CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
CHEVROLET DUAL IN DETROIT PRESENTED BY QUICKEN LOANS
STREETS OF BELLE ISLE (DETROIT, MICHIGAN)
RACE ONE FIRESTONE FAST SIX DRIVER QUOTES
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, VERIZON P1 AWARD WINNER: “It’s super-physical out there. The track is awesome. It’s a real street fight out there. The 22 car was amazing. I’m glad HP is back on-board with us. A lot of them are here this weekend, so I’m glad we could do well for them. The team is just doing incredible. I’m glad we could keep the momentum going. Last weekend (the Indy 500) wasn’t what we wanted but we’re back.”
THE INDY 500 ASIDE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE BACK IN A PROPER PLACE? “Honestly we never left it. We were strong in the race at the 500 but it is what it is. You can’t always be up there (at the front). But today is an awesome feeling.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “It was a great job for the Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet team because the boys did an amazing job. Simon just nipped me over there. I thought actually when Roger told me it was a 49 and I thought if it was a 74 four I wouldn’t be able to make it. Then I found out that it was just one-hundredth and man, I could have found just a little bit of something out there. Great job for the entire organization and Jonathan gave me a great car since we started here this morning. Ahh, I can’t believe it. So close to getting the number one spot but that’s okay because Simon is on a hot streak. Simon got the pole, I will get the win, no problem
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: ): “It was really good to be honest with you. Our Verizon Chevy has been pretty good. We actually struggled a lot this morning. You look at how fast our teammates were, I was like 13th or 15th this morning, so we pretty much changed everything on the car, and it worked well. I mean, we felt we needed to do a lot of changes, and it worked pretty well.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “We had a bit of a throttle sensor issue that hampered us so I think there is still some good speed left in the Target car so that is encouraging. It was a good start to the weekend for us and the team so we’ll go back and do some more homework and hope to improve our position for the race tomorrow.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “The No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet was definitely a Firestone Fast 6 car, but I made a mistake on my fast lap that lost us a tenth of a second which was enough to put me out of the top six. On the bright side though, we’ll have better tires for the race tomorrow when these other guys are using another set of reds in the last qualifying session. Great job by the team getting the car ready for qualifying. We struggled quite a bit in practice this morning, so I’m just happy with the major improvements we made from practice to qualifying.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: Chevrolet: “Frankly I’m really happy with the bounce back from the 83 team. We had a few different gremlins this morning – just things we haven’t ever seen before that we needed to deal with before qualifying. Overall I’m very happy to come away starting on the fourth row. I think we have a good opportunity to make moves forward during tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can learn something from today’s qualifying that we can take away for qualifying for Sunday’s race.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: No, it was a great job for the Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet team because the boys did an amazing job. Simon just nipped me over there. I thought actually when Roger told me it was a 49 and I thought if it was a 74 four I wouldn’t be able to make it. Then I found out that it was just one-hundredth and man, I could have found just a little bit of something out there. Great job for the entire organization and Jonathan gave me a great car since we started here this morning. Ahh, I can’t believe it. So close to getting the number one spot but that’s okay because Simon is on a hot streak. Simon got the pole, I will get the win, no problem
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT-KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “It’s just disappointing. The car was really good on blacks (primary tire) and I felt like we could have done something, but on the reds (alternate tire) it just went away from us as soon as I left the pits. There was nothing under me, no rear stability and the car felt like it was floating. Unfortunately, there is no testing so you can’t work with the reds. It’s just frustrating. The Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Team will just have to regroup, hit the reset button and see what we can come up with for tomorrow’s race.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER/FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: YOU JUST MISSED THAT TOP 12 AND ARE STARTING 14TH TOMORROW. IS THIS A PATIENCE TRACK OR DO YOU WANT TO GET TO THE FRONT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE? “I don’t know at this point. I was focused on getting the thing up front and I think we have the speed to get up there. I am not sure but I think you have to be patient regardless around this place because of how bumpy it is and how difficult it can be. You can throw the car in the wall pretty easily so yes, you have to be patient. As far as aggression and how you try to get up there, I am not sure yet about that and may formulate a new plan now. “Not as much as other tracks. The reds help. I felt bad because I guess I slightly tagged the wall and it must have caught the bead because it cut our tire down on our first red laps. I think we would have been alright there if we didn’t have a tire go down on the right rear and so we didn’t get any more laps on the reds. They help a little bit and you feel a little more rear grip from the thing and can attack the car a little bit better around here. So there are positives. “It was a tough day. I apologize to my guys, I set us back for tomorrow with that run. We had a good car and probably should have been fast enough to get into the top six today, I just tagged the wall and that caused the tire pressure to go down on the right rear. I wasn’t able to get my optimum lap on the reds. It’s tougher when you do something like that, it was my fault. Now we have to get it right for tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll have a car that can fight for the win.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 18TH: We had a difficult qualifying session with this being just my first time here at this track. We had limited practice before the session, but I’m happy in that we improved a full second today. I think it’s just a matter of track time and experience at a place like Detroit and we’ll get there and hopefully start moving up for the race as we get more laps under our belt in the Gallagher car.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH: COMPARED TO LIKE ST. PETERSBURG OR SOMEWHERE LIKE THAT, IS THERE ANY COMPARISON TO HERE? “This is a pretty unique place and its tough with only one short practice session and then cut right to qualifying. So we will try again tomorrow and try to get better. It all came together pretty quick, a lot sooner than I expected, but it’s good to be here and back in the car. Big thanks to Ed Carpenter Racing and Fuzzy’s for putting it together. It was a tough day out there and it’s hard to come here without ever being here before. It’s a crazy track so I am just trying to learn everything. “It’s good to be back in a car, it is a lot earlier than I expected so that’s good! I’m having a good time with the team, but it was a tough day. This track is pretty difficult so there’s a lot to learn. It’s a new track and I’m in a new car, so I’m just trying to get up to speed with everything and figure it all out! We had a difficult qualifying session with this being just my first time here at this track. We had limited practice before the session, but I’m happy in that we improved a full second today. I think it’s just a matter of track time and experience at a place like Detroit and we’ll get there and hopefully start moving up for the race as we get more laps under our belt in the Gallagher car.”