IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
APRIL 7, 2013
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: ON THE RACE: “Helio and I always race clean. I had a little bit of contact with him before, I just couldn’t slow the car down and he was on the outside of me. Luckily we both just kept going from that, he took the lead at that point. His tire strategy worked in our favor, we had new reds on when he had blacks on, and he was just a sitting duck at that point. Will, on the other hand, did an unbelievable job keeping me behind him on reds. It was our worst set of reds though. I just kept patient and made it happen when I needed to. It was very challenging out there today, I’d like to thank all the other drivers, though, for keeping it on track and not going yellow because man, I didn’t want it to go yellow at the end. I had a little contact there with Helio (Castroneves), I feel bad about it. Good thing nobody was affected by it but man, I was driving my tail off trying to stay in front of (Scott) Dixon. Will (Power) did a good job staying in front of me on blacks, not sure how he did it. A lot of great racing out there. It’s just great to get a win for DHL, Sun Drop, Circle K and Chevrolet back in victory lane. A good way to start the season.”
ON GETTING ANDRETTI A WIN AT BARBER: “It is excellent. It shows what we’re about, it shows that last year wasn’t a fluke. We really worked for it today. Unreal. I’m exhausted.”
IS THIS TEAM EVEN MAYBE BETTER THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR? WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE? “It is. You know, we’ve never had a car like this at Barber. So, to do that is just unreal. But man, I’m really disappointed that my wife and my little boy aren’t here. We’re going to have to go win many more. This one is for the little boy at home. It almost brings me to tears that he’s not here right now. But it is what it is. He’s going to Long Beach and all the rest of them.”
MICHAEL ANDRETTI, TEAM OWNER, ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT – RACE WINNER: ON THE RACE: “It really was a perfect weekend. We got the pole in both races and the win both races and led most of the laps, you can’t ask for much more than that. I’m really happy and proud of the whole DHL crew. They did a great job all weekend, and the whole Andretti team and it was really good. We knew we had to get it done because we had the reds and Helio had the blacks, and that’s how Helio was able to get us, so we had to try to return the favor. The team did a great job all weekend and Ryan did a hell of a job. This is awesome. I’m so happy for DHL and with the DHL car and also Sun Drop and everybody and Chevy. We’re happy to keep their streak going. So it was a good day.”
HOW MENTALLY EXHAUSTING WAS IT FOR YOU?
“It was a tough race because there are so many different things going on with the tires and all that. You just had to have faith in our strategy and it worked.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AAA INSURANCE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD: YOU LOOK PRETTY FRESH, CONSIDERING, BUT YOU WERE NOT IN A GOOD PLACE AT THAT START: “No, because I was boxed-in. I saw Dixon trying to pass Will and then he got shoved to the side. Everybody went wide. And all of a sudden, I’m like c’mon Will, go! And we were at that point to the rear. It was a shame because we were hoping for a good start. And then we had to change the plan of strategy and Turbo was there in the end. Let me tell you, that little snail was awesome because he was pushing me totally all the way to the end.”
BUT THE SNAIL (FROM THE MOVIE TURBO) WISHED HE HAD REDS AT THE END, RIGHT? “Yeah, but that’s the price we pay. We change strategy in the middle of the race and we got to make time and that’s what we did. I thought we would be able to hold on, but it was 15 or 17 laps to go, it was too many laps; the blacks were a little bit tough to hold on to those guys. At least we got a podium and hopefully more points for the championship.”
YOU ARE NOW THE POINTS LEADER. DID YOU KNOW THAT?
(Laughter) “See, that’s good. Let’s keep going that way and hopefully we’re going to be there. So, a good job by the boys and everyone. Everybody did a hell of a job and I appreciate the support.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: ON HIS RACE: “It was a tough start for us, we couldn’t get in the right slot and then committed to a different strategy to hopefully get the Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet on the podium. We thought we had a good plan and just needed a yellow at any point after Lap 31. Unfortunately it didn’t come and we fought for the fifth place finish. It isn’t exactly what we wanted to get out of the weekend but is still a good points day and gets us closer to the top.”
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: ON HIS RACE: “I thought we the RC Cola car was quicker on track than where we ended up. Coming into barber, you can always expect this to be a physical race. Not finding the podium is always tough to swallow, but having back to back top ten finishes keeps us in a good position going into Long Beach.”
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: ON HIS RACE: “Probably not the race that we wanted. Anyways, we stayed out of trouble and we did all we could. Unfortunately in our race there were not many red flags to give us any margins to risk and to work on strategies. It was a very clean race. Not much action on track – just trying to keep the pace with the others. That’s about it. I’m very happy for Ryan – he won the race! Hopefully my turn is coming.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 HYDROXYCUT KV RACING TECHNOLOGY SH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: ON HIS RACE: “It was just a long day. I started the race on the primary tires in order to get them out of the way and was hoping to get more speed out of the red alternates to pick up some track position, but once I got stuck in traffic in the middle of the pack there was nothing I could do. Lost a handful of spots during our pits and managed to get some of them back at the end of the race, but it was still not our day. Let’s move on to Long Beach in a couple of weeks and focus on getting a better result there.”
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 22 CHARTER PANTHER DRYER & REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: ON HIS RACE: “That was a disappointing race. On the first lap, I was involved in the first crash. I got hit from behind and I hit Hinch (James Hinchcliffe), which I’m sorry for. I saw three cars abreast in front of me and I tried to take it easy, maybe Graham [Rahal] didn’t see it and we all just ran into them. It was a bad start and it’s hard to come back from last. We had a decent car, but I had the rear bumper ripped off in that first crash so the car was not behaving at its best. We did what we could, we were never as fast as the top five cars, but we definitely as good as those running 6th, 7th, and 8th. If we would have been able to jump up front, we would have been able to stay there.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: ON HIS RACE: “We knew it was going to be a long day starting in the back of the field. We had a good car and were able to make it up to 11th, but I made a mistake and we lost our position and fell back to 13th. On the last lap I was confused with a call on the radio and thought it was the end of the race, so I backed off and lost 3 more positions. Disappointing way to end the day.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: ON HIS RACE: “I felt good all day, and the Panther team did a great job in the pits as well. But I felt like we had a couple varying scenarios that inevitably didn’t go our way. We were definitely expecting
for there to be more yellow flags as the race went on, and with it being so tough to pass, we were trying to get off-sequence with the group of cars that we were around. And early in the race we had the pace to get away from a lot of those guys. In our effort to get off-sequence it was always so close, but never ended up working for us, and that’s the frustrating part. We had to run a long stint there at the end and we lost a few positions, but we were able to fight hard to keep our spot in the last few laps and I think at the end of the day we need to continue moving forward and working with what we have to get better. These last two races if we would have started up front we would have stayed there, so that’s the aim going into Long Beach.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: ON HER RACE: “It was a tough race for us. We were always in traffic and there was always something going on. At the start I kind of got pushed out and lost a few positions and had to work my way back up. You know we were always fighting with different people and different tires and it was really hard to get by, so we kind of got stuck there and it wasn’t great. But, we’ll go on to the next one and hopefully we’ll be alright there.”
A.J. ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: ON QUALIFYING: ON HIS RACE: “All in all today was a good day in the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske Chevy and there are a lot of positives to take out of it. We had a good start and I thought I was pacing myself well, we could have had a top-10 day without the couple breaks against us. It was a good day with a bad stall and unfortunately after that point we were saving fuel so it made it tough to make up ground. But I know that I can compete with these guys and look forward to getting even better at Long Beach.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: ON HIS RACE: “I’m really disappointed with the way our day ended here at Barber. We had an amazing car and I was really happy with it, challenging drivers like Will Power for position. Pit stops did not go as planned and we lost what we had gained, moving to the back of the field. I’m ready to move onto Long Beach and go for the results I know we can get. “
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S PREMIUM ULTRA VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: ON HIS RACE: “We tried to top off the fuel tank early under yellow and then do a two-stopper. But the Fuzzy’s car wasn’t very good on the Black Firestones. I thought the car felt good with the Firestone Red tires. We ran some pretty consistent laps for a while there. We committed to a strategy with just two stops and it just didn’t work out for us. This track is tough and it is very hard to move forward. We had a good first day here and I disappointed myself on Saturday in qualifying. But today I felt the car was better and we learned some things for the future. We had a pretty good at St. Pete and I think we’ll have a good run at Long Beach now. At the end of the today, we have to take the positives and move on.”
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY.COM ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 26TH – AS A RESULT OF DAMAGE RECEIVED IN MULTI-CAR INCIDENT ON LAP 1 AND STOPPED ON LAP 3 OF THE 90-LAP RACE: ON WHAT HAPPENED: “From what I have been told, we all piled into turn eight; I was behind Tony (Kanaan). From what I hear, (Graham) Rahal hit (Oriol) Servia who got in the back of me. I got in the back of Tony a little bit, but it was pretty square, and it didn’t do any damage to the front. I knew I had gotten hit, but everything was fine at first, but I guess, under caution, things started to work itself loose. As I started to warm the tires up, the wheel actually broke, that was what it was. That goodness it happened under caution where it did, because there are a lot of fast parts of this race track where if your wheel goes flying, it could have been really big. If there is anything to take out of this weekend, it’s all we did is lose a wheel, and didn’t write-off a car.”
ON NOT BEING ABLE TO GET BACK TO PIT LANE: “It was frustrating to sit there for 75 laps, watching everybody else go around, when you can ‘t do anything. Thank goodness Ryan (Hunter-Reay had a good race, he was keeping me excited. I stayed out there the last 15 laps with the safety crew, who are awesome by-the-way. They were trying everything to get me back. It was just awesome to watch Ryan get the win. Happy for him. Two weekends in a row Andretti Autosport on the top step of the podium, and that is what it is all about.
“Certainly not the race that we wanted, but it wasn’t really our weekend at all. You know we had problems in practice, obviously the issue we had in qualifying, and then got hit on the first lap of the race. It’s too bad because I think the strategy we had with the tires was going to be a good one, and obviously the car was strong with Ryan bringing home the win. It sucked to have to sit there – praying for a yellow, staying in the car, hoping we’d get the car back to the pits and maybe salvage a position or two. But ultimately it didn’t work out for us; just one more thing that didn’t fall our way this weekend. We kind of laugh it off because there’s nothing else you can do at this point – put it behind us and move on to Long Beach, and try to put the Go Daddy car into a better position.”
