CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
100TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING QUOTES
MAY 22, 2016
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 2nd
“It was a good first lap. I was kind of shocked by it. I didn’t think we had enough for the Andretti guys and then I probably shouldn’t have doubted us. I know we have great cars and a great crew behind us. I’m happy to see that first number and I think we fell off a little too much, but the car was amazing. I’m hoping to get the Preferred Freezer Chevrolet P1, but if it’s not we are going to be right up there in that front group. Hopefully, we can make something happen on race day then.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Qualified 6th “Well, I just couldn’t get the Verizon Chevy up to speed. We were wide open all of the way around. The conditions were a little harder, so we added some downforce and, unfortunately, it just wasn’t fast enough. Despite that, I’m still proud of the Verizon Chevy team and very happy with the run and getting into the Fast Nine. It was fun to be there and, now, we’re looking forward to the race.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Qualified 8th
“The conditions changed drastically today from yesterday. We had cold weather, was gusty. Now it is hot and greasy on the race track. It is really hard for the engineers to find the perfect combination of aero versus drag. I think the Menard’s Chevy is good. We tried to get the best out of it. Sometimes it doesn’t go perfectly your way. I would rather it went my way on race day.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Qualified 9th
“Unfortunately we tried everything we could. In the morning we tried a little downforce that was too much the track was really hot, now in the end maybe I wish I could have done what I did before. In the end now we have to think about the race. Obviously, you want to be number one all the time that is the spirit of competitiveness, but now we have to think about the race.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 13th
“An amazing job by everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing. I think Chip (Ganassi) mentioned earlier that he was going to buy them half a dinner, I guess I will have to get the other half. To try and get an engine changed, especially with how complicated these cars are now with all the turbos and everything, was definitely a big struggle to do it in the timeframe that we needed to get to tech. IndyCar were right there telling us unless we get there by that time we are not going to be able to qualify. Definitely a very frustrating situation having an engine go qualifying morning when you get one shot to qualify here. Just pumped for the team, obviously, not where we want to be starting, but I think the lightning bolt Team Target Chevy has been strong especially in race running, but it’s going to be a tough start to the 100th, but we can definitely get to the top spot.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 6 PREFERRED FREEZER FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 15th
“We would have liked to have just been 10th where we were at because then you know you are qualified on the first five rows, but we will see where it kind of shakes out here. It looks like, this isn’t great otherwise, but it looks like we will pick up one spot by Ed (Carpenter) being a little bit slower than he was yesterday. A couple of guys make mediocre runs here for the rest of the day we have a pretty good shot at still being in the top 15. At the end of the day it all just comes down to what you have in the race at this point. For us anywhere between 10th and 20th, frankly if you are in the second half of the top nine the way these cars race now how close together the race stays it really becomes about execution and how well you can pass during the race. You are not going to see a breakaway of cars this year. I think like Juan (Pablo Montoya) very clearly exemplified last year you can be all the way at the back and with a car that can get through traffic you can work your way up to the front. We feel good about that. We feel good about where our car is, kind of in that trim level. We will just start working at it tomorrow. I think Ed and I both are looking forward to that more than we were to today despite what I think is a pretty good run.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 42 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 16th
“I was much happier with the run with the car today. We made some big changes to the car last night and it was much better this morning. It was a little less reactive to the condition which was nice. We fought the wind a great deal yesterday. That is the great thing about Chip Ganassi Racing; you have a lot of data to learn from especially guys that are as good at TK (Tony Kanaan) and Dixon (Scott Dixon). Overall happy with how today went. We have a really good race car. We had to be intelligent with how we spent the one bullet we had in the gun today. We had to be smart with it and put it in the show and then work on the race car tomorrow and Friday. It is not where you start here, it is where you finish.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Qualified 17th
“Whoever is spotting in Turn 3 is probably not paying attention. The bag was there. I saw it on the grass and I thought, ‘ooh, that’s odd’ and when I came to Turn 3 it was in the middle of the groove. I had nowhere to go. I just hit it and lost all of the front air from under the car. It just went straight. I got on the brakes, trying not to hit the wall. Luckily, we got another run, but they didn’t let us check the car. I think the wing or something bent with the force of the bag.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 18th “Of course I’m disappointed with our run today. We’ve struggled all week finding speed, but we thought we had the car to a point after this morning’s practice that we felt good about. It’s just been frustrating when you know you can be faster, but it just doesn’t come together. It is what is it is though – we’ll just need to put this behind us and refocus on our race car. I’ve said it before, but I started further back in the field when I won in 2013 so no one should be writing us off yet.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT – KVSH CHEVROLET – Qualified 19th
“It was a solid qualifying run for the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Team. The only shame is that we were not geared up for the tailwind. We had a rescue plan for the wind which we used, but it definitely was not ideal for us. When you upshift twice and downshift twice a lap, it about a tenth of a mile per hour that goes away per shift. It’s a shame because we probably should have done a 228 flat if the conditions had been better. At least the laps were very consistent. Not quick enough, not where we want to be, but we did the best with what we had today and overall it was a good run.
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 20th
“That is all we have. It’s a really good car. It’s drove well all week. It’s got a great balance on it. I don’t know what to say, I’m really excited for the shootout. I think my teammate Josef (Newgarden) has a car with the speed to go win a pole. Our cars have been great. They have been great in race trim. We just have some that are fast and unfortunately mine this year isn’t. I’m not trying to be mad about it just looking forward to the race, looking forward to what changes we can make going into the race and hopefully it will be quicker and we will take the Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevy to the front.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 22nd
“I’m really looking forward to it (the Indianapolis 500). On Friday I was super comfortable in the car and really feel like we could have been between top 10 to 15. Then we struggles a little as a team and with my inexperience, I put it in the wall. I just wasn’t feeling the car enough. The reason I shook every one of the guy’s hands is because they completely built a car from scratch in 12 hours last night. It is disappointing for them that we had to go through that, but I have to give them their due. They did a great job and we are in the Indy 500. People have won it from the back before.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DREYER & REINBOLD KINGDOM RACING GAS MONKEY ENERGY CHEVROLET – Qualified 23rd
“Just too much downforce. I mean not enough speed it sucks the car was so good yesterday I thought we had a shot at 10th today. The track is just not cooperating it is changing every time you go out. We just misjudged it and put on too much downforce. We thought it was going to fall off over four laps and it didn’t. The cloud cover came in. I wish I could redo it and take some of those wedges off and put the speed ramps on and go do it again. It also kind of stinks that there are two guys ahead of us today that didn’t even put a lap in yesterday, that is not even fair. There are a few things that kind of stink for today.”
MATT BRABHAM, NO. 61 PIRTEK TEAM MURRAY – KVRT CHEVROLET – Qualified 27th
“It was pretty solid out there today; it was nice to lay down another four clean laps. The weather was quite different to yesterday. It was a lot hotter and a bit windier out there. The laps were good, the car felt great and there were no big moments, so it was all really well controlled. The focus now switches to getting the race car ready. We’ve got a lot of things to sort out to get the car good for dicing with everyone else in traffic. I’m really looking forward to the race. We have a lot of work to do on our race car. We will give it a good crack at the race and see how it goes.”
STEFAN WILSON, NO. 25 DRIVEN2SAVELIVES – KVRT CHEVROLET – Qualified 30th
“We are relieved to get through qualifying an officially be in the show. Thought we might be part of the back row party, but that’s not going to happen. Really really grateful for the opportunity, KV Race Technology, Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalhkoven. I want to thank them personally for this opportunity. I want to repay their faith by getting the car in the show. Now we get back to race downforce and race setup. Hopefully we can have a good race day.”
BUDDY LAZIER, NO. 4 LAZIER/BURNS RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 32nd
“Something went wrong on our run there. I’m not sure what it was. We were much quicker than that this morning. We are a small team and we make two steps forward and one step back. I guess this is that one step back. For the most part it has a been a really good week and we have a really good race car. Should bode well for race day.”