CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE 600
POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – WINNER
YOU HAD A GOOD FEELING ABOUT TONIGHT:
“Yeah, I mean I knew we had a good car. We had a good test here back a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago whenever it was. I just felt like we left some on the table in qualifying, but it made me extra motivated for tonight. The first two stints weren’t great. Had one bad stint, but the guys just made great adjustments all night. The Fuzzy’s car was hooked up by the end. I think we were for sure the car to beat at the end. I was a little worried about that last yellow. I knew guys were going to come in. We talked about what we would do in that situation and we were kind of undecided. But Tim and the boys made the right call. Awesome night. I have loved this race track for a long time and had a lot of bad luck here. I have really always wanted to win here, so super excited.”
IS WINNING HERE SOME WHAT OF REDEMPTION FROM INDY?
“Yeah for sure. We had the car to win Indy. I’m not saying we would have beat Ryan (Hunter-Reay) but I think we were the best shot to have a shot at Ryan. It’s nice to come back here and get a win. I’m really proud of the team two wins already this year. It’s a good year. All the credit goes to these guys. Awesome pit stops they give Mike Conway and I both great cars and obviously to Fuzzy’s Vodka for making this all happen.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2ND
IN REGARDS TO LAP TRAFFIC LATE IN THE RACE:
“Yeah, I don’t know what they were doing. What an awesome call by my team to get tires. I thought I just screwed it up for them again and got another drive through. That is four drive throughs in five races it is not good enough. Anyone who says I don’t get drive throughs or penalties are crazy man. I get them every race.”
YOU HAD LOST THE LEAD TO ED CARPENTER THERE LATE THAT WAS ALSO BECAUSE OF TRAFFIC WITHOUT THE PENALTY WOULD YOU HAVE WON THIS RACE?
“I don’t know. It’s hard to say Ed (Carpenter) was awful strong. He is an awesome driver and it would have been a good battle there at the end. My car was good at the end of stints. But real happy for the Verizon car to come in second and just a lot of fun.”
THE CALL WAS THERE ANY HESITATION TO COME DOWN AND TAKE TIRES?
“Tim Cindric and Dave, my engineer they always put me in great positions. I was just happy to get back to second. It was just an awesome last lap.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD
IT SOUNDED LIKE YOUR TEAM CALLED YOU IN TO PIT THERE UNDER THAT LAST CAUTION, YOU STAYED OUT WHAT WAS THE RIGHT CALL?
“Well the right call was they said ‘pit’ and then they said ‘do whatever the leader does’. So I did what the leader did. It was one of those cautions. The thing that is disappointing is they have some cones for the restart and he went probably two or three hundred yards before. How does it work? I mean what is the rule? If you are going to let them restart anywhere then don’t put the cones. But if you put the cones it’s like NASCAR you have the two lines and you have to respect them. Hopefully they really look at it because I think it was a bit of a joke.”
THERE WAS ALSO A CLOSE CALL WITH YOU AND CARLOS HUERTAS AND IT LOOKED LIKE YOU MAYBE EXCHANGED SOME WORDS?
“We talked about in the drivers meeting about closing up and staying close. If we were going to pit I wanted to be as close to (Ed) Carpenter as possible. The response was staying back and then turning down and hitting my front wing and everything. That is just not paying attention. Overall I think our Verizon car was amazing today. Everybody on Team Penske did an amazing job. We had a flat tire right at the beginning and drove through the whole field so that was fun.”
DO YOU FEEL GOOD LIKE THE JUAN PABLO MONTOYA OF OLD?
“Yeah every week we are getting better, we are getting there. I don’t know I was kind of pissed off at that restart because you know what I mean you are expecting for them to go in a zone and that is why they have the zone. For them to not respect it is kind of unfair.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 5TH
“It’s good to get some points here in the Target car at Texas. We hadn’t been strong the last two races here so it was a relief to finish I guess. Not the result we wanted but we’ll take it and go on to the next race in Houston.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE FINISHING THIS RACE IN THE TOP FIVE TONIGHT YOU EARNED IT?
“Yeah, I think the racing was fantastic and I hope we put on a good show for the fans. It was good to see a strong crowd out here tonight, thank them big time. I’m just actually glad I got to the end. The car was so loose the whole race I hardly had to turn left. It was an interesting night really. We had some strong stints and then some stints where we fell off really big so big thanks to everybody on Team Target. We had some close calls in the pits there with (Ryan) Hunter-Reay and Ed (Carpenter) on some of those cross overs when people were out of sequence. Not a bad night we got some decent points it’s nice to finish here I haven’t finished here for a couple of years.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 SUAVE FOR MEN TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 6TH
“We had a good car I think and were able to challenge for the lead early on. The Suave For Men team did a great job tonight. We ran strong but that’s not enough for this team. We had to change the steering wheel near the end but made that time back up on track. The racing was exciting tonight and we are definitely improving.”
THAT LAST STOP YOU STAYED OUT IF YOU WOULD HAVE HAD FRESH TIRES COULD YOU HAVE GIVEN IT A BIT MORE?
“For sure the tires made a lot of difference, but it was a risk that we decided not to take. I got to thank the Target Chip Ganassi boys they did a great job for me in the pits. It was a fun race. Obviously, I think the tire degradation played a big role in the end of the race. It was one of those things either you pitted and it was not going to work out or it was going to work out. We decided not to and unfortunately it got us. We got some pretty good points we move up in the championship so turn the page and head to the next one.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS PROGRAM IS SORT OF PROGRESSING?
“It has to. We are a team that is capable of winning championships so we have got to get better. I think we are getting better. We are not all the way up there yet. I don’t think we had a car to win the race today so we need to work on it. That is what we are going to do that is why we have good people. We are going to go test this week and we will see what happens.”
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 7TH
“It was another hard-fought race for NTT DATA Racing and the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet. We started in 13th, so it feels good to end in the top 10 in seventh. We’re still not where we want to be at the checkered flag, but we’re getting closer. We have a couple of weeks off until Houston and we’ll be able to get some good testing time in next week at Iowa and Milwaukee. I’m looking forward to the double-header.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVO NORDISK GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 8TH
“Overall it was a pretty good night for the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Chevrolet. The
Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew did a great job in the pits and it’s great to see all four Chip Ganassi Racing cars in the top eight. This is honestly probably one of the hardest mental races that I’ve ever competed in. The car slides around so much at the end of a stint and you go from driving at 213 mph laps to 190 mph laps. We’ll take another top 10 finish and stick with our streak of every time we see a checkered flag; we end in the top 10.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AAA INSURANCE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10TH
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 14TH
“It was quite a long race out there, but I’m so proud of the whole Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc – KV AFS Racing guys. It’s been a long weekend for us as we never had a strong car but we never gave up the fight. We should of had a top-10 finish, but I made a mistake hitting the outside rear tire in Will Power’s pit box and received a drive through penalty very late in the race, which cost me some places. Overall it wasn’t the position we wanted but hopefully we will learn from here and apply it to Houston in a couple of weeks’ time.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 HYDROXYCUT KVSH RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 20TH
“I haven’t seen the replay, but in talking with Justin (Wilson) he had a run and I thought I had blocked the inside. Apparently I left just enough room that he put his nose in there and when I heard ‘looking inside’ (from the spotter) I moved to the right but it was too late. I guess he hit the apron and just caught me as he was pulling out. I won’t say it was my fault or his fault. It was just a racing incident. If it is my fault I apologize. It is a shame because the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing team struggled this weekend, but we keep working and were having a decent race.”