CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG (FLORIDA)
POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: HOW WAS THE VIEW FOR YOU FROM THE COCKPIT?
“It was good. Our Verizon Chevy was great and it’s exciting with this new paint scheme and to come out and win with it. I want to thank everybody on the team and all of our supporters because they do an amazing job. No, it’s all good, it’s just awesome. You know, we started the year last year like this and I thought this morning that we had a really good car and it paid off.”
THE DISAPPOINTMENT YOU HAD LAST YEAR IN NOT WINNING, HAS IT TURNED INTO NEW FOUND DETERMINATION FOR THIS YEAR?
“No, last year we did what we had to do and it just didn’t happen. This year, we came here not thinking about it and just tried to be as fast as possible and see what it does.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: I KNOW YOU WANTED THE VICTORY TODAY BUT IT WAS HARD CORE RACING OUT THERE ON THE STREETS OF ST. PETE? “Yeah, when you give an inch to Juan Pablo, he is going to take it. I was really close to TK and I had to lift because he took all the aero out of my car. Juan had a good run and it is what it is. At the end of the day when you look at last year, and you look at where we are now, you look at the work of the mechanics and the work of the strategist….it was awesome. So we are very happy with this start to the season.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “It was a great day for Team Penske. With three laps to go it was very difficult because I was on black tires and everybody else was on reds. I was hanging on with my life. The Hitachi Chevy was very good but a little bit difficult in some of the corners with some understeer. Great Strategy; great work! Everybody did a heck of a job. Ready for the next race.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET,FINISHED 7TH: “Unfortunately we had a radiator that was clogged and overheating and there was nothing we could do. We had to pit off sequence so the Target team could get it cleaned up. That stop took a while and put us to the back. We were fortunate that the one big incident took half the field out and let us gain some positions back. But if we didn’t have that problem early on we were definitely looking at a podium finish.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: Not the day we wanted to have for the NTTA DATA team. We fought and fought and sometimes you just have to make the best of the situation. Given the way the race played out for us I was happy to get the car home and salvage the race with a 9th-place finish.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVO NORDISK CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “It was quite an exciting day for the first race of the season. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing car was really quick when we got in clean air. Unfortunately we had a few mechanical gremlins that crept in during the last third of the race. I’m happy we were able to come away with a top-10 finish. The team today was great and really had clean pit stops so thanks again to them. A lot of credit to all the guys. We’ll figure it all out and come back stronger.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: Max Chilton, No. 8 Gallagher Chevrolet: “It looked like a very promising day from the start for the Gallagher team as we were doing the same lap times as the majority of the cars around us. We were working our way forward and up to around P10 when we had an overheating problem. We had to make a long stop to clean out the radiator and get the temps back down, and then another final stop to address the same issue
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: NOTE SERVIA WAS SUBBING FOR POLE WINNER WILL POWER DUE TO ILLNESS: “It was crazy from the beginning to the middle to the end! I was pleased I had the pace in the warm-up, although the last few tenths is what we just didn’t have time to find,
In the race, I’d say I was the limit, my arms, not the car. I can tell you, I was very pleased to see that first yellow.But I’m very grateful to the team, it was a fantastic car, a fantastic opportunity, but I wish it didn’t happen because of Will. He is a good friend.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “Obviously, not the way we wanted to start the season. I am disappointed for our sponsors and want to thank all of them, Hydroxycut, Europa, Mouser, Molex, Plantronics, GEICO, American Racing Wheels, everyone, for their support. The good news is that we had pace and qualified eighth. Unfortunately, we got involved in that melee that destroyed any chance we had of a solid finish. This is only the first race and we are going to have to work very hard to ensure we have a good season. Hopefully, with a couple of weeks to prepare for the next few races, that time together will help.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “We didn’t have the start we wanted. We were playing the catch up game right from the beginning, but I felt confident in what we could do to catch up and make a good day out of it. Instead, we ran into an electrical glitch and it ended up putting us out for the day. It’s a shame, we brought a first class effort with the Fuzzy’s crew, but it just wasn’t our day. You’re going to have bumps in the road and this was one of those bumps, we just have to try to minimize how many of these we have a year. Now we have bounce back and focus on Phoenix.”