CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
CHEVROLET DUAL IN DETROIT PRESENTED BY QUICKEN LOANS
STREETS OF BELLE ISLE (DETROIT, MICHIGAN)
RACE TWO POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2016
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: ON HIS WIN: “The guys did a great job in the pits, got me out in front of the 28, then obviously on the restart, I thought, ‘I’ve really got to capitalize here, otherwise, we’re not going to win.’ I went down outside. But I’ve got to thank Verizon, thank the fans. I mean Verizon, man, it’s been a long time since the No. 12 has been in lane so I’m very happy for the whole Verizon crew.”
ON LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN WINS: “It’s been a year since you’ve been here in victory lane: “It just gives the whole crew some confidence. I think we’ve all kind of been stumbling a little bit, the whole group of us. It’s been a tough start to the year. I missed the first race and just had a few mishaps, you know, and now we’re there.”
ON PASSING PAGENAUD: “You really had to push on the restart; how big of a risk was that for you: “It wasn’t a big risk because it was on the outside. Had I tried to go on the inside, it would have been a much bigger risk. I wasn’t willing to take that with Simon because he’s the championship leader. So, if I was going to do it, I had to do it on the outside and cleanly. There was a space and I went for it.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: TAKE US BACK TO 20 LAPS TO GO AND THE RESTART WITH YOU AND WILL POWER:
“It was a good fight. Will really was aggressive, but he made a great pass. I couldn’t really do anything. I was really struggling on cold tires. My car was really good on long runs, as you could see there was no degradation to the No. 22 car. But, he got me that is what it is. I tried, but he had the outside lane. I got to tell you he had to brake really late to make that one stick, but he had a lot of pace, we did too, but to finish second today was a great championship day. I’ve got to tell you I was thinking a big about that. Helio (Castroneves) got really unlucky unfortunately and (Scott) Dixon was behind. I thought we should be trying, but not too hard. Very happy for Roger (Penske) this is 1-2, this is a Roger Penske owned town. This is a Penske organization track, so pretty happy.”
YOU CLOSED IN TIGHT ON YOUR TEAMMATE WILL POWER IN THE CLOSING LAPS, DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR HIM ON THE LAST LAP? “Well I will tell you that he made a great pass and was very aggressive on the restarts. I didn’t feel comfortable on cold tires but we had a good car on long runs but I struggled on cold tires. He saw it I think and took his chance and that is how you win races. Congratulations to him. There was no point in colliding and trying too hard. I tried at the end with some push-to-passes left and the HP Chevrolet was competitive all day. But I will take second today because I think it’s a really good points day for us.”
AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON YOU ARE LEADING THE POINT STANDINGS SO HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO BRING THE CAR HOME INSTEAD OF TRYING TO GET THAT LEAD? “Yeah, you just look at who is your competition and Helio (Castroneves) got really unlucky today with the yellow. He really had the race in hand and Dixon was behind so at that point you have to be smart and think about the big picture. I am so happy for Roger (Penske) to get the 1-2 finish because they put so much effort in making this event possible. Thanks to the Penske organization and I am really happy for the whole team.”
DID YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE A SHOT AT WILL (POWER) IN THE CLOSING LAPS? “I tried. You never give up until it is finished. I tried with some push to pass left in the car. I think that is why I got close. The car felt really good, every lap it felt better. I tried to get close to see if I could push him to make a mistake on the last lap. You never know sometimes it works, but hey I’m really happy with second today.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER/FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: ON HIS DAY: “It was a tough day. Two in a row is always difficult for a race weekend. I want to just thank Chevrolet for everything they have done for us. It’s great to be back in Detroit. It’s really a cool city and cool race track to come to. Great to get two wins for Chevrolet, congrats to Will (Power). It was tight here like you said. I tried to go for a move. I thought I had a run and he (Will Power) went deep and started to close the door. I tried to get out of it and I think it was probably more my fault. Same thing in Turn 3 with Charlie (Kimball), I think it was more my mistake trying to race him and understeered into him a little bit. Thankfully, my car held up. I’ve got a great crew with ECR (Ed Carpenter Racing). They gave me great cars. Thanks to all my boys that have been working so hard this weekend.
“It was a good day. I love being here in Detroit and racing at this track, it’s a challenging place with all the bumps. It’s a lot of fun to wrestle IndyCars here, they’re hard to keep off the walls! We had a great car with Preferred Freezer and Fuzzy’s Vodka, ECR worked really hard this weekend. I’m happy with what we did, I would have liked to have had a win but you can’t get them all!”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: ON RACE: “We just didn’t have a good day today finishing fifth with Team Target. Helio just smashed into us on the start and put us into the wall. We lost a ton of track position after that. I didn’t see the replay with the contact with Juan but I tried to give him room while getting to the corner. That obviously gave us a puncture and dropped us a ways back. But after the hit I took from Helio at the start I could turn right pretty well, but I just couldn’t turn left and it’s hard to move up in the race obviously like that.”
ON-TRACK CONTACT: “Yeah, the first one was pretty big and I don’t know if anybody caught it. I was complaining pretty hard on race control because as it went green, Helio (Castroneves) just swerved left and smashed the side of our car and it bent the front suspension. Then we were just trying to hold on and then I still have to look at what happened with Juan (Pablo Montoya) and I . I tried to give him a little room, but realistically I’m not sure where he was going there and obviously cut our rear tire. That hurt our sequence there and then actually with about 10 or 15 to go I actually hit the wall going through (Turn) 7. The car was pretty damaged today, but a big thanks to Team Target they did a hell of a job. Ultimately, points not so bad considering the day or the weekend that we had, but definitely we’ve got to start making some strides here. (Simon) Pagenaud has been doing a fantastic job and we’ve got to start eating into that.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “Today was just another race where a yellow really screwed up our strategy. Right when we were planning on coming in for our second stop of the race, the yellow came out and we weren’t able to make it in. We ended up having to come in under yellow which put us toward the back of the field and we had to take the restart in 17th. We did catch a break on the last yellow when we were already in the pits when the yellow came out, but it wasn’t enough to cycle us back through to the top. I thought the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet definitely had a chance at a podium and would’ve been up there if our strategy would’ve played out the way we wanted it, but you never know here in Detroit.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT-KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: “I have mixed feelings. We put on quite a show. The Hydroxycut machine was on it. It was a little bit like yesterday when we had to turn it up and in clear air it was about as fantastic as it gets. Unfortunately, what gave us the win yesterday, took it away today. When that yellow came out it was game over. We knew it, but we still soldiered on and put on the best drive that I have had in quite a while. It felt like back in the Champ Car days to be honest where the car was so hooked up it was just about my own limit and that is a very cool feeling. But, we only had six gallons left in the car after the restart and that was not enough even though we had the pace and were pulling away, it wasn’t enough to recover from the late caution so we cycled back to eighth. From 12th to eighth, we’ll take it
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH:
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “It was a disappointing day for Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Team. The No. 83 Tresiba® Chevrolet was definitely better than a 16th place finish. We got caught out by a yellow on that last stop. It’s really unfortunate with the pits closed – you’re just kind of racing to the luck of a yellow flag. We just missed it a little bit today. It’s disappointing, but we’ll come back stronger in Texas. I’m excited about getting back to Texas where we finished seventh last year and had a really good test earlier in the year.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “It was another tough race. The guys made some good calls to gain me positions through a good strategy. I made a mistake battling for position and brushed the wall. Some things got bent in the left rear and I had to come in to get that fixed. By the time we did that, we were a few laps down. I made a mistake that cost us a pretty good result, but I think overall we made a lot of improvements throughout the weekend. I’m just really happy to be part of ECR and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH:
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “I’m not sure what happened out there at the start but it’s a shame our day ended so quickly. We were planning on taking our time at the start and just getting the Gallagher car through cleanly, but that didn’t happen. The car remained on the course for the race so we’ll have to wait until it gets back to look over the data and see exactly what went wrong.”