CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
IOWA CORN 300
IOWA SPEEDWAY, NEWTON, IOWA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING QUOTES
SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: YOU CAPTURED THE 500TH POLE FOR PENSKE RACING: “That’s pretty cool isn’t it. 500 – how cool is that. It is just qualifying, we have a lot of work to do this weekend. But it certainly a great stamp on the work the No. 22 team has been doing as well as the whole Penske organization. We work, all four of us together with Helio (Castroneves), Juan (Pablo Montoya) and Will (power) make it really nice to go to work in the morning. We manage to make the car better together and it shows on the race track. Super proud of everyone with the Menards team. It is fantastic to accomplish success this year. But again, this is qualifying and the big prize is tomorrow when the points come.
“It is such a gamble for the engineers in this situation. You only get two laps. Conditions from this morning to the afternoon changed. It is fun. When you get the car right like this on an oval. This Menards car is beautiful. It has been super close all weekend. Super proud of the No. 22 team. Chevy has been incredible giving us so much power and such a good aero kit its been comfortable and a lot more to my driving style.
“The biggest statement we want to show is we are strong on ovals as well and want to win. I’m super happy about that. I’m super happy we can show some speed. We were fast at Indy as well, but mechanical took us out of that. It’s great to be here. It is great to show so much strength.
“I’m the lucky one who got to win the 500th pole for Team Penske. A Frenchman and on an oval!”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “You always wish you had a little more when you’re sitting second! That’s the beauty of hindsight. We did everything we could with our information. It was tough because I didn’t get to test, but J.R.(Hildebrand) did such a great job for us last week at the test. He got the car in an awesome place, we just missed it by a whisker there. We have a great racecar and we really have an opportunity to make something happen. We’ve had two good races here over the past couple of years, I think we’ve got another shot to get a win this time.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “The Hitachi Chevrolet is really good. We’re talking about a few hundredths of a second and when you have incredible teammates and we’re all going out right in a row, whoever goes last is probably going to get the best end of it. Simon did a good job. The 500th pole for Team Penske. I’m proud to be part of this team. I’m happy for him getting the pole position. Now tomorrow I’m going to go for the race win”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 4th: “The Gallagher car was really strong today. It was loose, probably too loose, but when I qualified here last year on the pole in Indy Lights I was too loose. I think that’s the just the way it is around here. You have to be on the limit, especially in qualifying. I think in the race you need a car that you’re confident with, but in qualifying you just have to go for it.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5th: “It was reasonably slippery out there. I was surprised at how low grip it actually was, but the No. 83 Tresiba® Chevrolet felt pretty good regardless. The first couple of laps it was pretty free and I was sliding a lot, but I made some adjustments to my tools and took a really big swing at it and had to pedal it a bit. The Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing guys started this morning with a good car after learning a lot from Max after his test here last week and Scott’s tire test early in the year. I haven’t seen this place since last year, but it’s probably a good thing with how the bumps have changed. We’re happy with the fifth-place starting spot and ready to do some work on the race car in tonight’s practice.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6th: Chevrolet: “It’s safe to say that I left everything I had out on the track for that qualifying run. The car felt really loose and honestly it felt like I was close to crashing a few times, but we’ll take a sixth-place starting spot for the race tomorrow. This track really suits me and I came from much further back when I won here in 2010. The No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet’s race setup is really strong and I’m feeling confident in the race car.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7th: “I’m a little disappointed, to be honest! I thought we were going to be a little bit better than that. We had a little too much balance in there. I was hoping for a Top 5 starting spot, but we’ve just had a rough year. We had a great car this morning in our long runs, which is really good. I just came out here thinking we were going to be a little better than 7th.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH:
“For qualifying, we wanted to be a little conservative and the goal was to just be up in the front. We didn’t qualify quite where we would have liked. The track can be quite slippery here and that can have an effect. But I’m feeling good about the Verizon Chevy and we’ll just work on what we need for tomorrow’s race to finish out strong.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10th: Going to the green flag lap I had a bit of a moment and nearly lost it. I had to downshift and that really hurt our momentum. I was a little bit timid after that, but we have a good Target car and will be ready for the race come tomorrow here at Iowa.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 DEVILBLISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11th: “During qualifying there was too much understeer in the car and we were a little bit loose, but it’s okay. We did a lot of work today and we prepared really well for the race. So, we feel pretty confident. The DeVilbiss Chevy should do well in tomorrow’s race. ”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT-KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16th: “We were too optimistic with the downforce level given the track conditions with the track temp going up. I was sliding all over the place. The balance was good on the Hydroxycut Chevy machine. I just had no grip. We trimmed a little more than where we were this morning, we went for it, but it was not a smart move. It is what it is”