CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY OF TORONTO
STREET OF EXHIBITION PLACE, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
SUNDAY JULY 17, 2016
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: “The team’s doing a great job, obviously. We’ve been playing catch-up all year but every race we’re executing, getting great strategies, great cars. We’ve just got to keep chipping away, man, keep chipping away and see if we can have a shot at this It don’t know what the point situation is right now. All we know is we’ve got to finish ahead of the 22 every race if we want to win.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: “I’m smiling because I know we didn’t win but the Pennzoil Chevrolet car was really strong. When we felt the car vibrating and I was just telling Roger, ‘hey listen, it’s just vibration.’ But let’s not pit. Then, all of a sudden I felt the car pulling and the tire just gave up. I’m not sure why. I noticed the curb in Turn 5, it could be. I don’t know. Finally, we got a little break on the yellow. It put us back in the position to fight. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to pass so I tried everything I could and in the end I was like, ‘okay this is the chance but Will had like six push to pass. I only had three. It was very difficult to get the tires going but Roger and the entire Pennzoil Chevrolet guys, man, I’m so proud to be part of this team. These guys are never giving up. Thanks everyone. Let’s keep going. Let’s move to the next one.
WE DID SEE A BIG CUT ON THE TIRE AFTER THE RACE. TALK ABOUT HOW FRANTIC IT WAS AND SOME OF THE OPPORTUNITIES YOU HAD WITH JAMES HINCHCLIFFE AND SOME OTHERS WITH SOME BIG BATTLES GOING ON. “The car was great, especially on the back. I knew Hinch was in fuel-savings mode but they were still really good on the straight. Maybe they were trimmed out a little bit. But this is fun, and this is what I love to do!”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED FOURTH:
ON THE STRATEGY AT THE END… YOU DIDN’T TAKE TIRES. IF YOU HAD COULD HAVE GONE A LITTLE QUICKER AND HAD SOMETHING AT THE END? “I think we had something for (James) Hinchcliffe. For sure, I think they had to save fuel and I didn’t. It was a risky move for us but it worked out. Big props to Todd (Malloy, lead engineer), Barry (Wanser, strategist) and my NTT Data guys. We’re getting there… we’re getting closer and closer every weekend.”
YOU KNEW YOU HAD TO STOP LATE BUT WERE ABLE TO GAP TO COME BACK OUT IN A GREAT POSITION. “It was a great call from the guys in the pits. We knew what we had to do. I had the red tires which were a lot quicker, and the others had to save fuel. I pushed as hard as I could. The problem is that three laps from me to come in, the guys said we may keep the tires on. I told the guys that I destroyed trying to get a lead. But they said that was the only way. So I did two laps and took it a little easy before we came in and it worked out. I think if we hadn’t had that last yellow, I think we would have gotten Hinch because he was having to save fuel and we didn’t.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT-KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “Obviously it was not the result the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Team was looking for today. I think the car was better than that, it was hooked up, but we seem to degrade the red tires too much. On blacks we seem to be strong. The real problem was that yellow for “track repair.” It was a killer because I was managing the red tires at that point, which were falling off really bad, and once the yellow came out I had to make the restart on those and it was game over. I am disappointed about the result, but in the group of guys that were with us, we are not the ones who came out the worst. It is not where we want to finish, but we did the best with what we had.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: We just struggled to get the tires up to temperature. I locked up on the second to last restart and flat spotted the tires so we had to come in and pit. We just didn’t really have the pace today to compete towards the Top 10. I also had a broken front wing which definitely did not help. I just want to thank Ed Carpenter Racing and Rising Star Racing for this opportunity and I can’t wait to get back in the Fuzzy’s Vodka car in Mid-Ohio.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 DEVILBISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 20TH: YOU PASSED MORE CARS THAN ANYONE OUT HERE, BUT ALL FOR NOTHING RIGHT? IT ALL TURNS BAD BECAUSE IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT? “Yeah, it’s terrible. On Friday, I made a mistake and went into the wall so we got behind. In the morning yesterday we had a misfire with the engine and didn’t do any laps before qualifying. We didn’t qualify as well as we could. We knew we had a good race car though. The DeVilbiss Chevy was really good. I passed a lot of people and had a lot of fun. I thought I had an easy podium if not more. We missed aa pit call by about two seconds. I started at the back. I was running with the 28 (Ryan Hunter-Reay) there late and went to turn with him but the 41 (Jack Hawksworth) was in the wall and there was nowhere to go. It seems like every weekend there is something, and it’s getting really old really fast.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: WHAT HAPPENED? “It is an error on my part. I hate to blame it on an injury, but I hit the curb to hard and lost the wheel. I couldn’t hang on to the wheel. I didn’t have the strength to hold on to the wheel. I feel terrible for our guys-we had a good race going. We were fighting back. We got put back for an incident that I don’t think was our fault. We fought our way back. We could have had a good finish there. My mistake and I feel bad because we are going to lose some points there.”
HOW IS THE HAND? “It’s just sore. I wish my grip strength was better right now. But it’s not. Probably not where I need to be. If I had stayed off the curb…I should have stayed off the curb. I knew better than to hit it that hard with my grip strength where it is.”