would have liked a few more."

Todd Kelly, Jack Daniel's Racing, p14 and 19:

"It wasn't that good a run in Qualifying for that second session so I started back a bit and we're just so vulnerable at the start of the race and in the opening laps on restarts at the moment, but once everything settles in the cars are really quite unbelievable.

"Overall it's good in some ways and quite disappointing in others, the pace that we've got with the deficiency we've got in other areas is outstanding, so there's a huge amount of potential there.

"I'd go as far as saying that Rick would have near been on the front row if we had the amount of time that everyone else has to develop the engine, so a huge amount of potential and when we get that sorted out it will be a really good package." 

Michael Caruso, p15 and 9:

"It's veryfrustrating. We had an extremely good car, which was displayed in the last racewhere I qualified ninth.

"The lap time that I could do in thatsecond race was pretty good, so it's frustrating because we were runningstrong.

"Getting taken out is never nice. We'regoing through a rough patch at the moment, but the positives are that the speedis there. We just need a little bit of luck to go our way, and hopefully it'sjust around the corner."

David Reynolds, The Bottle-O FPR, p16 and 13:

“Today was unfortunately the same old story as I struggled with qualifying pace and then had to fight my way to the front. In the races the car comes to a point where it feels really good. However, for some reason it doesn’t like new tyres so we have to get to the bottom of it. If we can get the one lap pace as sorted as the race pace we will be well up the field and challenging where the car is clearly quick enough to challenge.”

Alex Davison, JELD-WEN FPR, p18 and 13:

“We had a big struggle this weekend to get any sort of balance in the car and tried a lot of different things but we had the same issue so we are a little unsure as to what went wrong. Qualifying was far from great but the race pace was better. I made up a lot of spots, especially in the first race today, so I was happy with that effort. It was a pity we had a pit issue as we had our best starting spot of the day and the car was its most competitive so I believe a top 10 would’ve been possible. We’ll move on and work hard to not have another weekend like this.”