CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
KOHLER GRAND PRIX
ROAD AMERICA (ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN)
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING QUOTES
FRIDAY, JUNE 25`, 2016

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:
HOW MUCH WERE YOU LOOKING AT TONY KANAAN COMING THERE AT THE END? “TK had the reds on and was coming hard. He was quick all race. I had my work cut out and did everything I could to stay ahead. I’m stoked to get the Verizon car to Victory Lane. Thanks to Chevy. It’s a phenomenal car and phenomenal engine. I’m just so stoked.”
WITH YOUR SECOND WIN IN A ROW IS THE CHAMPIONSHIP TALK STARTING TO FEEL MORE REAL? “I was talking championship even before this race. There are seven races to go and we’re still in it. There could be a 100-point swing in the last race. We have to go for it.”
WAS THAT SCREAM AT THE END SIGNIFICANT FOR WINNING AT ROAD AMERICA IN FRONT OF ALL THESE FANS? “Oh yeah it’s just a great place and I’m just so stoked to win that way. I badly wanted to win another race. I needed that one.”
HOW BIG IS THIS FOR YOU WILL? “It is huge! I walked around the camping grounds earlier in the weekend. It just amazed me how many people are here, and how much fun they are having. Just walking in here on Thursday, you could see the place was really popping. I am just so stoked to be back here. We should have been back here a long time ago. All the fans are great.
“Oh man. I wasn’t going to let it go on the restart. I was determined to get a great restart and keep the lead. TK (Tony Kanaan) was mega quick there at the end. I just had a few more push to pass left and that helped.
“The Firestones were great. We had no problems We could do full stints. It was just great, great.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: – DID YOU HAVE ENOUGH FOR WILL AT THE END?
“That extra lap of yellow didn’t help us. We definitely had a faster tire. He did a good job of saving his Push to Pass. He had three on the last lap and I had one. Maybe with an extra lap if we had run out of Push to Pass, it could have been interesting. But it was a great job. The guys did a great job in the pits. The fans here are unbelievable. During the race up front, there wasn’t a lot of battle but then at the end I think I made them excited.”

TALK ABOUT THE BATTLE WITH SIMON PAGENAUD AT THE END THROUGH THE KINK.
“Simon tried to close the door a little bit. I got on the grass a little bit. That’s OK. This is not a gentleman’s race. We’re racing, so that’s fair enough.”

HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THIS?
“I love it. I want to come back next week and do it again here. We need more events like this. We need this, Mid-Ohio and other places where people can camp and bring their families and kids. These are the races we need. Great job by IndyCar, Road America and Kohler as the sponsor. I can’t wait for next year.”

“I really believe that the extra lap of yellow at the end cost me the race. I don’t know all of the details about what happened with the extended yellow, but I’m obviously not in control of that. Will did a really good job of saving his push to passes until the last lap. We had the red tires (in the last laps) which was a little quicker and we were just chasing Will down. Towards the end we had one push to pass which gave us extra power but he had three so he had an advantage on us, but what a great race. Down the straightaways I was able to look at the fans on the last two laps and people were standing and spinning hats and shirts and that’s what I love to see. I hope (the fans) enjoyed it as much as I did and they come back because we’ll make even better next year.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “It was a great day for the Hitachi Chevrolet. We got a solid result and gained some ground in the standings. There may have been a few times where if we had done something else, we could have come out a little better, but who knows. I’m proud of my guys and can’t thank them enough for their hard work. The event here this weekend was spectacular. The fans were just great. I hope we can keep coming back here.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: HOW WAS IT TODAY?
“We were pretty happy. The Novo Nordisk guys and Chip Ganassi Racing have worked hard all weekend. In the three sessions that didn’t count, we were 21st, 19th and 19th. And then the two sessions that counted we were sixth and 11th, then sixth in the race. So a lot of credit goes to the team. They worked really hard. We pulled data from the Gallagher car, the Target/Clorox car and the NTT car. It’s nice to see Tony (Kanaan) on the podium. Scott (Dixon) had some issues which was too bad.”

GANASSI CARS WERE ON REDS AT THE END AND PENSKES WERE ON BLACKS. DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR THEM?
“I think so. I had a run on Helio (Castroneves) and then he blocked me. Race Control called it a block and then (Ryan) Hunter-Reay) overtook him under racing conditions, and they said that was under racing conditions, and they said that’s the position. So I need to talk to Race Control about that. The move… he blocked me down into Turn Five, and then the fact that I could hang with him on the outside of Turn One at the exit was exciting. I don’t know if I want to do that again. A lot of credit to the 83 guys in pitlane. They just kept giving me positions all day long. (The block) made it hard because that cost me momentum and the 28 got around. But I’m happy with sixth. These guys have worked so hard all weekend. We have some great guests here from Novo Nordisk and a couple of diabetes educators and some sales reps, so it was great to put on a show for them. And the fans have been awesome. It’s so great to be back here at Road America and I can’t wait to be back. We get to go to the Glen in September – another iconic American track. Then next year we can come back and be five spots better.
“A lot of credit to the Novo Nordisk team today. It’s nice to see Tony Kanaan on the podium and it was too bad for Scott Dixon. We worked a lot on the setup with Max Chilton’s guys and that was really helpful. I had a really good run on Helio but he blocked me there toward the end. Then he gave a position back to Hunter-Reay and not me so I’m not sure what went down there. A lot of credit to the 83 guys on pit lane today. They kept giving me positions on pit lane. I’m pretty happy with the result and the fans were just incredible this weekend at Road America.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 DEVILBLISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “It’s hard when you qualify that far back. We had really good pace in the DeVilbiss Chevrolet, but there’s nothing you can do to advance that many positions. We executed well. We did make a couple small mistakes in the first run, but we kind of got with the program and got better and better. We had a fun day. It was so exciting to come back to Road America. This place is incredible. It’s just amazing. If anyone complains about the racing today, then they should go watch horse racing or something.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 DIRECT SUPPLY ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: JN21
AFTER FINISHING EIGHTH, HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
“I’m really happy points-wise. I think we gained a lot on the front-runners. I feel a little disappointed. Our car was better than eighth, but a lot of that comes down to qualifying. I just didn’t do a great job of putting the car where it needed to be. I feel bad for the Direct Supply guys. They deserved a little bit better. But I’m not going to discount eighth place. It was a great run. We maximized what we could today for the most part and we’ll run with that. I’ll try to heal up a little better for Iowa and that difficult track. We’ll keep climbing. We have a good opportunity to challenge the guys who are at the front of the championship.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR BATTLE WITH JUAN PABLO MONTOYA.
“We had fun there. Juan is a tough guy to race. You have run him hard. I was struggling there at the end with a little issue going on. It was still fun just running with him. What more could you ask for as a race car driver than that. I just hope all the fans here at Road America and all our fans at home enjoyed the show. Road America is one of the best IndyCar tracks on the planet so it was great to be back.”

DID THE INJURIES PLAY ANY ROLE ON YOUR PERFORMANCE?
“I don’t think so from a speed standpoint. I probably wasn’t in the best mindset all weekend. I tried to focus on just driving and not worrying about the injuries. They weren’t limiting me as much as people would think. Like the issue in qualifying yesterday… I just pushed too hard and made a mistake. We haven’t made many of those this year and that put us on the back foot. Those are the type of mistakes that hurt you in points on a weekend like this. Maybe instead of eighth we could have had a podium. Those are the types of things that I need to try to minimize going into Iowa.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH:
AFTER FINISHING EIGHTH, HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
“I’m really happy points-wise. I think we gained a lot on the front-runners. I feel a little disappointed. Our car was better than eighth, but a lot of that comes down to qualifying. I just didn’t do a great job of putting the car where it needed to be. I feel bad for the Direct Supply guys. They deserved a little bit better. But I’m not going to discount eighth place. It was a great run. We maximized what we could today for the most part and we’ll run with that. I’ll try to heal up a little better for Iowa and that difficult track. We’ll keep climbing. We have a good opportunity to challenge the guys who are at the front of the championship.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR BATTLE WITH JUAN PABLO MONTOYA.
“We had fun there. Juan is a tough guy to race. You have run him hard. I was struggling there at the end with a little issue going on. It was still fun just running with him. What more could you ask for as a race car driver than that. I just hope all the fans here at Road America and all our fans at home enjoyed the show. Road America is one of the best IndyCar tracks on the planet so it was great to be back.”

DID THE INJURIES PLAY ANY ROLE ON YOUR PERFORMANCE?
“I don’t think so from a speed standpoint. I probably wasn’t in the best mindset all weekend. I tried to focus on just driving and not worrying about the injuries. They weren’t limiting me as much as people would think. Like the issue in qualifying yesterday… I just pushed too hard and made a mistake. We haven’t made many of those this year and that put us on the back foot. Those are the type of mistakes that hurt you in points on a weekend like this. Maybe instead of eighth we could have had a podium. Those are the types of things that I need to try to minimize going into Iowa.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “We were having a really good day, but unfortunately we had a little issue with the engine. We had the Menards Chevy hunting for the win. We had a really good race going in this wonderful setting at Road America. The atmosphere was perfect. The race strategy was perfect. It’s tough when you have an opportunity and you can’t maximize it in the championship. It’s a tough day today, but we’ll bounce back. This team is incredible. They give me the best cars every weekend, so we’ll just move forward.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT-KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “It’s a shame because the Hydroxycut machine was a good race car. Unfortunately, we got hit on the first lap and went down a lap repairing the damage. It was pretty much game over at that point. We soldiered on and gave it our best, passing when we could, but with only the one late caution there wasn’t much we could do. It’s especially frustrating because, as I have said before, I really like the Road America circuit and the atmosphere this weekend was fantastic. Fortunately, we will be racing here again. At this point, the KVSH Racing Team will just have to move on and see what we can do in Iowa.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: “It was a real character building day today for us I guess you would say. It seemed like everyone just went early on the start and I was stuck behind a few cars that didn’t go. From there we just fell back unfortunately. I think we ended up running out of fuel for whatever reason after that and dropped way back. It was a tough day for the Gallagher team but I know all these guys who win races and championships in the Verizon IndyCar Series went through this, and you have to deal with these kind of days and move forward.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 CLORAX CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “I’m not really sure what happened there. We maintained our spot in second and I was happy with the Clorox car at the start. We just started losing power for some reason and had to pull off track. It’s really a shame as we had really good pace in the car and I think would have been in contention for the win. It looked like a great crowd out there today and I was really excited to be back here at Road America, but we didn’t get a chance to finish unfortunately.”