CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
CHEVROLET DUAL IN DETROIT PRESENTED BY QUICKEN LOANS
STREETS OF BELLE ISLE (DETROIT, MICHIGAN)
RACE ONE POST RACE RECAP
SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 2016
CHEVY INDYCAR AT DETROIT RACE 1: Strategy Pays off for Bourdais, KVSH Racing
Second consecutive Belle Isle victory for No. 11 Team Hydroxycut Chevrolet
DETROIT (June 4, 2016) – Sebastien Bourdais put Chevrolet on top of the podium in the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans for the second straight year as the KVSH Racing No. 11 Team Hydroxycut Chevrolet won Race 1 at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park. Bourdais won the second race of the Detroit doubleheader last year, and he drove from the 13th position at the start to his first victory this year in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
It was the sixth win in seven races this year for the 2.2-liter, turbo-charged Chevrolet V6 engine and the Chevy Aero Kit. Chevrolet IndyCar drivers have won four of the last five Dual races in Detroit.
“Congratulations to Sebastien Bourdais and KVSH Racing for winning at the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit for the second consecutive year,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Teamwork was key. Sebastien drove a great race, Jimmy Vasser, Kevin Kalkhoven and the engineers made the right strategic calls, and the crew executed all race long.
“Sebastien’s win means a lot in Chevrolet’s hometown.”
Bourdais and Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet gave the Bowtie Brand two podium positions. Montoya led 13 laps and placed third while Bourdais led twice for 12 laps. He pitted for tires and a short-fill of fuel with 13 laps to go from the lead, and a strong out-lap gave him optimal track position for the closing laps.
Bourdais retook first for good when eventual runner-up Connor Daly pitted from the lead with eight laps to go. He won by 2.0401 seconds and moved into a tie for sixth for all-time IndyCar Series wins with 35.
Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet placed fifth. Charlie Kimball, No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing, was eighth followed by Ganassi teammate Tony Kanaan in the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet to give Team Chevy five of the top-nine finishers.
Race 2 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday with qualifying set for 10:45 a.m.
IndyCar Media Conference
Saturday June 4, 2016
Sebastien Bourdais – Race Winner
Juan Pablo Montoya – Finished 3rd
Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: We welcome the winner of the race, Sebastien Bourdais.
Sebastien, take us through your day.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I’m not sure I know the scenario actually because I think I missed a couple of steps how we got from 13th to 16th to 18th to last pretty much, 13th again, then jumping into the lead. It was a rather interesting day and a great team effort from the 11 crew, Hydroxycut. To do that for Chevrolet here means a heck of a lot.
I’m not quite sure. Honestly the key was to try and get some clean air. I managed to do that at some point when we topped off and we had that six laps extra or something like that. That really was the key for our race, to actually be able to produce some fast laps, not be stuck in traffic constantly. If you’re following the train in front of you, I just doesn’t work.
That beat us at the beginning a little bit. A lot of us had the same idea of pitting early and getting rid of the reds. That really didn’t get us anywhere because basically all three cars in front of me did, and a couple of guys behind us jumped us because they did it a couple laps later, minus the out lap.
Man, after that, I was like, We’re done. Not only did we not make headway, but we lost position. How are we going to make that work?
When the yellow came out soon after, we came in and topped up. That really was the key moment for us. From that moment onwards, every time we were a little bit out of sync and could produce fast laps when the guys were coming out of the pits. I could run pretty quick with the Firestone black tires. I was very happy with the car.
Just not being stuck in traffic made the difference. Towards the end there, it was very dicey, a bit of a drizzle, then a lot of fights coming off the pits, whether I was coming off the pits or the guys were coming off the pits. There was a lot of close wheel-to-wheel action. We came out on top and we couldn’t be any happier.
THE MODERATOR: Your 35th career win, ties you with Bobby Unser for sixth all time. How does that make you feel?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Stats are one thing. Every time you move up the ranks like this, you feel like you belong even more in a very elite group, a very small group of extremely talented drivers, some obviously who are legends.
I don’t know that I want to compare myself to any of those. We’ve had such a rough winter. It has been such an uphill battle since the beginning of the season. To be able to come out on top today, it means a lot for the whole organization. We’ve been able to put on some pretty stellar performances in the last two or three years. We won a race, at least one, for the last two years. We were really looking forward to building that program. Then we had massive setbacks over the winter that really took the whole tree down.
We’re still trying to recover. I’m just glad that all the guys that joined us so late in the game just get the reward for coming onboard and helping us out and making it happen. We’ve got a lot of real race fanatics, who some of them thought about retiring, came out, made it happen. We don’t have the youngest crew of guys, but they got their hearts in it.
My engineer obviously stuck with me since I arrived at KVSH. All in all, it’s him, Josh, our two engineers and two mechanics that stayed over the winter. It takes time to rebuild a team. It’s really showed.
Today we put on our best game and came back on top. So that’s pretty special.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it for questions.
Q. Those who put on slicks were getting squirrelly out there. How important was it when you left the pits to keep those tires hot?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I think it was pretty crucial. I was still pretty worried because after I think the last yellow, I could not switch the tires back, between the drizzle and dicey at the start. We got basically going back to green, we were coming out of 11, which we kind of need to talk about that with race control because that’s just way too late.
I’m just glad it worked out. I was crashing every corner for about three or four laps. The fact that you keep them clean, the tires, put any heat in the brakes before the restart, that almost did it pretty big. I think Conor was hurting just as bad as we were.
They all checked up at the front — checked out, sorry. I could see Dixie and Graham and Juan just taking off. I was like, Man, this is bad. This is when we need to close the gap and be able to stay with them.
For sure when we came in the pits, there was no discussion about it. They proposed to stay on the hot tires. I was onboard because I had very little degradation. The drizzle was on and off. It was going to be tough for us to get the heat back in the tires.
Q. Quick turnaround. Success is going to be short to celebrate. You have to be back in the car early in the morning to qualify for another race. What is that like for you to mentally get ready for another race?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Thankfully it’s not my first rodeo, not the first win. This one is special, it means a lot for everybody. But I think we’re all professionals. We know we got more to do. I believe we can put on a good performance again tomorrow and start from higher up.
It doesn’t always work your way back from where we were, especially where we ended up at some point trying to play the game to do something else. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I think all the guys have their heads in the game. They’re going to be even more motivated. I’m not too worried about that.
Q. Everything comes down to fractions of seconds. Is there one thing that you did during the race that you can point to that made the difference for you to win?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I think, honestly, the car was getting quicker and quicker. It’s like the more I was pushing the car, the more I was getting out of it with these Firestone tires. Very often (indiscernible) happens that way on concrete tracks. To be not overdriving was the key. As soon as you were putting a wheel off the line or passing someone, it was taking a long time to clean the tires and get back up there. I think that was really the key.
Also we had some really good in-and-out laps. Like I said, if I had given up a couple positions, the fights I had wheel-to-wheel coming out of the pits, merging with traffic coming out of the pits, it always played in our favor. These are crucial moments. If you don’t get the upper hand on that one, it’s so tough to pass. I was on the low side on ‘push to pass’. It’s not like I could keep on trying. When I had to make a pass, I had to make it stick.
It’s funny, man. Sometimes things work out and you can’t point out one thing that worked out. As a whole for the race it goes your way somehow. The common denominator is a quick car and I think we had that today.
Q. At one point today Penske was running one through four.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I didn’t see that.
Q. How difficult is it to beat that team? How satisfying is it when you do it?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I wish we could say we beat them fair and square today. But obviously strategy played quite a bit into it. With this pits closed rule, that’s why nobody can go on winning six, seven, eight races like it happened to me back in the Champ Car days. It just throws the races up in the air. It’s for anybody to grab it.
I guess they’re clearly the class of the field on the street courses this year. I think they’ve been beatable in some other places, but on street courses, they just got the stuff figured out. It’s been very tough.
Let’s face it. This has not been the place where we’ve been the strongest. We’ve had a terrible ’14, couldn’t get the car to work. I was almost spinning every 15 laps. Not only I couldn’t get pace, but I was getting pickup on the tires. We had to change tires to get rid of vibration. It was just horrible.
We came back last year with a different setup, made some gains, but obviously never really could see if it was that good because it was always raining, this and that.
Then this year we tried to make improvements. It seemed like it was working on blacks, but then it didn’t work on reds. So we’re still searching our way. Clearly they got a car that works on both. Definitely beatable. But it’s a matter of time, resources and smart guys, a lot of them, at the wheel, and some really good drivers.
When you have a (indiscernible) like they have, it’s tough to come out on top with such a small organization on our side.
For sure, when you do, it’s awfully satisfying because you know you just beat the best in the business. I think when you look at the fastest laps, we’re not in there by any means. I’ve been on that side of the fence where I’ve been in cars that were expected to win. I can tell you for sure, when you do win in a car that’s not necessarily the top of the class, it’s very, very gratifying.
Q. Seems to be something about Detroit that gives the smaller teams a chance. Dale Coyne has won here before. Is there something that levels the playing field about this course?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I don’t know. When you look at it, this year really, like, he was saying, this should have been Penske, one, two, three, four. It just seems like they get even stronger while everybody is just trying to scramble the pieces. Sometimes we get it right, but not all the time.
But I think what tends to be a little bit different here than most places is that there’s definitely been more yellows than almost any of the races so far, except St. Pete maybe. That’s what throws the race up in the air. Again, because of the closed pits, leaders get screwed pretty often. It definitely didn’t help them today.
Q. Do you think being a smaller team gives you an advantage over the bigger teams in that you have experienced engineers, it’s just yourself working with them?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: No, there is no advantage there. Thankfully Olivier and I work together really well, we’re countrymen. But we definitely could use more resources, more time, more money, more people. If you knew how many things we leave unturned, it’s very frustrating at times.
Like at Indy, the car, we didn’t have time to get the car to a shaker rig because we ran three cars, then all of a sudden time has gone by and we don’t have enough people to build the car, don’t have the crew to go test and do things. It’s the limitations of the small teams.
It’s also what makes it so sweet when it does happen.
Q. It gives you a bit of satisfaction.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It’s extra special when you go and beat these guys. Obviously today wasn’t the perfect display because we didn’t go and beat them fair and square. When you win, for example, like we did last year at Milwaukee, you blow by the field, that is very special.
Q. Contrast this to the race you won last year. Only two cautions today. How much different was this?
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: The big difference is the cautions obviously fell at the right time for us, put us back in the game. The first one, not so much. It turned out to be instrumental in how the race was going to unfold later on.
When you look at the chart, who pitted, who didn’t, fuel-wise, that’s how you realize, Man, I’m glad we did take that one.
It’s always a gamble for the future. It’s like playing poker. You know what hand you have right now at the moment, but every bet you make is going to work or not work based on what’s going to happen later on. You just have to make decisions.
Today we just got the lucky hand. The guys in the pits made the right call. Thankfully I didn’t make any mistakes, ran pretty well and pretty strong.
Last year was very strange because once we got to the front, 20 laps to go, we were seven laps short. Oh, boy, that’s a longshot. In the meantime, if we’re going to pit, we’re going to give up all this track position. Everybody but five cars were in the same strategy. Worst-case scenario, we’re going to be fifth. I’ll take it. We’ll go for a win. If it works out, it works out.
But last year was very tough, one restart after another. The reason we did it is because there was that one lane dry. Restarts in these conditions, with everybody on slicks, you have one lane, it’s wet everywhere, the probability for it to go yellow again very soon is pretty high. That’s why we went for it.
You still have to hold everybody off, not get hit, go through. That was a train wreck, that’s for sure. Mentally it’s always exhausting because you have Montoya, very experienced guys, sneaky guys behind you. You know they’re not going to make it easy on you. Again, it was pretty satisfying.
Q. (No microphone.)
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Actually to be honest with you, I’m not the strongest in the paddock. I’m not playing Hulk around there, running a crazy amount of castor to make the steering just impossible to turn. It’s a personal preference. I never have run very much castor in my career because I lose the feel of the car. Some guys do, but they find a benefit to it.
It was heavy enough towards the end. Sparco made some really big gains on the gloves. I tend not to blister up too much any more. Definitely come back sometimes with pretty bloody hands, which is not good, especially when you have to run the second race the next day.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Sebastien.
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our third-place finisher, Juan Pablo Montoya.
Juan, podium finish. I believe you said on TV you had some issues near the end of the race.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Yeah, after the last stop, we started having issues on the right side or something. Got stuck open, had no pressure. But it was okay.
We started pushing. To be honest with you, we sort of went away. But it was a smart call. We were trying to play the rain. When we restarted, we never really pushed. We were tying to make sure we could make it to the rain, and the rain never came.
It is what it is. We tried to run a smart race, but it didn’t happen. We got a decent podium out of it, so I’m pretty happy about that.
THE MODERATOR: Early race strategy, so many cars came in early to change from the Firestone alternates to the blacks.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: To be honest, always happens here in Detroit. This is the only place where the reds are actually slower. This is the opposite. It’s kind of weird.
It’s actually kind of cool, the black tires, at least for me, the longer I run, the faster I go. We sucked the first five, eight laps. All of a sudden the tires, like you spin the tires, you understeer, all of a sudden it’s like you’re turning and the thing just hooks. It really sits down, jumps on the corners. It’s pretty good fun.
THE MODERATOR: Scott Dixon ran a faster lap today than was set in qualifying yesterday.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: That is insane. I think qualifying tomorrow is going to be pretty interesting.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Juan.
Q. Juan, what happened between yourself and Will?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Just Will I think is a little desperate right now for results, so he’ll do anything. That’s what it is. It’s the truth.
THE MODERATOR: How do things change for tomorrow with possible rain?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It was supposed to rain all race today and it never did. We even talked about it in our strategy meeting, putting a full wet setup before the start of the race. If you looked at the radar, a lot of rain was coming.
I think it’s just starting right now. It’s a little late, a couple hours late.
Q. Have you had a chance to run on the rain tires? I don’t know if anybody has run the grays.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think it’s the same tire, isn’t it, just painted the side? Not in a bad way (laughter).
Q. I think it was new at Mid-Ohio and hasn’t been used yet.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Then it’s a different rain tire.
Q. Not the same tire at Toronto.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I don’t know if you run the same on a street and road course, wet tires, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.
To be honest with you, I just thought (indiscernible) people would know when the rain tires were on.
Q. Tomorrow you have to run the red tires again, you only have three sets, so you have all used sets.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, I have a set of reds, sticker reds. We actually didn’t use them today. I qualify on blacks. I think you’ll see everybody qualify on blacks tomorrow.
Look at everybody’s pace. It’s amazing. We’re running 77-second lap times on reds. You put the blacks on, you went two seconds quicker instantly. It was unbelievable.
It’s amazing. You can push them every lap. You can beat the hell out of them lap after lap after lap and they don’t go away. Honestly, the harder you drive them, the more they give you. It’s pretty cool.
Q. (No microphone.)
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: He’s been having a tough season. He wasn’t (indiscernible) the first race. He couldn’t race. I think he’s been trying to catch up.
I don’t know. To be honest, I was on cold tires. If he would have arced the corner, he would have come across me and would have passed me anyway. He actually nearly ruined my race.
I was smart enough to know how aggressive and how far he’s willing to go. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s his choice.
Q. Do you intend to have a conversation with him about it?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, I’m just going to ask him if we can race that far. The rules are clear. If we’re willing to go that far, then it’s good to know.
Q. Juan, how big is this result for you after being first out at Indy?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It’s okay. I mean, it’s a race, it what happens, Indy. Yeah, I mean, I don’t think about it. It really doesn’t change anything. You can have good races, bad races.
You look at last year, didn’t matter how good of a year you had, you got double points in the last race. You can swing 80, 90 points the wrong way, so…
I mean, I don’t know. Let’s wait and see what happens.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Juan.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Thank you.