CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK (ALABAMA)
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP
APRIL 24, 2016

Simon Pagenaud Wins at Barber

· Second consecutive victory for Pagenaud, who has finished first or second in the first four races of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season
· Pagenaud continues to lead standings as series moves to Indianapolis for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis
· Josef Newgarden finishes third to give Chevrolet two podium finishers
· Chevrolet IndyCar drivers captured four of top-five and eight of top-10 finishing positions

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 24, 2016) – Simon Pagenaud and the No. 22 Chevrolet team are on a roll. Starting from the pole, the driver of the No. 22 PPG Automotive Finishes Team Penske Chevy led 84 laps of the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on the way to his second consecutive victory and sixth of his Verizon IndyCar Series career.

The race came down to a side-by-side battle with second-place Graham Rahal (Honda) in the closing laps of the 90-lap/207-mile race around the 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course. After exchanging the lead, Rahal was chasing Pagenaud when on-track contact with a slower car damaged Rahal’s car, and Pagenaud sprinted off to win by 13.7476 seconds.

“I’m just so excited,” said Pagenaud. “Yes it was another green-flag race, but we made it exciting at the end for the fans, which is great. I’m happy there was some action! That was impressive. Thanks to everyone. We are just on a roll. The car is amazing. I’m so comfortable driving the PPG Chevrolet.”

Pagenaud has either won or finished second in all four races thus far in the 2016 season, and with today’s win he extended his points lead to 48 points over reigning Series’ champion Scott Dixon. Dixon brought his No. 9 Target Coca-Cola Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to the checkered in 10th position after recovering from contact in the rear of the car on the first lap.

Last year’s Barber Motorsports Park winner, Josef Newgarden, was charging in the final laps and brought the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet to the checkered flag in third place to give Team Chevy two of the three podium positions.

Chevrolet drivers captured four of the top-five in the final finishing order with Will Power claiming fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet; and Juan Pablo Montoya, who started last in the field after a difficult qualifying effort, came back to bring the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to a fifth-place finish.

In total, Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers grabbed eight of the top-10 spots in the finishing order. Helio Castroneves, No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet, finished seventh. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan put the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet in eighth with teammate Charlie Kimball ninth in the No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet.

After a two-week break in the action, the teams head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on Saturday, May 14th followed by preparations for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29.
Post-Race Press Conference – Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden
SIMON PAGENAUD:

THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and continue with our Verizon IndyCar Series media availability. We’re joined now by our race winner, Simon Pagenaud, driving the No. 22 PPG Team Penske car. Congratulations on back-to-back wins for you. Also Team Penske’s 180th career IndyCar victory. First of all, take us through those last few laps. I know your mind must have been going in all kinds of different directions.

SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, it was interesting with Graham there. We decided to make it exciting for the fans at the end. I guess we had a terrific race. The PPG Chevy car was just fast on the stint today. I was very comfortable on all sorts of tires. The black tires were working really well. The red tires were really good, as well.

The pit sequence actually worked out really well for us, even though we were stuck in traffic halfway through the race, and then that was a bit of an issue because I could have really gone. But once you’re behind someone, even if that someone is eighth tenths slower than you, you can’t really pass. And you obviously have to be really careful about the tire degradation when you’re behind someone. So ultimately I couldn’t really create the gap I wanted to create.

But in the end, Graham really caught up, and he gave me a good piece of driving that was amazing from him. I put my hat off to him for that. He got me really excited, and I wouldn’t say that — the redness came up after I went off track. I said, yeah, I’m going to get that one back no matter what. We had so much pace in the car that I could get back to him, and then it was about being aggressive. He got a little too aggressive over the curb, and that was my chance.

THE MODERATOR: Obviously the race started under yellow, but another pretty much green flag race all the way through. What additional challenges does that present to you as a driver?

SIMON PAGENAUD: Obviously the Indy Cars right now are the most physical we’ve had it. There’s more downforce than ever. The cars are a lot more fun to drive than they’ve ever been. The race is really high pace. The steering wheel, we don’t have power steering, so the steering wheel is really, really heavy. As the race goes on, the steering wheel gets heavier and heavier, and every time you put a new set of Firestone tires, again, it gets heavier. So by the end of the race, you’re pretty much cooked.

You’ve got to find your — you’ve got to pick up your time when you really want to push it to max attack, and other times you try to rest a little bit. I’m talking about 1 percent because you’ve got to be flat chat (phonetic) pretty much the whole time.

So it was very challenging physically. Traffic is obviously a big challenge, as well, you know, dealing with the back markers. The rules allow them to fight against the leader to stay on the lead lap, so it makes it very difficult for the leader, but it’s understandable on their side, so it is what it is. I guess it was great racing in the end.

Q. Either way, should the race officials have called something with you and Graham approaching Turn 8?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, I don’t know. I’ve got to see the review. I didn’t think it was the wrong side. I couldn’t see that he was next to me when I went for Turn 8, and that was pretty much causing the entry there. I felt like I was being pushed. I don’t know, I don’t want to sound like — I’ve obviously had enough of that. It was just a great race, and it was a great battle.

Q. He said you blocked, by the way.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Okay, fine. I won’t answer.

Q. It took you over a year to get your first Team Penske win. Now it only took you a week to get your second. How does it feel to back it up that quickly?
SIMON PAGENAUD: It feels great. I’ve got to tell you guys, the biggest thing is when your work pays off, when you work so hard and it pays off like this, it’s so rewarding. You feel so grateful. I’m very thankful for my position right now, for being in this team. They give me the best car. My engineer for the digitation, he shows every day, working so many hours with a little baby at home. Kyle Moyer, for just understanding the kind of driver I am and trying to just bring his top game every day for the strategy. That’s something you need to learn, and we get along really well now.

First and foremost, it’s the crew. Pit stops are just flawless. We never think about it anymore. We don’t even think about are we going to be in the pits. It’s just, no, are we going to be T1 in the pits this time. So it’s the whole team, and it’s not just me. I’m definitely driving my best right now, but they’re also doing the best job they can do.

Q. You mentioned that Graham went up on the curb and gave you a chance. Did you know he had run into another car and had damaged his wing and was kind of a sitting duck there?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Kyle told me that he had a damaged front wing, and then when he was coming back — when he was gaining time on me when I was behind, I believe it was Mikhail or Seb, I could see his line in Turn 2 was really strange. I could see he was going really wide, so I knew even if he passed me, that would be my chance back, Turn 2. I knew he was struggling there, but he looked pretty good everywhere else. It’s not like he was struggling that much. Then when he got around me, then I saw that he was really, really struggling in 2, and that was going my chance.

Q. He ended up hitting Hawksworth while he was leading and damaged the wing a second time after he had already passed you.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I didn’t know about that. No, I just saw that he went in the grass. I did see something flying when he went in the grass in Turn 9, and then I took my chance right away. I knew he was struggling. I saw that he wasn’t confident in his car, so I took a chance right there.

Q. How difficult was the middle portion of the race when you were kind of stuck behind Conor? Did you think he should move over, or was he fair to defend his position?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I’ve been in that position before. I was there. It’s the judgment call from the driver. It’s the rules. He’s just playing by the rules, and that’s his right. I used to get upset about it, but now I understand better that it’s the rules, and if there was a yellow, he would have been back with a chance to do better. So I get it. Is it frustrating? Absolutely. I was very frustrated. But I was trying to keep my tires underneath me. I could see my gap melting. It’s just a shame we don’t have the Lucky Dog because then you could really race, and it would be more respectful between drivers, also. But that’s another topic.

But he did everything by the rules, and I have nothing to be upset about.

Q. Team Penske won both big races at Indy last year with Will Power winning the Grand Prix and Juan winning the Indy 500. You won the first Grand Prix there. This roll could continue all the way into June. Just talk about what’s out there within your reach.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I’ve been thinking about the Indy Grand Prix for a while because that is one of my favorite tracks, certainly favorite road course, and great memories from winning the inaugural Grand Prix there. It’s the kickoff for the month of May. Great memories from the Indy 500 last year, leading a lot of laps. I’m very excited for May.

I’m actually relieved that we are about to get to May. I’m going to work really hard the next two weeks with Ben to try to understand how we can just do exactly what we did today at the Indy Grand Prix, and then it’s going to be oval time, superspeedways, so it’s going to be a different story, so just have to work and study.

Q. Do you think that being in this environment at Team Penske for a full season has actually helped you kind of relax a little bit and now we’re seeing the fruits of your labor with two straight wins?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Can you say the beginning?

Q. Being in Team Penske for an entire year, you moved to an entirely different environment, you’re able to relax now and get used to being there for a while. Has it ultimately come about now that you’re more relaxed and are used to being in Team Penske for a while now?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, absolutely. I think I said this already, but it is a big move to go to a team like this. It’s not as simple as you would think to put one of the good drivers on the best team. That doesn’t mean he’s going to win right away. All I had to do is basically do a little homework, work with my crew, my engineer, my strategist, to optimize everybody, optimize myself, too, and I think that’s exactly what we did this winter.

Confidence was up during the winter because testing went well. We went back to what worked at Schmidt for me, talking about the approach of the weekend, talking about the approach of testing in the winter, and there you are. Now it’s working.

Q. Are you expecting anything different from the competition because you’re entering the month of May ahead of everybody and having four very strong runs, being the favorite going forward so far?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I think for the Angie’s List Grand Prix we’ll be strong. I think our cars show a lot of pace in this situation. It’s going to be a lower downforce package, so the Chevys should be pretty strong, as well.

Like I said, it’s a track that really suits me. I’m hoping to be at the same level. Now the competition will catch back again. That’s the thing with Team Penske, we started so strong, now the competition is just going to catch up all year long, so the more points we can score now, the best.

And then Indy, obviously I would say at Indy, Juan Pablo’s favorite and Dixon’s for sure, so we’ll just try to be one of those favorites, too.

Q. Speaking of Juan Pablo, the old guy starts last and finishes fifth. What did you think of that?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s so amazing. How did he do that? Yeah, I guess he was hungry. I don’t know. I don’t know, I have to obviously watch the race to understand the strategy, but great job. That’s amazing.

Did he do four stops? No? Wow.

Q. Can you explain why the Grand Prix of Indy is one of your favorite tracks? Does it have to do with the length of the straightaways? It seems like it’s fairly flat.
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s for the rhythm, the rhythm of the track, the way it throws speed, but it also has a lot of very hard braking zones, and some — and the fact that it’s flat, I actually like that. I don’t really enjoy elevation changes. For me visual is very important, so that’s why I love that track, and just, like I said, I just love the rhythm. I’ve lived there for nine years, too, so I’ve got good memories in Indy.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was a long day. I mean, I thought we had a good race car. It obviously wasn’t enough for Pagenaud or Graham, but we were close. I think that’s why we were able to get third was that we were close to those guys. I think we were just about as good as Power if not a little better on blacks. Really our second stint killed us on the new red tires. I just wore them out really badly, and I couldn’t hold onto the thing. Graham got past me, we lost a lot of time, and we were just trying to play catch up after that.

I think that’s what really hurt today, but it still wasn’t enough for the top two. I think we were a third-place car, and that’s good. That’s nothing to be mad about, but we’ve got to be a little better for the next round and try and get first.

I think the Fuzzy’s guys are capable of it. We were here last year and we did the job, so we’ve got to find a little bit more, but I think the Fuzzy’s guys can do that going into the next race.

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by third-place finisher Josef Newgarden of Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. Your best finish of the season, first podium of the year, your second year on the podium here. Obviously a couple steps lower than you’d like. You came back at the end of the race and you were able to get by Will at the end. How did you do that?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: In Turn 16, for me that was the good place to do it. I think 5 was tough because you just — everyone was braking really deep, and unless someone made a mistake, it was going to be hard to do it. Well, technically Graham got me out of 6 kind of coming through 5 and 6, but I was really struggling. I mean, I think my left front was completely to the cords on that red set of tires. That’s what they said when I came in. I couldn’t even steer the thing. It just was going to go straight off the track. Unless that was happening, it was kind of hard to get someone out of 5. 16 is always a good place. Will looked like he was super loose in 13, so I was watching him those last ten laps, and I was like, this is the place where it’s going to happen.

Q. So just three hours north of here in your hometown of Nashville, there are like hundreds of thousands of people who have not tapped into this thing you do that you’ve given your life to. How does a race like today in this place make a case that they ought to get on board?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, you know what was cool this weekend was I saw a lot more people from Nashville here that told me they were from Nashville or surrounding areas of Nashville, and they said, hey, we want to root for you because you’re the closest guy that lives to us or is from our town, and they were excited to see an IndyCar race. I saw some first-timers here.

I think what we need to try and show people is that they come here to this type of race, you’re going to get treated with a lot of hospitality. Barber Motorsports Park does an amazing job of trying to create a great venue. This is one of the best tracks that we have for IndyCar racing. Outside Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it’s one of the most pristine you’re going to find. It’s very inviting. It’s a great place to view IndyCar racing in general. I think there’s so many hilltop areas that you can see a lot of the track, and then I think what most people find is that we put on a good show. Cars are kind of badass. They’re the best on the planet, I think.

You know, we’re very open. You can get into the paddock here. You can get close up to the action with the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers. You can see everything that’s going on, and I think that type of access is what people want. Verizon really creates a great environment for people to have that access, and I think people that when they come to our race, they see that for a firsthand experience, and they want to come to more.

Q. You just mentioned Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Obviously we look ahead to a huge, huge month of May starting with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Talk about what you’re looking forward to.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I’m excited to go. We didn’t have the best month of May last year. We struggled in the GP and then we didn’t have the best 500. We finished ninth, and JR was eighth. It wasn’t the worst results finishing top 10, but it’s not what we go to Indy for. The only reason you go to Indianapolis is to win the race.

We’re excited for that. I think we’ve been planning for the Indianapolis 500 for all off-season. That’s been our No. 1 priority, and I think it’s a lot of people’s priority in the IndyCar Series. It’s going to be a big month for us.

I’m excited to have JR back. He’s going to be in the GP of Indy with me, so I’ll have a teammate there, which will be great, and then obviously we’ll add Ed, as well, for the 500, so we’ll have kind of the triple American drivers trying to go for the Indianapolis 500 win, which will be pretty fun.

Q. Can you talk about how the tires compared to — some drivers on their last pit stops were on reds, some were on blacks, and I don’t know that that was really an advantage to either one of them.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, for me I found the blacks easier to handle today. I think the reds went off a lot harder than I remember last year. I don’t know if it’s something in our setup or tire difference, but it was harder for us to manage the reds. Like I was telling you, that second stint for us, I fried my red tires. They were just gone. Once I got the blacks on, they were a lot more consistent for me, and I was able to run a full stint pretty successfully I felt like, better than Will.

Probably just depending on setup and cars, but I think most guys would say unanimously that the blacks were easier to handle today, so those tires seemed to hang in a little bit better. It’s kind of a toss-up. It really depends on track temp here. Each year it gets tougher, I feel like the track wears down more, becomes more abrasive, and that’s probably why it was harder than last year.

But yeah, it was a mixed bag. If you’re going to do a short stint, I think the reds were the way to go, but if you were going to do a long stint, you really needed black tires.

Q. Some drivers might be a little bit tired after this event. You look fantastic. How hard was it out there to keep your physical stamina up there when it was so hot, no yellows, and you’re pushing the whole time?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think I’m putting on a big persona right now, trying to act like I’m not tired and exude energy. I feel great, but I’m super tired. I hope someone drives me to the airport tonight and I can just get on the plane and listen to some music and fall asleep. But it’s hard, man. I wish we could convey it more so how physical these cars are. I mean, they’re not easy to drive. This is one of the most physical tracks we go to, and what makes it tough, you’re driving around here averaging 120 miles per hour, some corners you’re doing 150, 160 into the corner. You’re pulling five G’s. It’s massive loading on your body. It’s hot, like you said. We have to wear all this fireproof closing. The cockpit of the car gets really hot. You’ve got no assistance on the steering wheel. They’re really beasts to drive.

When you don’t have any cautions to break it up a little bit, you get thirsty, you get dehydrated, you get worn out, you get short of breath. It’s all this that comes into effect.

I think IndyCar drivers are some of the fittest on the planet with what they do, and we prepare for days like today. We prepare that there’s going to be no cautions. We hope there’s going to be a couple cautions, but we prepare that there won’t be.

I think that challenge is something we’re ready for. I think all the guys in the field are ready for it. That’s why we train as hard as we do in the off-season. But it’s tough. A day like today was really hard. It was hot. Cars were a handful, and when the cars are a handful, they’re more physical actually because you’re kind of wrestling the thing around.

Q. I need some help with this. Watching the drivers set up for a pass going into the hairpin here, the 5-6 combination, I could see the green flashing the Push-to-Pass, but they were going downhill into the turn with that on, doing the turn, and it was still green coming out. You can do that with the Push-to-Pass and go through a turn?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, so the way the Push-to-Pass works is it’s on for a length of time, and that time is set depending on the circuit length, and it stays on for that distance. Here I think it was 20 seconds. I could be wrong.

So once you press it, it stays on for 20 seconds. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a brake zone, if you’re just going into the corner. As soon as you press it, it’s on for 20 seconds, so we kind of account for that when we hit the button. Like today when you hit it out of 3, we know we’re going to get most of P-to-P, all the way down the straight but then also most of the way down into Turn 9, so it’s kind of strategy to know how long the P-to-P is each weekend and then you kind of plan when you want to hit the button because it’s going to stay on. So that’s why you saw people on the brakes in and out of the corner. It’s staying on for the amount of time that you hit it. It doesn’t shut off because you’re decelerating and then accelerating again. It just stays on the entire time.

THE MODERATOR: Josef was correct; the Push-to-Pass today was 10 activations for 20 seconds each.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I thought it was, yeah. I normally get that stuff wrong.

Q. Next stop, Indianapolis. Give us a preview of your month. What are your expectations? Of course you want to win, drink the milk, but going into the month.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, the good thing for me is I feel like I’m with one of the best teams. You really can’t undervalue Ed Carpenter. He’s a two-time pole winner. He’s really fast around that place. I mean, he really is. People don’t believe that, just look at his pole record. He’s quick around that place.

He’s a great teammate to have. JR is one of the best teammates I think you can have around that place. I have, I think, advantages of having great teammates, a great team, but the challenge of Indy, I think, is really the grind of it. You have to get there. It’s a whole month. It’s pretty action-packed now, which is great. We have events going on all month long with Rev. We have a big kickoff party with Rev Indy, so everyone can come for that. You’ve got the GP of Indy, which is an awesome race. It’s cool to show the diversity of IndyCars around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that we don’t just do ovals, we do a whole championship, so you’ve got that race to consider. And then once you get into practice, you have, whatever it is, eight, nine days of practice and you’ve got qualifying. It’s two weeks to get ready for this race, and you’ve got one day to figure it out.

The pressure of that really mounts throughout the month, and I think that’s what you have to try and manage throughout practice and qualifying is that you’ve got to get it right for one day. You don’t want to have it right on a practice day and have it wrong on race day. That’s kind of the challenge of what’s going to happen during the 500.