IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO – 2 IN T.O.
STREETS OF TORONTO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT – CARLOS MUNOZ 
JULY 14, 2013
ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT DRIVER AND FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS POINT LEADER CARLOS MUNOZ TALKED WITH THE MEDIA THIS AFTERNOON ABOUT REPLACING RYAN BRISCOE AS THE DRIVER OF THE NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET TODAY IN RACE #2. BRISCOE SUFFERED A BROKEN RIGHT WRIST IN AN ACCIDENT SATURDAY DURING RACE #1.
WERE YOU SURPRISED TO GET CALL FROM PANTHER?: “Yeah, I was really surprised because it was really late, and I don’t any experience in an Indy car on a road course. None in my life. I don’t even have my seat here from Indy car, from the Indy 500. I was surprised. I talked to Michael (Andretti), I talked to my engineers, I talked to some other guys, and they said you have to take this chance. This is an opportunity to get more experience, more laps.”
HAVE YOU TESTED ON A ROAD COURSE IN AN INDY CAR?: “Never. First time was today ever. The horsepower, we don’t feel it as much at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway. But with the walls and everything, it’s much more difficult.”
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU DID A STANDING START?: “Back in the year I raced Formula 3. It was quite nice to start with the hand brake. It wasn’t tough to start. I’m not going tohave a good start. I’m going to start last. The race is 85 laps. I’m going to try to make no mistakes and gain confidence lap by lap.”
ABOUT USING RYAN BRISCOE’S SETUP:   “I knew Ryan did a great job in qualifying for today, so I knew it was more from my part than the car. We started, more or less, with the same car as Ryan.”
WERE YOU PLANNING TO STAY HERE, AND WHY DID PANTHER CALL YOU?: “No, my flight was this morning at 6 a.m. So I changed my flight for yesterday, later in the night at 7 p.m., they called me and said do you want to drive Ryan’s car? That’s when we started calling and everything.”
DO YOU KNOW WHY THEY CALLED YOU?: “Not really. Go and ask JB (John Barnes) about it. I don’t know.”
DID YOU TALK WITH RYAN ABOUT THE CAR THIS MORNING?: “Yeah, we talked a little bit. More or less, I had a question about what to expect from the car, what reference points he had.”
WERE YOU ABLE TO FOLLOW OTHER DRIVERS IN PRACTICE?: “Not really in the beginning. I was three seconds slower, and everyone was overtaking me. I ended up only one second and something behind, so it wasn’t a bad for a first experience for me.”
WHERE DID YOU CUT TIME FROM YOUR LAP DURING PRACTICE?: “Everywhere. Each lap I was going quicker. I have too much to learn, especially on braking, since this was my first time on carbon brakes, and it’s totally different from what I’m used to in Indy Lights.”
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL TODAY: “I said (to Panther) I would go race, but don’t expect me to do a great job as I did in Indy. My goal is to not make any mistakes. Yesterday there were a lot of crashes. I saw the race. So it’s get me out of trouble and be quicker and quicker on each lap and not make any mistakes on pit stops and to finish the race.”
HOW DOES YOUR INDY LIGHTS EXPERIENCE TRANSLATE HERE?: “Line-wise, it’s totally similar to the Indy Lights. So that helped me a lot, the Indy Lights helped me. The reference points are really similar to IndyCar.”
HOW WILL THIS RIDE TODAY HELP YOU TOWARD YOUR GOAL OF REACHING INDYCAR?: “My goal next year is to be full time IndyCar driver. This year after the Indy 500, we were working maybe to Sonoma with the Andretti Autosport team. I was not sure because we wanted to be focused on Indy Lights title because it was more important to do one full season in IndyCar than one race in Sonoma, so I think still the goal is to win the Indy Lights championship.”