CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES
NOTES AND QUOTES
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
INDIANAPOLIS (May 25, 2014)
DRIVER QUOTES – TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS POST RACE QUOTES:
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL ULTRA PLATINUM TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: TELL US ABOUT THE END THERE : “With all the emotions flowing, I want to say something, but say the right thing. Finishing second doesn’t take away from the performance that we had. I wanted to give this to Roger so bad and I was pushing extremely hard and it was a great fight. I tell you guys what, it was great for TV and I was having a great time, and unfortunately second is good, but it sucks.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GO BACK AND FORTH AND NOT GET IT? “So close but so far. The boys did a great job. Shell-Pennzoil, AAA, Verizon – just everybody. We had outstanding pit stops and everything was working well, just the good news is that second sucks but its good points. So hopefully it wasn’t that bad of a deal. I think I feel like Marco in 2006. He lost in the last straightaway and I lost in the last lap. Congrats to Ryan Hunter-Reay and Andretti Autosport. They did a great job and I am so upset that I didn’t get the 16th win for Roger.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “Unfortunately I made a mistake on one of the pit stops when I was resetting the fuel. I pressed the wrong button. We got a penalty for that but we came back. I was proud of the way we fought. I don’t think we had anything for the (Ryan) Hunter-Reay or Helio (Castroneves). But I was happy with the Verizon Chevy and it was good to be back in Indy. It was cool to watch them swap the lead back and forth of the final laps. I had a good seat for it. I just wish we were in the middle of it, but we just had too much understeer at the end.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 HYDROXYCUT/MISTIC E-CIGS – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “Not a great day, but a good day. I am really happy for the Hydroxycut/Mistic E-Cigs crew. We struggled a bit with the car the whole month, but we stuck with it and got the best out of it today. We didn’t start in the front so it was a challenge to get there. Overall it was a strong performance, a good result and we got double points. Now we move on to Detroit.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 22 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BRANTLEY GILBERT DREYER & REINBOLD KINGDOM RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: Hats off to my team. They did an awesome job. The Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom boys gave me an awesome car. It was stable all day and I was able to come from the back and get a top 10 – I will take it! 150 laps straight of green-flag racing takes a toll on you. My foot even hurts from the vibrations of keeping it flat for so long. Now I know why they say this is the hardest race to win in the world. We were looking good, we were running in eighth when a yellow flag came out right when I pitted. We ended up going a lap down and had to get the wave around and go to the back of the filed. It messed up our strategy, if we were out for another lap or so I belie we could have been in the top five. They team did awesome. I had so much fun out there. I am so grateful and blessed to have just run in the Indy 500.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “Any day that you are not sitting in victory lane and drinking the milk, it’s a disappointment. For us, the Preferred Freezer Service Chevy team, it’s frustrating because we had a really good car. We had an issue with a tire that got us out of the pit sequence. The car got bad with the tire issue. I had to pit or I was going to crash. But the car was fast. We passed a ton of guys today including in the end. It was nice earlier when we jumped from ninth to third and I was running with Ed. I’m happy for Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and it’s a bummer for Ed. We had really good cars today. It was fun to drive the ECR car. In those first few stints, the car was just a pleasure to drive. I’m happy the car is in one piece and I think we showed we had some speed today. We had the pace of the leaders and I ran with all of the those guys at one time today. As the track got hotter, the other guys were sliding around so much. So I felt without that early pit stop, we would have been right there too. We got caught out a little by the late yellow flag. I had to come back and pass a lot of cars. To run up front, you need a great equipment and level head on your shoulders. Frankly, I’m disappointed with tenth. We had a stronger car. It was fun to race with the ECR guys. I would love to get into a full-time deal with this team. This team is very good.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AFS KV-AFS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH:
“15th place is very welcomed after a very long day out there. I am very proud of my KV AFS Racing boys because they never gave up. We didn’t have the best car, but we kept fighting and even with a broken wing at the end we still never gave up. We were able to pick up some great points today, which will help us towards the championship. We will come back stronger next year but from where we started in 32nd, survive and finish 15th was a huge accomplishment.”
TOWNSEND BELL, NO. 6 ROBERT GRAHAM – KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 25TH – CONTACT: “I got hit in that three-wide on the restart in the left rear and earlier in the race with (Tony) Kanaan when I was inside of him and he was squeezing me, I clipped the wall with the left rear. It just knocked it too much out of toe. It was loose all race and then in the end, I was just trying to go for it to see if we could get to the front. You don’t get those chances very often, but unfortunately the left rear just took too much pounding during the day to make it work and it got away from me. I hate to end that way. That was a pretty good hit. I’ll be pretty sore.”
ON THE THREE-WIDE RESTART WITH CARPENTER AND HINCHCLIFFE THAT DAMAGED HIS CAR “I thought I was side-by-side with just Ed (Carpenter) in turn one. I didn’t realize someone else, I think it was Hinch maybe, had forced three-wide, which is pretty optimistic. I haven’t seen a replay but I would guess Ed didn’t have anywhere to go. I was giving him room for one car, I didn’t know there was a third one that had ducked in. Nonetheless, I thought we would just hang on there in the top five. We didn’t really have anything to charge to the front, given the way the toe was knocked out.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE WATCHING THE END OF THE RACE FROM THE MEDICAL CENTER?
“It just sucks. Should be out there racing with those guys.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 26TH:
“It’s tough really. Our day was pretty much over before it started with the issues we had on pit lane. When you go that many laps down you simply cannot recover. I always say this place chooses the winner and unfortunately today she didn’t chose us.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 27TH – CONTACT: “Hinch (James Hinchcliffe) tried to make three wide in turn one with 25 laps to go. Not a smart move. It wrecked both of our races. I told him if he didn’t have a concussion last week that I would have punched in the face. It wasn’t a green-white-checkered situation. Of all of the guys out there, I wouldn’t have thought it would be Hinch. I am pretty good friends with him and those guys at Andretti. I think he just didn’t use his head right then.
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 29TH – CONTACT:&nb
sp; “I just lost it. All of a sudden the car just started sliding and that was it. I’m just bummed for Chip and all the of the people that work so hard at Team Target. It just wasn’t our day today.”
BUDDY LAZIER, NO. 91 WYNN INSTITUTE FOR VISION RESEARCH CHEVROLET, FINISHED 32ND – MECHANICAL: “The Wynn Vision Research car was really good. We had to make some adjustments like everybody. It seemed like at the end of a run, when tires got worn out, the car came back to us. I was really strong at the end of runs. We were making just slight adjustments that were making the car very happy. On our first stop, I couldn’t engage the clutch, which also made it tough coming through the gears coming in to the pit. It would stick in each gear. It was eventually the clutch line that put us out. What was really impressive though, back up to speed, the car was strong. We were really able to suck up to the pack ahead of us. So, it hurts that much more when you know the car had potential, and the Wynn Vision Research car had potential.”
