CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY OF TORONTO
STREETS OF EXHIBITION PLACE, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
POST RACE RECAP
SUNDAY JULY 17, 2016

Will Power Puts Chevy in Victory Lane at Toronto

· Helio Castroneves gives Chevrolet 1-2 finish in the 85-lap/149.175-mile race on the 11-turn, 1.755-mile temporary street course in Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
· Tony Kanaan finishes fourth to give Team Chevy three of top-four finishers
· Victory is 10th for the Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series 2016 season of the 11 completed races
· Top six in points are all Team Chevy drivers

TORONTO (July 17, 2016) – Will Power and the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet team are on a mission – to capture their second Verizon IndyCar Series (VICS) championship, the first coming in 2014.

Power and company took another step in the right direction today by capturing the win on the Streets of Exhibition Place –Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the third win at Indy Toronto for Power, the third of the season for the Australian and the 28th of his VICS career.

Coming from the fourth starting spot on the grid, Power is credited with leading once in today’s 85-lap/149.175-mile race for a total of 10 laps. The victory moved Power to second in the standings, 47 points behind Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud. Pagenaud had to settle for a ninth-place finish when late race cautions shuffled the order.

“It worked out for us on the last stop,” said Power. “The team called me in just at the last minute. Perfect timing. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times it has gone the opposite way for me at this place, and many other places. But I was so stoked to see yellow lights as I was going into pit lane. It’s not often you catch a yellow like that. We ran the top three all day. Had a fast Chevrolet.”

The win is the 10th of the season for the Chevrolet Aero Kit IndyCar with integrated 2.2 liter twin turbocharged direct injected V6 engine, and the 53rd since the Bowtie Brand returned to the series in 2012.

Giving Chevrolet a one-two finish on the 11-turn, 1.756-mile temporary street course was Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet.

Starting on the outside of the front row, Castroneves was in contention all day despite having to pit unexpectedly on lap 25 for a flat left front tire. Excellent work on pit lane and strategy got Castroneves back toward the front of the field and he was able to secure a solid runner-up finish.

Castroneves sits third in the point standings, 74 points behind the leader.

Tony Kanaan brought the No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to the checkered in fourth position to give Team Chevy three of the top-four finishers in the race. Kanaan was credited with leading once for 10 laps. “TK” jumped to sixth in points with today’s run.

Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 Team Hydroxycut-KVSH Racing Chevrolet, finished seventh with pole sitter Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet in eighth place to give Chevrolet six of the top-nine in the final order. Dixon, the defending and four-time VICS champions, sits fourth in points after today’s race.

Josef Newgarden, winner in Iowa with a commanding performance, made contact with the wall in the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Service Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, and finished 22nd. He now sits fifth in the standings.

Up next on the schedule for Team Chevy in the Verizon IndyCar Series will be on July 31st at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

INDYCAR POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

Will Power
Helio Castroneves
THE MODERATOR: We welcome to the podium the winner of today’s race, Will Power.

Your third win in the last four races, making the charge up the championship chart. Talk us through your day.

WILL POWER: Yeah, I think there’s always a risk in the first stop if you stay out. We had enough fuel to go a couple more laps, but we opted to pit on the same lap as Dixon. It didn’t give us a chance to jump those guys.

But, you know, that worked out for us in the last stop. The team called me in just at the last minute. Perfect timing. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times it has gone the opposite way for me at this place, and many other places.

But I was so stoked to see yellow lights as I was going into pit lane. It’s not often you catch a yellow like that.

We ran the top three all day. Had a fast car. It’s very difficult to pass, so it was going to be a pit stop sequence if you’re going to get by anyone, or a restart. So, yeah, a solid day again.

THE MODERATOR: This is your third win at Toronto, ties you with Dario with three, Michael Andretti with seven. 28th career win, moves you ahead of Johnny Rutherford, moves you into 13th place. Keep moving up the historical charts, as well.

WILL POWER: Once you start heading to 30 wins, getting there, getting close, that’s good. It’s good to get this momentum for the team going forward for the rest of the championship. Five to go. All good tracks for me.

If we can close that gap going into Sonoma, we can do this, we can win this championship, absolutely.

THE MODERATOR: Missing the first race of the season put you in a big hole, now you’re within 47 points. Back then, did you think you could come back and make a run like this?

WILL POWER: As long as it’s mathematically possible, you should never give up. Dixon has been the example of that year after year. He said to me the other day, with six to go, he was 90 back. Just shows you how quickly that can change. He’s got to keep at it and not get desperate.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions for our race winner.

Q. Will, in 2008 I remember talking to you after a bad qualifying effort at Watkins Glen. You were worried sick that you may not be able to have a ride in the series the following year. Now here you are one win away from tying Rick Mears. Does the way you’ve come from where you were to where you are today surprise you in any way?
WILL POWER: I actually remember that day. I remember speaking to you. I was quite rude to you because I really thought that that was it. Those tracks were the tracks where I could actually win the race, you know, give myself a chance to have a drive the next year. So it was a very pressure-filled year for me.

Yeah, you know, just getting the opportunity with Penske gives you that chance week after week to win races. Especially in those early days, there were times when we won six races in a year. It’s such a good situation to be in as a driver when you can drive for a team like that, where you’re given that chance week after week. That’s a great position to be in.

You can’t forget about that. You got to always remember you’re with a great team because it wasn’t always like that. It’s easy to forget. You got to be appreciative.

Q. You had about six power pushes going into the late stages of the race. How important was that? What was the strategy behind using those?
WILL POWER: Yeah, they’re big now. It’s a big, big hit of horsepower. You’re going to motor by someone if you’ve got it and they don’t.

I was keeping them for late restarts. I thought that this is how this race was going. I deliberately saved them. I finished with five or six, I think, which you always feel like you didn’t spend all your money. You were given a heap of money and you didn’t spend it.

But it’s all good. It would be good if you could take them over to the next race, like building them up.

Q. What is it about Toronto, this track, that you’ve enjoyed so much success on?
WILL POWER: As my engineer says, it’s so hard to win. It’s not simple qualify, pole, drive away. It’s always mayhem, yellows falling at odd times. It’s a tough one to win.

It’s funny, like, I used to look when Dario beat me in the championship, I think it was three times. I always felt I was quicker in qualifying. He was just so consistent. I could see why now. I’ve learnt from him or learnt from experience. You can never get desperate. You just keep chipping away and things start falling your way.

I wish I had the energy that I had when I was in my 20s, but the experience I have now. I’m a much different driver.

Q. Were you at all concerned about the concrete on the track towards the end of the race?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I could see in turn five. Helio got a puncher, a flat tire. I wasn’t sure if that was why, so I started not using that curb. There was a big chunk taken out of it.

When we were leading at the end, I thought, I’m just going to drive around that, not get caught out.

Q. You’ve been in the position where Simon was multiple times, where you’re leading, big enough points lead, see it dwindle. Being in the second position, how do you think he’s going to respond to that? Tough results brought him back.
WILL POWER: I had that so many times where you’re leading with a big lead. I mean, he’s doing the right thing. He’s not being conservative. He’s there week in, week out.

But just sometimes it flows your way. Like it just goes in cycles. You have good and bad runs. It’s the bad days you make the most of that really wins you a championship. You have to win races at some point. But St. Pete obviously was zero points. But Indy road course, finishing 19th, that type of thing is such a big hit. It’s those days you don’t have the car. You just have to chill and not get desperate about it.

Q. There was a time not that long ago where you had a tendency to approach race by race and quite deliberately not think about the championship picture. You’ve done a complete 180. When did that come and how has that change of approach come about?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I would say I’m driving differently to the way I would drive in 2014 when I won the championship, when I just went for it all the time. Now I just let the races come to me. I don’t seem to ever get desperate or feel desperate to make something happen. I just do it. Push when you need to push. Always stay within your limits.

It’s working now, it is. It’s just experience. You start to work out how things fall. Almost like life, you have good and bad. You got to try to roll with it.

Q. Mid-Ohio is a track that Scott Dixon historically does well at. When you won at Road America, you called that the perfect race. Looked like for most of today’s race Scott Dixon was running the perfect race. When a driver falls on the wrong side of the yellow caution light, how tough is that to get over?
WILL POWER: It’s just frustrating. I’m the one that’s been pushing in the series to have something to leave the pits open so people who have done a good job, like Dixon was doing, don’t literally get a drive-through. It’s happened to me so many times. I reckon I’d have like 10 more race wins or something if that hadn’t have happened.

There’s nothing you can do about it. You know the risk, though. That’s the one thing. You know the risk. The risk is you can stay out longer and you’ll jump the guy because you’re on warm tires and low fuel, the guy is coming out on cold tires and full fuel. If the yellow falls, you know how many people would pit and how far you’ll go back.

This year, my team, we’ve been conservative from that respect. We’ve always pitted early. We’ve always had the fuel to go, but we’ve just pitted early.

Q. You seem to have such momentum going right now. With the points lead, the deficit getting smaller, is it going to be hard to not start doing math in your head?
WILL POWER: You don’t do it. It’s impossible. How do you know where he’s going to finish and where you’re going to finish? You just have to execute week in and week out.

Yeah, you can look at the points at the end of each weekend, but it’s absolutely the wrong focus to be looking at points. You know your limits. You know your risks. You know what is a 50/50 move. You know when to take those risks. If you’re taking them all the time, you’re going to get caught out half the time or more. If you do it at a time when it’s necessary to take that risk, you have a good chance of pulling it off. That’s how you got to do it.

THE MODERATOR: Will, thank you. Congratulations.

WILL POWER: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: We welcome our second-place finisher, Helio Castroneves.

Obviously a key moment for you was midway through the race, the cut front tire. Take us through your race, please.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, no, the car was really good. I mean, Scott and I, I’m not sure, I believe we opened up about three and a half seconds. Then I start feeling a little bit of vibration. Was making comments to the team, what’s happening because I never had that before, to be honest, unless you lock the wheel or do something. I was pushing, but never to the extent that I lock the tires.

So everything was just increasing. One point between me and Scott the gap increased because the front just start giving up. Very strange. I told them the vibration is getting very, very hard, but I still okay. After I said that, next lap, the left front just gave up.

Unfortunately was in turn one. If I knew, obviously I would have pit. It’s very unusual for this kind of situation happen. Understanding how the track is coming apart in turn five, I would probably thinking that’s one of the causes that ended up cutting the tire.

Interesting because the gap that we open up, I feel that probably put in a different strategy. Roger came with a very good strategy, decided to pit right away, put us in a different spot. The yellow finally came to our situation and we were able to stay kind of, like, in the top five. My car was really good, especially on blacks. I was able to make some moves.

Would be very difficult to pass Will because he had six ‘push to pass’, as I understand. I only had three. Coming off turn 11, I was hoping for a little mistake.

It’s a shame. But don’t get me wrong, the Pennzoil Chevrolet machine was really strong. Second is better than third.

THE MODERATOR: You also were able to gain some ground in the championship, as well.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: That’s a plus. For sure is a plus. I’m not sure what position, but I’m assuming fourth.

THE MODERATOR: You’re in third. You are 74 points behind Simon.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: There we go. That’s a positive thing. Make my day even better. That’s good. We’re 1-2-3 in the championship now. That’s what we want. We want to keep pushing this way. Mid-Ohio is next and we have some work to do.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Helio.

Q. In your post-race comments you mentioned that some people thought you were old. Who thinks you’re old?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: Just making fun of it. In the end of the day, no, it’s just having a good time. Experience definitely played a key in the result today. Able to make the moves on the right time. Just joking around.

When you have a car like this, you just want to win so bad. Obviously you want to keep going as far as you can.

Q. Just how bad was that curb in turn five? Caused a lot of trouble for a lot of drivers.
HELIO CASTRONEVES: Interesting. I didn’t know it was concrete until I saw the repairing. I thought it was a piece of rubber. I was attacking pretty hard that curb, to be honest. When I realized that was the track coming apart, I was like, Wow! I was kind of shocked.

In fact, in turn one, the pace car towards the end start taking a little bit of the concrete out. Will and I were right there. In fact, ask Will that. He moved away from a big chunk of concrete. That’s not good. We want to make sure the track at least stays in one shape.

At the end of the day, great result for the entire Team Penske, winning with Will, second with myself, and obviously the championship alive very much. We’ll keep pushing forward.

Q. (Question regarding James Hinchcliffe.)
HELIO CASTRONEVES: He’s been rising, especially this year with the big momentum at Indianapolis, getting the pole position. Hinch has been with different teams. People don’t realize, when you change teams, it’s very difficult to adapt. Obviously what he’s doing, again with a different team, he’s showing the talent is there.

It’s great to have another Canadian – unfortunately for me work. But the competitiveness makes myself better. I always say that when you have good quality drivers, they make myself go further. Today is an example of that.

Finishing in the top three in a very bumpy track, difficult conditions, definitely it was a great result.

Q. You were on the bad side of the cautions last week. Scott was on the wrong side this week.
HELIO CASTRONEVES: What position he finish, by the way?

Q. Eighth. But he looked like he had the perfect car, perfect strategy. The yellow throws the whole thing down the drain.
HELIO CASTRONEVES: It’s about to rain a little bit on that side. I think because of the yellow, a little sunshine today (laughter).

It’s frustrating. Even for me today I know Scott was fast. My car was fast, too. It’s a little frustrating. What you going to do?

That’s why the Verizon IndyCar Series is very competitive. Sometimes not the fastest car win the race. It makes really the level of everyone better. Today all the teams are very close to each other, but it gives opportunities for smaller teams to be in the hunt and finish well, too.

One day it’s going to play on your side, another day it’s not going to be on your side. Just have to keep going.

Q. Does it seem that Will Power has the golden ticket at the moment?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: He definitely did a good job. Elkhart Lake, today, Detroit. I mean, again, his luck change around a little bit. That’s the way it is. It’s good for the team, again. Good effort. We keep going strong. We keep pushing each other. We want to bring this championship to Mr. Penske.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Helio.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Thank you.