CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
100TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DAY 5 PRACTICE RECAP
MAY 20, 2016
Indianapolis Motor Speedway was once again a flurry of activity as the fifth day of preparations for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 roared to life at noon today. . Chevrolet drivers and teams geared up for six more hours of practice with their Chevy 2.2 liter V6 IndyCar engines which had the kPa pressure increased from 130 to 140. A dreary overcast day brought a brief period of rain, but other than a few yellow flags for debris there were no on-track incidents that slowed the practice session.
Chevrolet power led the way on ‘Fast Friday’ as 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power topped the charts with a blistering lap of 232.672 mph/38.681 seconds in his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet of around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Josef Newgarden put up the second quickest time in his No. 21 Preferred Freezer Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet with a lap of 232.344 mph/38.735 seconds. Power and Newgarden were the only two drivers in the session to eclipse the 232 mph barrier.
The next task on the docket for the Chevrolet IndyCar drivers and teams will be qualifications for the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ slated to begin Saturday at 11 a.m. During qualifying, each car is guaranteed one qualifying attempt. Once every car has taken time, teams are permitted to make multiple qualifying attempts with or without withdrawing their time. After Saturday’s qualifying session is complete the fast nine entries will be locked into the field and advance to Sunday’s Fast Nine Shootout.
When Sunday’s qualifying session commences, all cars will be required to make another four-lap qualifying attempt to determine their position. Group 1 qualifying will determine positions 10-33, while the fast nine, which will be locked in on Saturday, will ultimately determine this year’s Indy 500 pole sitter when they make their final qualifying laps on Sunday.
To add to the importance of qualifying, championship driver and entrant points will be awarded based on qualifying position. The driver winning the Verizon Pole Award at the other 15 races garners one-point for their effort. The Indy 500 pole winner gathers a valuable 42 points and a check for $100,000.
Since Chevrolet re-entered the Verizon IndyCar series in 2012 and debuted the Chevy 2.2 liter V6 engine, Team Chevy drivers have captured the coveted starting spot. All 16 Chevrolet drivers will be pushing to grab the fifth in the row for the Bowtie Brand.
On-track activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway begin with morning practice at 8 a.m. Qualifying begins at 11 a.m. and will be streamed on ESPN 3 until ABC live broadcast coverage begins at 4 p.m. ET
POST PRACTICE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET AND JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
MODERATOR: Welcome Josef Newgarden, second quickest on the day.
Q: Theoretically you can run as many laps, attempts as you want. So does this really mean anything for the qualifying line?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It could. I mean, it depends on the weather. You never know on days like this. The sky could open back up or it could be cloudy for an hour. You’re right; I mean you can run as many attempts, as many tires as you want to run. You’re kind of limited on how many tires you can run. But it could help. I mean, it could kind of go either way. You could draw early and that could be good or you could draw late and that could be good. It really just depends on the forecast. I don’t know what we’re going to have tomorrow. I think we’re going to have overcast again it seems like. Maybe not. I haven’t looked in the last couple hours.
It could go either way. It really depends on the weather, but there could be some advantage to it.
Q: For any or all of you guys. I know it’s not a direct comparison because you’re running a different skid plate this year, but do you feel the cars are generally more stable this year with the aerodynamic development under them or still very much on the edge? How does it feel, guys? (Laughter)
NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think I’ll say this. It looks like it took everyone a longer time to get to the sort of minimum downforce levels, trim levels, if you will, today that they did last year. It seemed like — there’s kind of a general trim limit. You know, you get down do this downforce level and you’re not going any lower. The car is going to be difficult to drive for four consistent laps. It’s going to slide too much. It’s going to be tough.
I think that was raised higher today, maybe 100 or 150 pounds, whatever you want to see. And then it took longer for people to get down to full levels. But I saw from a lot of people they were running similar to what they ran last year, you know, as far as trim levels. So I think we’re getting there.
It took longer, it took more work on the car. I mean, the car is a little bit more tricky to drive. It’s been a little trickier. It’s not impossible. I think you’ve seen all week we’ve been running pretty damn close. It’s not like the racing is going to be atrocious. It’s changed the driving style. It’s changed the setup slightly. It’s going to be a little different from the driving side but it’s not that different that you’re not going to see a great race and you’re also not see guys go for it with trim levels. It took a little longer to figure out, but I think it’s the same cup of tea as last year.
Q: For any of you three. How difficult is it having to know you have to qualify at least twice regardless of circumstances where considering how difficult the four laps qualifying is here? You know you have to qualify at least once tomorrow and then once on Sunday? What’s the mind-set?
NEWGARDEN: Loath it. Loath it with a passion.
MODERATOR: I know Will is on a tight schedule. Will, thanks very much for coming in and joining us for the time you can. You’re at the top.
MODERATOR: You went very fast today, Will, did you not?
POWER: Yes, I got a good tow. Even when the car is out of traffic, it was pretty good, pretty solid. I think it’s fast. I think it’s going to be really, really tight for pole. There’s a lot of quick guys out there and I think Honda is right there, too.
Yeah, I look forward to it. To get pole here, it’s just got to be your day and it’s got to work out. That’s the way it is around this place. I think it’s the same for the race.
MODERATOR: Questions?
Q: Will, you’ve been laying low the last couple of days. So where did the speed come from?
POWER: You know, we’ve been working on the race setup, obviously. When we’re running race downforce, you can definitely get like a five-car tow type of thing and put out some good speeds. But I think in qualifying it’s, you know, it’s good this year because you really are on the limit. You know, you’re really, really having to work hard to do your laps. Your foot starts shaking on the throttle, you know you kind of trimmed a little bit much, which is how it should be. Last year we had the problems with the aero stuff and the cars flying, so we’re all stuck. So I look forward to it. I think it will be fun. I think it will be about the guy who wants to hang it out there a little bit.
Q: Speaking of that, each of you address this, a couple of you. How many optimum qualifying runs do you have in you? Starting with you, Will. How many just the nerves like you talked about, I mean when you have it on the edge like that.
POWER: Yeah, it sucks when you get to the second lap and your foot is already shaking and you know you have two more to go and if you don’t do it, you’re not going to make it in. That’s when you’re in a tough situation.
There’s a point where you trim out too much and you actually go slower from sliding. So there’s that nice, happy medium and the wind has got to be right and temperature and all has got to work out for you.
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
“I got a good tow. Even when the car is out of traffic, it was pretty good, pretty solid. I think it is fast. I think it’s going to be really, really tight for pole. There are a lot of quick guys out there. I look forward to it. To get pole here, it’s just got to be your day and it’s got to work out. That’s the way it is around this place. I think it’s the same for the race.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:
“It was a good day. It was hectic with a little bit of sprinkling, so we were not sure if we were going to get the full day in, but luckily we did. We definitely wanted to step through our trim steps. We definitely made progress with all three cars. We got a quick Preferred Freezer car, so hopefully all three of us are going to be fast tomorrow inside the top nine. We’ll do a little bit more work tonight and see where we’re at.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 2015 VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES CHAMPION:
“We’re fairly comfortable with where we are. The Target car feels decent, but the speed we’re looking for maybe isn’t really there right now. To be honest, out of the Chevys, Power is really the only one in his own league right now. I think out of the top 10 in no-tow speeds, there are only three Chevys. Hopefully things change before qualifying tomorrow, but right now our race is for the top nine.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
“It was good preparation for qualifying today. I think we have the Menards Chevrolet in a happy place. I really think qualifying is going to be really exciting. The car definitely has got some good pace in it. We’re going to have to get everything perfect to pull it off, but I think we’re close. We’ll see how the weather is tomorrow, but if we’re lucky we should have good session.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 6 PREFERRED FREEZER FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:
“It was a hectic day, really. We ended up feeling like we needed to kind of change our plan in the middle of the day. We were able to get some speed out of that, which was good, but it made for a busy afternoon. Hopefully we can go back and figure out what’s the best for everybody and be ready to go for tomorrow.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
“The guys and I found some speed today on the track with the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet. Everyone is working really hard to get the Yellow Submarine back into the spotlight and I can’t thank the team enough for their hard work and support over the past few days. We are in a good position to learn a bit more from today’s session that will help us find the speed we need for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to qualifying this weekend.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:
“It was a tough day. I wasn’t thinking we were going to run nearly 50 laps when the day started. We used a few more sets of tires than we had originally planned, but I think it was worthwhile in the end. We were struggling for speed for a while and I feel like we closed the gap a little bit. We’ll just have to work hard overnight tonight and see if we can close the gap the rest of the way and see if we can get up there with my teammates and some of the other faster Chevys.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET:
“We spent a lot of today working through our qualifying setup and getting the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet where we want it to be for this weekend. It’s difficult with the wind constantly changing and all 33 cars trying to get a clean qualifying run at once, but we were able to get some qualifying simulations in that gave us solid data to work with. We still need to make some changes tonight to get the car into a position to qualify well, but with all four Ganassi cars bringing the information that they have to the table, I’m confident that we’ll have a good car tomorrow for qualifying.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH CHEVROLET:
“It was a decent day for the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Team. We tried different levels of downforce to understand and prepare for tomorrow and Sunday. It is going to get hotter and we wanted to at least have some data to know where we want to be for qualifying. The conditions are only going to get worse this weekend. Today there was very little wind, it was overcast and the temperatures were cooler. It doesn’t get any better than that. Maybe we are playing it too safe, but I guess we will see.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET:
“It’s great to get lots of miles in on the track which can take many years to master. I think I’m still one of the highest if not the highest in terms of number of laps completed, which is ideal for me. We’ve been working on qualifying setup and struggled a little bit today, but made two good changes at the end which quickly put us back in the place we wanted to be. I’m excited for qualifying tomorrow and seeing what the Gallagher team can do.”
MATT BRABHAM, NO. 61 PIRTEK TEAM MURRAY – KVRT CHEVROLET:
“We had some ups and downs throughout the day and some side to sides as well! We’re just chipping away and trying to keep it clean. I think we were being a bit conservative and we’re just working our way through it – everyone’s trimming out and trying for their big qualifying setups and we’ve got to do that too, but we’re just slowly dialing out the downforce.
“We’ve been working through the qualifying simulations with the PIRTEK Team Murray team – we had one big moment, but other than that it was all clean sailing. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s all going and we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow. I’m feeling pretty clear and open-minded ahead of qualifying – we’ll see where everyone stacks up without all the fluff. Hopefully we’re further up on the grid and can have a good run at it.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 42 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET:
“We focused on qualifying simulations today. We had three really good runs, making the car better and trimming downforce and drag out of it, so we know what we have when it’s time for qualifications tomorrow. Unfortunately the last couple of runs got interrupted with the yellows, but I’ve got a lot of confidence in the No. 42 car. I know the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys have worked so hard all this week, and now they will put in long hours tonight to get the car as ready as possible for tomorrow. I feel good about it and can’t wait to see what qualifying brings.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DREYER & REINBOLD KINGDOM RACING GAS MONKEY ENERGY CHEVROLET:
“Today, obviously we got the added boost, and we trimmed out the car. We think we can go a little further on trimming, and we have to look at some stuff overnight, but it was good to feel the boost and get to a trimmed race car and run some pretty fast laps in the Gas Monkey Energy Chevrolet. I think we have a little work to do but we can be right there tomorrow. We’re going to do some things overnight, and man, it’s crazy when you actually get the boost and start trimming at this place. You really respect it every lap riding around here. It gets real tough and that’s where you get your money are those qualifying laps, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, qualifying for my third Indianapolis 500. I’m confident the car’s going to be good, and I think my Dreyer & Reinbold-Kingdom team is confident that I’ll be able to keep it flat out. And honestly, I think we can put the No. 24 in the top 9 if everything runs smooth.”
STEFAN WILSON, NO. 25 DRIVEN2SAVELIVES – KVRT CHEVROLET:
“It was a good day in the Driven2SaveLives car. We evaluated the extra boost and started trimming out the downforce, so I got a good feel for that. It got a little hairy towards the end of the day, however that will give us some good direction on what downforce level to run tomorrow. I am just really proud of the entire team. They are working really hard to make the No. 25 Driven2SaveLives car fast. We are all pulling in the same direction, so that is good.”
BUDDY LAZIER, NO. 4 LAZIER/BURNS RACING CHEVROLET:
“We’re making progress. My guys are really working hard; I couldn’t ask more for a small team. We’re figuring it out quickly, and we anticipate being much quicker tomorrow.”