CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
ANGIE’S LIST GRAND PRIX OF INDY
THE ROAD COURSE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP
MAY 13, 2016
Simon Pagenaud Wins Verizon P1 Award for GP of Indy to Give Chevy Fifth Pole of Season
Chevrolet IndyCar Drivers Capture Three of Top-Five and Seven of Top-10 Qualifiers
INDIANAPOLIS (May 13, 2016) – Simon Pagenaud-the most recent Verizon IndyCar Series race winner with victories on the Streets of Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park-won the Verizon P1 Award for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. With a lap of 1 minute, 08.6868 seconds/127.832 mph, Pagenaud, piloting the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, captured his second pole of the 2016 season, and the fourth of his career.
Pagenaud’s pole-winning effort was also the fifth pole of the season for Chevrolet, and the fifth pole for Team Penske.
Charlie Kimball, No. 83 Tresiba Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, will start on the front row with Pagenaud. The second quick effort is a career-best qualifying effort for Kimball
Josef Newgarden qualified the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in the fifth position to give Chevrolet three of the top-five qualifiers.
Graham Rahal (Honda) and James Hinchcliffe (Honda)completed the Firestone Fast Six field.
Tony Kanaan put the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet in the seventh starting position with Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, posted the eighth fastest time.
Defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet turned the ninth quickest time and Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 Team Europa KVSH Racing Chevrolet, qualified 10th to give Team Chevy drivers seven of the top-10 starting spots for Saturday’s 82-lap/200-mile race around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
The Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis is set to start at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, May 14, with live television coverage on ABC. Live radio coverage will be on the INDYCAR Radio Network, XM Radio Channel 209, and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212. In addition, Verizon IndyCar Series live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at indycar.com, indycarradio.com and INDYCAR App on your mobile device.
CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: “It’s fantastic. It’s not that simple, it’s a lot of work in the background. I just want to take my hat off to my engineer, Ben Bretzman, for giving me a monster car every time. As soon as I put those Firestone red (alternate) tires on the car, she became magical, as we imagined. It’s a lot of fun for me right now, the whole team is functioning so well. The decision process from (strategist) Kyle Moyer to do one lap each segment was all him. It’s really a team sport. it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in racing. I’m driving the best I’ve driven ever. Little by little, you get confidence with success. Team Penske, they give me the best car. If I drive it well, you should expect to be up there. To be up there so often is certainly the best feeling in the world.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “We made the race car better and better, and we didn’t focus too much on qualifying. So I think we have a good pace for tomorrow. Having finished fifth here the last two years, I’m looking forward to the race. It’s neat to be on the front row. Congrats to Simon (Pagenaud) for getting the pole. I think we would have had to have the perfect lap to be able to match his lap time. It looks like it’s pretty close to a track record. That’s pretty impressive. But coming through tomorrow with a clear track at IMS is pretty special. I means that there’s just one guy in front of me and 23 behind me, so we’re going to try and keep it that way all day.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: “Fifth in qualifying here for the GP of Indy is good. They are two different events here with the GP and the 500 but it’s still nice to start this first weekend off good and then we’ll just kind of settle in on oval mode after we get done with this GP of Indy race. It’s a good start for us. We’ll try to keep the form up all month. Hoping we can have a good, clean start. I got punted here last year in turn 1. Thats just kind of how this race works. It accordions into turn one and I got the bad end of that last year and nearly went down a lap and struggled all race, so if we can get through turn 1 clean, then I think we’re going to have a pretty good day tomorrow.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT GROUP CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET QUALIFIED 7TH: “Great team effort today. I made a mistake on my last lap, and I think we could have made it to the Fast 6. When you are trying at the limit like that it’s tough. It was such a close qualifying session…half a tenth puts me back in sixth place instead of seventh so it was a great effort. We struggled all day yesterday so a great come back from all the team on fixing what needed to be fixed. As a team we put three cars in the top 10 and one on the Fast 6. It’s a big track, we can win from there.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH:
“We made some really good changes on the Verizon Chevy and I thought we had a chance to make it to the Firestone Fast Six. During that one lap when I went from P1 to P8, the car was very strong, but I got too close to a car and picked up a lot of understeer. Overall, I don’t believe what happened will affect the race tomorrow because we have a really good car. We’re looking forward to a strong start tomorrow.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 9TH: “We are starting ninth, but I kind of made a mistake. As the 22 was backing up trying to get a clear track, as you always do, I was backing up into the 2 so I had to go and then I went off in turn 12. Then I had to get behind the 2 and Power, and then those two were jostling and the 12 went off and then came back on in front of me. It was just a mess. We just never got a time in. The car has been fast – we were second quickest in Q1. On the blacks in the first part of Q2 we were second as well (first on black tires) and then we just didn’t get a lap. Plain and simple – the Target car is fast but we didn’t get a lap in.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM EUROPA – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: “It was a strange qualifying session for the Europa – KVSH Racing team. The first round went pretty well, but I’m not quite sure what happened in Q2. I couldn’t make any lap time on the reds (alternate tire). The car was very numb. It’s back to that situation where we can’t control the reds. It’s frustrating because everybody on the team is working hard. It looked like we were in it (going to advance to the Firestone Fast Six) and now I am not sure what to attribute the problem to. We will to do our best to understand the problem, regroup for tomorrow and hope for a good race in what will be very different conditions. It is going to be cool, overcast and windy, so we’ll see what happens.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: “We were great in practice and I messed up in qualifying. Again. It seems like it’s every week now. It’s getting pretty frustrating. It’s difficult to race from the back in these races, but that’s what we’ll do tomorrow in our Verizon Chevy.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “It was amazingly close like we were expecting. It’s just typical that we’re just on the wrong side. We did the same time as Montoya, but he did it before me. And to be fair, I got lucky at Barber like that. I did the same time as Aleshin at Barber, but because I did it before him, I got through. So it’s really close. It’s frustrating that we didn’t make it through, but the good thing is that’s the closest I’ve been to the leaders in those sessions in qualifying this year so we’re definitely making progress. Hopefully we can get through turn 1 cleaner than we did at Barber because Chip Ganassi Racing and Gallagher always give me a good car to race with.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 15TH: “Obviously it’s disappointing. We kept having a problem with the brakes locking up. We’ll find the answer to that. We’re going to work really hard to get the hum by Verizon Chevy performing better for the race. It’s not impossible to race your way to the front and that’s what we’ll do.”
MATT BRABHAM (NO. 61 PIRTEK TEAM MURRAY – KVRT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH: “Every lap I’m getting quicker and quicker and I still feel as though I haven’t got to the limit yet. The PIRTEK Team Murray crew is doing an excellent job – the guys are really pushing along well. I need to keep pushing myself along and work with the guys on moving forward together. It’s a special thing to have the No. 61 and the Brabham name on top of the pylon at Indy – even if for a short amount of time, it doesn’t get better than that.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 6 PREFERRED FREEZER FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 18TH: “Qualifying was kind of frustrating. We’ve been chasing it a little bit this weekend, and it’s all just so close. It’s a little bit from me and a little bit from the car, it goes a long way. We didn’t get enough out of that combined to be able to transfer. For us, we can have a look at what Josef’s doing, which is a little bit different from what we were doing. We’ll be able to gain some idea on where we need to improve for tomorrow. The race in a lot of ways is a whole different ballgame. Last year we played it smart and got through a lot of the mess down in Turn 1 and because we had made the car a little bit better and figured a few things out we were running in the top five for a lot of the day. It’s about being smart tomorrow, but also being a little aggressive and being willing to gamble with the strategy to leapfrog up a few spots.”
FAST SIX PRESS CONFERENCE
THE MODERATOR: We’ll get started as drivers come in. Josef Newgarden, made it into the Fast Six. Your assessment of today.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s always good when you get to the Fast Six. It was a little surprise to us. Not that I don’t have supreme confidence in what we can do. It’s just this has been a tough place for us. It’s kind of a unique track to find speed. You think it would be straightforward. It’s very smooth, not bumpy, it’s fast. There’s nothing super crazy about the place that you would say, That corner has to be just a nightmare to figure out. It’s fast, a very difficult track because of the high speed, low downforce, big brake zone.
It’s just been tough for us to find speed around here the last couple years. I think we made a good step this weekend. I feel like we’re already much better than we’ve been the last couple years. That’s positive. Being inside the Fast Six only helps going into race day tomorrow, trying to stay out of trouble, have a clean race.
Hopefully we can make it through turn one, that’s going to be the hotspot. Hopefully we don’t have a car that goes off very hard, race up front, take on Pagenaud who has been on a tear lately.
THE MODERATOR: If you’re a driver that has technical skill, is it good sometimes to have a track that has more character that may fall better into your hands?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think technical skill kind of comes into hand here. It’s when you don’t know what you need to find that it becomes difficult to find speed.
I think we know what we’re looking for. I know what I want from the car. Sometimes you can know what you want, it’s difficult to find it still. Some other places, you can get rewarded a little bit more with bravery. Maybe you have a fast uphill or downhill corner, you can make a little bit more of a difference.
You can still do that here, but the car really has to be precise. It’s kind of like the Indianapolis 500 to some regard. You got to polish the racecar as much as possible. It’s got to be perfect. That’s kind of why we have so much practice going into the 500. You got to make that car perfect for the race.
I feel like it’s kind of like that, too, here on the road course. Nothing I can really do to manipulate it much more. We have to be good about our setup changes and what we are doing on the car.
Q. Josef, how different were the conditions out there? Weird weekend where it’s not as hot as it normally is. Longer for the tires to come up to temp?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll say this. It certainly doesn’t take Penske any time to bring up their tires. Holy crap. You watch Power and Pagenaud, they’re like boom. They’re like in. It seems like first lap they’re dropping time. For us that’s been more of a struggle.
I think it’s affected the balance more, to be honest. The balance has been jumping all over the place. When we started yesterday, I had one balance in the morning. When we got to the afternoon, I had a totally different balance. Got kind of loose in the afternoon.
This morning again I felt like the car kind of hunkered down at the rear. I think it helped rear grip more than anything for me. The Fast Six, I think the balance shifted again towards the afternoon, started to change.
I don’t know about bringing up the tires. I didn’t notice a big difference with that. But I think the balance has been kind of all over the place, trying to figure out what you want from the car between the morning and the afternoon.
Q. You mentioned you liked the new red tires. Comparison to the other road courses we’ve had, I don’t know if
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I would agree. I think Firestone, they’re very consistent. For us, me, this being my fifth year, I think we’ve noticed a very consistent trend on where the tires go. This tire to me has acted very standard for the road course tire that we’ve run.
That’s thanks to Firestone. They make our job a little bit easier with that stuff. Just got to follow the trends.
THE MODERATOR: Charlie Kimball joins us. Career-best start for you. You’ll start on the front row. Looks by the smile on your face you’re pretty darn happy with that.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Yeah, reasonably happy. Kind of the first session that really counts here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. Nice to start up front. Although a couple of people have reminded me since qualifying that I think last year in the melee, second place was not the place to be. But I can’t control what happens behind me, I can only really look forward.
I felt good that the car was good all weekend, at least from yesterday afternoon and this morning. We just found that last little bit of balance, little bit of grip.
A lot of credit to Simon for being on pole because I think it would have taken a perfect lap for us to be close. We didn’t quite get it done and he did. It’s pretty impressive, that lap time. A full second faster than I think we were last year around here, so…
I’m pretty happy. I was in the 68s there at the end. Last year I think I qualified in the mid 70s, so that’s a big step forward from last year. Means that starting tomorrow, I’ll have at least clear air for a little while and see what we can do with it.
Simon Pagenaud joins us. This is thus far a bit of a magic carpet ride and just continues.
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s pretty fun right now, let me tell you. I’m just very thankful for the opportunity with Team Penske. They give me the best car. It’s my job after that to do the best job possible. Ben, my engineer, gives me a monster car every time I’m out there.
The Firestone tires, not just to put sponsor names here, but the red tires on my car really works magically every time. Obviously the more you go into Q3, the more confidence you gain, then you can polish your driving on these kind of tires. Certainly it’s suiting me really well right now.
I’m in a good zone. The whole team is executing really well. The 22 team, only our second year together, and it’s exactly the same people as last year. Consistency, like Roger would say, is key. We definitely made big improvements.
My strategist made such good decisions. There’s actually a lot of strategy in qualifying. We did one lap in the Q1 segment, two laps in the Q2 segment. That was enough to go to the next segment and have fresh tires for Q3. That takes – I don’t know the right word to say – it takes some guts.
THE MODERATOR: Penske has a streak in terms of consecutive poles. Suddenly you’re the lone representative in the Firestone Fast Six. Was there some trepidation in the team that you’ll be knocked off the top or were you confident going in?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I was confident going in we would be competitive enough to get to the Fast Six. This morning the car was really strong on the black Firestone tires. I got my balance where I wanted it to be, to be in good shape for the red Firestone tires. I knew we would be up there.
The thing is, quite honestly, the Hondas have improved massively after Long Beach. Barber and here, they’re really strong. It looks like they’ve got a lot of power. It’s obviously harder now to get in the Fast Six than it was at the beginning of the year.
Congratulations to them. It’s great to see them fighting so well against Chevrolet.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Simon.
Q. Simon, could you speak to the zone? What does the zone feel like when you’re in it?
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s really hard to explain, quite frankly. I think every athlete tries to explain when things go right.
I have been very focused on the task, more so than the result. It started last year. It was difficult because I had no results to back it up. But this year I’m just focused on the tasks. Since the results came quickly this year, I could reinforce that.
I’m driving corners by corners, trying to be one with the machine. I’m certainly way more on this level than I was in the past.
Obviously every year I’m trying to improve myself as a driver. You’re always trying to push the limit. Finding that zone is key. Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t. It’s a bit like opening the door and finding the key.
It’s a lot about concentration and just having everything go right for you in your head.
Q. Everybody thinks when you get to Penske, there is a pressure there to win no matter what. Long Beach, did you feel a weight lifted? Have you felt different from then?
SIMON PAGENAUD: No, I haven’t changed at all since last year. That’s one big question. Everybody says, What are you doing different? I’m not doing much different. I worked hard in the winter, for sure. I know my team a lot better. I’m also just more used to my environment. I know the people. I know who to talk to when I have a problem. The communication within the team is stronger. My teammates, there’s a confidence and trust that works really well with them.
It’s the whole situation. I think that is my answer really.
Q. Last year Will Power thought he had a legitimate chance to sweep the month of May, to win poles for both races and both races. Do you feel that could be you this year?
SIMON PAGENAUD: That’s a long way. I’m going to focus on the Grand Prix. For the championship, it’s big tomorrow. If we can do well, it’s going to be big.
I just want to keep going in that direction. Yeah, I’m focusing on points really. But then the Indy 500 is a one-off for me. That one, it’s a championship in itself.
We’ll see when we get there.
Q. Because your performance level is so good since the start of the season, do you almost wish there was a way you could save some of that performance for May 29th?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Certainly using Lady Luck in a good way. It’s not coming by luck, but you certainly need luck to succeed so much. I’m using a lot of that.
There will be bad days, I know that. I hope it’s not May 29th. But there’s nothing you can do about it. Just get the points when you can.
Q. Having talked to you before you got your first IndyCar ride, you had the confidence you could be successful given a chance. You said, I’m going to change my name. I’m going to change it to Simon Indy. You had the confidence you could do the job. Now it’s coming to pass. That has to feel great.
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s great. It’s a fantastic feeling. I think what I’m feeling right now is what every driver is seeking for their whole career.
Certainly I hope I can carry on this way. Like I said, everything’s going right. There will be tough days. Those tough days, that’s when you make a good running for the championship, by being the strongest you can be. Even if you’re not winning, but finishing sixth those days, that’s a pretty good day. That’s what makes the difference.
As you know, I’ve always had consistency in my career. If I can keep that consistency as my trait, I think it might not be so exciting to watch but it pays off in the end. That’s really my approach right now.
Q. You’re all by yourself because we had the other five drivers in the top six. One of the comments was that when the Penskes put on the red tires, the cars are immediately fast. Can you tell us the secret?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Never (laughter).
There is no secret. It’s work, research and development. The team is incredible. We have people at the shop right now in Moorseville trying to understand what happen right now, trying to connect the data, to work on it, to make the car better next time we’re on a road course.
It’s just a team that doesn’t leave any details. Even when we win, the goal is to understand why we won, what made the car good, how can we make it even better. They’re constantly working on that. Ron, the technical director is really prioritizing what we need to do. It’s a whole department working at Moorseville that’s just doing a tremendous job.
We have all the resource we need. It’s just an incredible team that has all the resource they need, the right people, and they do a great job.
Q. In Indianapolis you’ve experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in the last two years. Do you feel like tomorrow is going to be another one of those highs for you?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, I hope so. I can’t read in the ball, so…
I certainly hope so. I hope tomorrow goes well. I feel just like I did in Barber, quite frankly. The car is quite similar in terms of how it feels. I also feel like if we can make turn one and be in the front after turn one, we’re going to be in good shape.
Let’s take the start first and see how the car is in the warmup, then I’ll be more confident on what we’ve got.
I don’t think there’s any reason to be too concerned. Rahal is going to be strong. Do you know where he is?
Q. Third.
SIMON PAGENAUD: I think he’s going to be very strong in the race. We’ll see. It’s going to be high pace, for sure.
Q. Graham and you had a great battle at the end of Barber. He’ll start right behind you tomorrow. How big of a challenge do you think he’ll put up throughout the entire event?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I actually thought about it already. I think he’s going to be very strong. He’s always very strong in race pace. He’s very good on the black Firestone tires. He knows how to use that well.
He usually doesn’t have as many tires because he went to the Fast Six. So we’ll see. But he’s going to be a strong competition and I’m going to have to watch out in turn one, for sure.
Q. How do you rate this track? This track is fairly flat. How do you rate this as a road course? More difficult, less difficult because no elevation change?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I personally love it because there is no elevation change. I’m not a big fan of elevation changes. I’m a visual person, so I like to see what’s happening. I don’t like to be in the blind corner, that’s just the way I am.
I like this track because of the rhythm you have to have around the racetrack. Turn four, that funny chicane is a lot to drive on the curbs. All the braking zones are very important for lap time.
Then you get the braking zone in turn one, turn seven right, then you get that section turn eight, nine, ten, you have to be inches perfect on the curb there to set up for the next corner, so you’re thinking three corners ahead as you drive at this speed.
It’s very physical. We’re putting a lot of Gs these days. The cars are very much on the edge. It’s really, really hard to get a perfect lap around here. When you do it, it’s very rewarding in a way.
Q. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 50s. Might be at the limit of where the Firestone tires are supposed to run. You’re on a road course, you do a lot of braking, probably put heat in the tires. If there are cautions, people’s tires cool down. What do you think the drivers will have to do to keep the heat up in the tires?
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s a good point actually. I think you might struggle with the front tires, to get the front tires going. But also the game can be interesting because you can actually take away downforce when it’s cold because there’s more downforce naturally with the air density.
You might be able to see people trimming on their car and some other people adding downforce, so we might see differences which could be interesting and making for better racing.
We’ll see.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Simon. Thank you.