CHEVROLET IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
WISCONSIN 250 AT MILWAUKEE INDYFEST
MILWAUKEE MILE
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
JULY 12, 2015
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXY – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: HAVE YOU EVER HAD SUCH A DOMINATING WIN?“Yeah, here! Nine years ago. It was just like that, today. It’s just unbelievable. We were talking about it yesterday, at these places. Sometimes you’ve got it; and when it’s right, boy, it’s really, really good.”
YOU SAID WHEN YOU CAME BACK TO THE INDYCAR SERIES; YOU WERE OVERCOMPENSATING FOR YOUR DRIVING, AND THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO DO BETTER THAN THE CAR. DID YOU HAVE A FIRST-PLACE CAR TODAY?
“I think that’s pretty clear (laughs).”
YOU ALSO SAID YOU LIKE BEING THE UNDERDOG IN TAKING IT TO THE BIGGER TEAMS. HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL? “Oh, it’s pretty sweet. Like we say all the time, when we get the job done and beat all these guys with what we’ve got, a great group of guys with great sponsors, you’ve got to feel good about it. And, today, we just executed and overcame what looked like a messed up break for us, and we just made it work on the track.”
JIMMY VASSER, TEAM OWNER – NO. 11: YOUR DRIVER SEBASTIAN BOURDAIS BROUGHT YOUR CHEVROLET HOME FOR THE SECOND VICTORY OF 2015, HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL?“It’s just awesome, especially here at Milwaukee because it’s such a historic place. It was one of my favorite tracks when I was racing here. In the fashion he did it….we put ourselves on a different strategy to be able to let him go when he could and then in the box saving fuel. He lapped the field. It was awesome.”
KEVIN KALKOVEN, TEAM OWNER – NO. 11: ON BOURDAIS VICTORY:
“It’s just amazing how he drove through it. When he came out with his new tires he came out in about eighth place and he was in first place in I think eight laps. It was just an amazing piece of driving.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND:: ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT A SECOND PLACE FINISH AFTER STARTING AT THE BACK“Yeah, it certainly was a tough one and was very difficult to pass. I was trying, I was forcing, I was pushing and doing anything I could. I didn’t mind running that close to a guy with experience, it was no problem, but I was moving. Will (teammate, Power) was the hardest one (to pass) to be honest. He gave me a hard time. But at the end of the day it was a great race and my No. 3 Chevrolet was great, but the 11 car seemed to be really fast. I heard that he lapped everyone in the field, but at one point I said, ‘man, those guys in front of me don’t have the tires and I have got to push,’ and I pushed as hard as I could. Disappointing but at the end of the day we got a few points toward the championship and we should probably move up a little bit.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “It was completely my mistake on the pit road speeding penalty. I had my finger on the (pit road speed) button but it’s really bumpy getting onto pit road so I don’t if I didn’t hit it, or if I hit it twice. That put us behind a bit. With about 120 laps to go I told the guys that I think we can make it on one more stop and we did it! It’s great. Our Verizon Chevy was really good today. We grew our points lead with only four races to go. The crowd was fantastic. We always want to see the stands full when we race. It was a solid crowd today and that made it more fun behind the wheel.”
YOU DID EXTEND YOUR POINTS LEAD BUT DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS RACE WITHOUT THE PIT ROAD SPEEDING PENALTY? “Early on we had it and could keep up with Bourdais pretty easy. Then at the end we made some changes and the car wasn’t as good, but everybody at Team Penske did an amazing job and the Verizon Chevy was good again. I don’t know what happened with the pit violation. I got there and pressed the button and it just didn’t click. When I got back on the gas it just jumped and I was like, ‘oh no’ on the radio. Everybody asked what and I said you are going to hear in a second.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “We just had to do too much work later in the week to try and get by people. I could only get so many spots, but our car was fast. It’s been fast all weekend, the Direct Supply guys really put an amazing car together for us. It’s just that I needed clean air, probably more so than other guys. To get that was difficult. When we had it in the beginning, I think we were the fastest car in the field for sure. It was all about track position today, we lost out on that a little bit but it was still a great effort and a great weekend for CFH Racing.
“In clean air it was incredible for sure and was a fast race car. It has been fast all weekend and I think people knew this and knew we were quick. It’s just that when we got in dirty air we just couldn’t make as much happen as others. I don’t think anyone was good in dirty air today though. The Ganassi guys were probably slightly stronger, but even there at the end the same thing that happened to Scott (Dixon) happened to me. I got loose behind (Juan Pablo) Montoya and lost it and he got me and then the same thing happened to Dixon. So no one was good in dirty air and it was all about track position. Today it didn’t really fall in our favor with the way that the track position played out. We got behind Dixon and then we probably pitted at the wrong point, but you can never really predict that stuff and you just try and make the best call. I think the team did a great job in trying to call it right and sometimes it works your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: “I love racing here at the Milwaukee Mile and today’s race was a fun one to be a part of. The No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet was fast and we proved that by running up near the front all day. I think we had a chance to finish higher than sixth, but it just didn’t happen for us. A sixth-place finish is okay, but I obviously would’ve been much happier with a win. It is what it is and now we’ll shift our focus to Iowa.”
WHERE THE YELLOW WORKED WELL FOR SOME, IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER FOR YOU “Yeah, but this is racing. You can’t say if-if-if. This is racing. It was a good race. I think this one-day event really worked. There are a lot of people here, so hopefully, we’ll be back again next year. But it was a good race.”
WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE? IT IS A DRIVER’S TRACK. HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS PLACE? “Oh, especially the first two stints, when the track was a little green and the sun was still out, it was extremely difficult. Nobody could really pass anybody. Even when we caught traffic, we had to drive it. I love this place. I’ve always enjoyed racing here. I had a lot of fun. Obviously, finishing top 6; it’s okay. I would rather have finished a little bit better. But, it is what it is.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 COTTONELLE CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “We had a tough day with the Cottonelle car. We went off sequence and led for a while and the race kind of came to us later on with the way the yellows fell. In the end we shuffled back a bit and lost some valuable points which is tough to swallow with just four races to go. We’ll keep fighting though and be ready to make up ground in Iowa next weekend.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “It was a good run. We started 17th. We missed the balance a little bit in qualifying. Milwaukee isn’t an easy place to pass. I’m pretty happy. Once again, it was a really good performance but again, the results don’t exactly show the performance. I’m fairly happy. I think we made a good improvement on the setup for the car and the way I want it. Now, we are working for next year really and we are starting to scratch the surface. We don’t get any testing so it is good we do it during the race. It just takes time to get a team to fully come together. I’m being patient here and we are getting there. The guys were amazing during pit stops today. It is just details to work on. Most of these guys have been with the team for a long time, so I’m pretty happy where we are at. We just need this year to learn and we will come back stronger next year. Congrats to Chevy for winning with my fellow Frenchman Seb (Bourdais). Very happy for him. He is having an incredible season.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “Our finish was a good recovery from where we started. It was a long, tough day. We had a decent shot with the way the pit stops cycled through. We were running third on the last restart, but we were the last car in line on old tires. It was really tough in dirty air in today, we needed to be better in those conditions but I think even the best cars struggled in traffic on old tires. At the end of the day, from what happened in qualifying to get a Top 10 and finally finish a race, I’ll take it as a positive. To have one top five and one top ten today, with Josef’s first pole, all in all it was a good weekend for the entire team.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: “It was a tough race today at the Milwaukee Mile. I was happy with the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen for most of the race today – we just couldn’t ever get up front. We started the race off really challenging with the handling and it just got better and better throughout the afternoon. I’m happy for my teammates with two of them finishing in the top 10. We’ll just shift our focus to Iowa and make sure we’re ready to go next weekend.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 8 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BIG MACHINE RECORDS CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH : “The marbles are just so bad here. I was trying to make it one more stop to get the fuel mileage the team was asking me to get. We were getting the mileage, but they said don’t lose any positions while doing it too. So I was just racing really hard there with Chaves. And I guess it was just a racing thing. I’m trying to hold my line. He’s trying to hold his. I got on the right side of the marbles and once that happened the car just wouldn’t turn and we had contact with the wall.”
STEFANO COLETTI, NO. 4 KVRACING TECHNOLOTY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH:
WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22nd: WHAT HAPPENED? “I saw Ryan start to spin there so I went out wide to try and miss him, and he clipped me and I went up into the wall.” ON CHAMPIONSHIP: “There is no question it is going to make it tough, but we will keep focused and go on to the next one.”
WILL, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU ALMOST GOT AROUND THE OUTSIDE: “Yeah, I saw him start to spin and I thought that if I gassed it a bit I could get by, but unfortunately I didn’t and he clipped me and ended our day.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MINDSET WHEN THIS SEEMS TO BE THE YEAR WHERE THESE KINDS OF THINGS KEEP HAPPENING? “Yeah, you kind of get frustrated but you just have to keep moving on. Eventually it will change and we will have one go right for us. Just got to keep focused and move on to the next one.”
YOU WERE VERY VOCAL ABOUT THE RACING STYLE IN FONTANA, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RACING STYLE HERE? “Yeah it was actually very hard to pass here. There is the accident (watches accident on monitor)…okay. I did go in head first. I thought I went in backwards. Yeah, it was just difficult to pass and obviously there is a lot more downforce this year. When you get close to pass you lose a lot of it and we were right in the thick of it.”