CHEVROLET IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MAVTV 500
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
FONTANA, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING QUOTES
JUNE 26, 2015
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: “It’s good. We’ve been working really hard on the No. 22 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet Team – it’s a brand new team. It’s gelling really well and I’m super happy to get a superspeedway pole. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s a totally different day tomorrow. This (pole) is nice, but frankly, you can win from the back in a 500 mile race. Lots of traffic tomorrow and it’s going to be important to keep your tires underneath you. Being able to run in different lanes and being smart in traffic is going to be key. And obviously there is going to be a lot of pit stops too – so there’s a lot for tomorrow, but I’m just going to take this tonight and enjoy it.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “I’m happy – the performance was very consistent. Wow, to be able to do two laps exactly the same shows that the car is good, and also very consistent. The challenge is the temperature, you know, it’s very slippery when it gets very hot. It can be very challenging. Even when you have several lanes to go the car sometimes just wants to go one way and that’s the biggest (challenge) – trying to find new lines without having any huge moments.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 4TH: : “We had a good qualifying run, that was a lot better than we’ve been able to show on the first two ovals. The win and second place in Toronto gave us good momentum and the week off was really good, too. We had been struggling on the ovals and the week off really gave us a chance to get immersed in what our problems were and come up with some good ideas to come here and get back on track. I just have to thank all the guys on the team, mechanics, engineers, everybody, for putting in the hard work to get the cars driving nice again.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG AUTOMOTIVE REFINISH TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: “It was an okay run for the PPG Chevrolet. I figured it would end up somewhere around fourth to sixth and we ended up fifth. The car drives really well. We can make our way to the front easily from where we are starting. It’s a long race. Anything can, and probably will, happen. If we are solid on pit road all day then we should be right there at the end.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “I think we have a really good car in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet, but with some of the changes we made between the second practice and qualifying we just missed a little. The good thing about qualifying on a track like this one is that your starting position isn’t as important as it might be on a road course. There are so many lanes to make passes and lines to take that if you have a fast race car, it won’t take you long to make it back to the front.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 DEGREE CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “We missed it for some reason so I’ll have to go back and talk it over with the team as to why we were hitting the rev limiter. The winds definitely picked up and the conditions were ideal. We tried to run the bottom but there was still some quick dry down on the track and it got pretty slick. Overall missing it in qualifying isn’t that big of a deal and it’s a 500-mile race and I know we have a good Degree Chevrolet for the race.”
WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: “Definitely wanted to be a bit faster than that in practice, but we didn’t event do a qualifying simulation during the practice sessions. I picked up a big push on the first lap of qualifying and had to lift, which killed the entire run. It is a long race and we just have to have a consistent race car and make our way up front. If you’re near the front in the final 20 laps, you have a chance (to win).”
SAGE KARAM , NO. 8 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BIG MACHINE RECORDS CHIP GANASSI RACNING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: “I never went low in turns three and four and I tried that during qualifying. That took a lot of guts for me to just say ‘I’m going to do this’, but I made a little mistake on my last lap and I chose the wrong gear and hit the rev limiter. I think we would have been a little higher up the scoring pylon but we’ll learn from it and move on.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO., 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: : “I was surprised, when I saw Ed (Carpenter’s) lap I got excited and we didn’t have the same speed. The car was good and will be good for tomorrow, we just didn’t have the speed tonight. Ed has always been good in the race here and hopefully that helps us tomorrow. We definitely did a lot of homework after Texas. The break was good, not just for me but for the entire team. We had more time to prep our cars more than most races and that has paid off here so far.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO., 83 LEVEMIR FLEXTOUCH CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “Obviously the Chip Ganassi Racing Teams cars are fast here with how we’ve all practiced and how the top three qualified in the top 10. I have a lot of confidence in the No. 83 Levemir® FlexTouch® Chevrolet in race trim. We were really racy during the first practice, especially when we were running on older tires and running sets longer than most people would. I’m definitely disappointed that we weren’t able to stay in the top-10 for qualifying, but I think we have a really good chance to move quickly to the front and finish strong tomorrow in the race.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM MISTIC E-CIGS – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 15TH: “We were just a little too aggressive with the balance of the car. It was oversteering (loose). I also made a mistake. I was freaking out a little bit on the second lap between turn one and two and forgot to downshift into fifth gear, so we were a bit low on the RPM and that killed the second lap. It was a good effort by the Mistic guys and the Chevy power was strong again. We had a bit of a disjointed second practice and we didn’t get through all the items we wanted to do. We gave it our best shot in qualifying. Now we just keep working and see what we can come up with for the race tomorrow.”
STEFANO COLETTI, NO. 4 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST: “I wasn’t able to fully trim my car in the practice sessions leading up to qualifying, so it was a little difficult for me to know how the car was going to handle. Unfortunately it was very loose and on my second lap I almost lost it in all four turns, but luckily held on and brought it back to the pits. I now need to sit down with my engineers and look at the data and we will decide on the changes we will make for the race tomorrow.”