Provisional pole-sitter Ben Spies joined us in the press room today after setting fast time in Superbike qualifying. Here is a transcript of that press conference:

Q Tell us about your qualifying.

A It was good. We just stayed on the same tires the whole way. I guess the time that would've put it on pole, even if we wouldn't have went faster, came at the end of the original set of tires, which was really good. The bike's working good. We're working more on race setup.

It's a little hot out. Track record today wasn't going to happen. But I think there's a little more in it. We're still searching for stuff on the bike. Also, we missed the two-day test here, so we've been playing catch-up.

Q Are there going to be some changes that you'll make between today and tomorrow?

A Yep.

Q Do you want to elaborate on that?

A Not really. [Laughter]

Q Ben, you and Mat were swapping times back and forth. You were very close. Just before you turned your fast lap, you were only .012 seconds apart. Where did you find that extra speed to pull out more than half a second over Mat?

A There's a combination of when you throw new tires at it. There's only a certain speed you can really go on race tires after they've had a few laps on them. If you're trying to actually do race pace, you can go out there, and try to, one every third lap, throw one in and go a little faster, but if you want to be consistent, you've got to kind of hold the reins back a little bit. When they throw the new tires on there, you can definitely go for it. It was pretty good at the end. It wasn't - they weren't spectacular laps, but it was pretty good. Hopefully there's more to come tomorrow.

Q Ben, the track's hot, we know. Where does it slow you down the most?

A That's kind of hard to say. The whole track's pretty greasy. Definitely the Carousel, it seems like coming out of there, you can light it up pretty good. One spot I've always kind of had a problem with up in Turn 3, seems to have okay grip. I don't know if it's bike setup, what it is, but the bike's working pretty good there. Actually, my major problem spots here seem to be okay this year. We're struggling in a couple little bitty areas, but they're areas that, as long as we can make a couple little minor changes to the bike, should fix that. Should be good. Still, we've got another session for tomorrow. We need to have a good one, and then we need to have a good race tomorrow.

Q Ben, a lot of people have said in the past that the harder you try when you go out on this race course, it seems like the slower you go. Is it tough not just to be aggressive on this course? It seems like when you are aggressive, you go slower. Are you conscious of that when you're out there?

A Honestly, that technique applies to most tracks, for some riders when they get in a little bit of a rush. But here, there's really only a couple corners that you can try to over-ride. At least if I do, I kind of make mistakes. The downhill Esses, it's pretty much as much as you've got in you to muscle the bike around, it's as fast as you're going to do. This track, actually, I think the harder you ride the bike, the faster you go, and the harder you push, everything. It just equals to overall fast lap time. Now, if you can do that the whole race, that's another point. But really, here, there's only a couple of corners that you can get in a rush and lose some time to, but everywhere else you just got to basically grit your teeth and go for it.

Q It's fairly amazing that you're able to go fast without testing here.

A Yeah, I mean, that's what I was a little worried about. I went out this morning, and I just decided, "Hey, let's put our head down these first couple laps." And usually, you try to work into things and take it lap by lap and get used to everything, but here, we obviously didn't get to test here. I was a little worried about that. But we just tested last week in Salt Lake. I think I would rather - say you test here five months ago, or ride a week before at a different track, I'd rather ride a week before at the different track, just to be attuned to the speed, and the bike, and all that stuff. But the test here wasn't too long ago, even though the weather wasn't quite as hot. But the bike seems to be working good. It's the first time we've had these forks were on the bike. The bike was here last year, but it was a different setup. The bike's working good. I'd say it's in the ballpark of being where I want it to race. Usually you're trying to find stuff, and you're really trying to make it happen, but here, the bike's working pretty good. Right now we've got a race setup I feel comfortable on. It's not perfect. It's never perfect - it's not super great, but it's there. I've just got to keep working on it, look at the computer, try to find some stuff.

Q Do you feel that racing Superbike only this year has helped you? The fact that you didn't get to test, and the fact that you're racing Superbike only?

A Yeah, I think it does. From a physical standpoint, I think there's a little bit in it, and I think there's a lot in every time I jump on the bike, it's the same bike. I'm not jumping from a street bike to a race bike, and making that big change. It's definitely helping me when it comes to feedback and setting the bike up and really feeling what it's doing, instead of jumping off some forks that have 10 mil' different fork travel and different brakes and stuff. Riding one class is definitely better, a lot easier. I get to sleep in a little bit. That was good. In every way, there's a little bit in it. Not that that's going to help win any races, but it's just we need everything we can get right now.

Q Ben, you said there were a couple of corners that are kind tough. Can you elaborate on which corners those are?

A Just overall, the first sections. There's a couple of downhill, big bowl turns, and it's just easy to really try to drive yourself in there and make some time up. A lot of these corners are bowl corners, that then you flick it back and it comes back on itself, and if you push that first one, you're going to be fighting to get it back and change directions and back on line. So that's pretty much it. Just the first section. After the Carousel in, it's just chicanes all the way back, and ride as much as you can.