CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE 600
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (FT. WORTH, TEXAS)
POST RECAP
FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2016
· Tony Kanaan finishes third in closest Verizon IndyCar Series finish at Texas Motor Speedway to claim his 77th career podium finish
· Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves finish fourth and fifth to give Chevrolet Aero Kit with integrated 2.2 liter V6 engine three of the top-five finishers
· Pagenaud leaves Texas with 28 point lead over teammate Will Power with two races remaining in the season – but double points at stake in final race at Sonoma
· Chevrolet drivers claimed seven of the top-10 finishing positions in the conclusion of the rain-delayed race postponed on June 11th to June 12th and then moved to August 27th after 71 laps were completed before weather forced the delay
FT. WORTH (August 27, 2016) – The Firestone 600 was stopped on lap 71 due to rain on June 12th and postponed until today, but it was well worth the wait to get to the checkered flag of the 248-lap race on the 1.455-mile Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). In the closest Verizon IndyCar Series finish at TMS, Chevrolet IndyCar drivers Tony Kanaan, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves battled to the checkered flag in a pack of five cars with the outcome unknown until electronic timing and scoring flashed the finishing order on the scoring pylon and on the LED panels on the engine cover of each car.
Kanaan claimed the third finishing position in the No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to post his 77th career podium finish. Current points leader Simon Pagenaud finished fourth in the No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Team Penske Chevrolet and Castroneves was fifth in the No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet.
Pagenaud, who has been the points leader since race two at Phoenix International Raceway, leaves Texas with a 28-point lead over Team Penske teammate and 2014 Series’ champion Will Power. Power finished 8th tonight in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. There are just two races remaining on the schedule but the season finale at Sonoma Raceway has double points on the line.
Charlie Kimball, No. 83 Tresiba Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, finished sixth. Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 2 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished ninth and Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 Team Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet was 10th at the finish line to give Chevrolet seven of the top-10 in the final finishing order.
Finishing positions for other Chevrolet drivers were Max Chilton, No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet – 15th; Ed Carpenter, No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet – 18th (Accident); Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet – 19th (Accident) and Josef Newgarden, No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet – 22nd (Accident).
Graham Rahal (Honda) was the race winner, with pole-sitter James Hinchclliffe (Honda) claiming second on the podium.
Chevrolet drivers hold the top-six in the point standings and seven of the top-10:
1. Simon Pagenaud 529
2. Will Power 501
3. Tony Kanaan 416
4. Helio Castroneves 415
5. Josef Newgarden 406
6. Scott Dixon 397
10. Charlie Kimball 361
Up next will be the IndyCar return to Watkins Glen International on September 4, 2016.
An Interview with Tony Kanaan
THE MODERATOR: Now joined by our third-place finisher from tonight, Tony Kanaan, driver of the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet. I’m still trying to catch my breath, Tony. What about you?
TONY KANAAN: I’m okay. It was fun.
THE MODERATOR: Tell us about your night.
TONY KANAAN: It took some old-school Texas right there. It was a good night. We started way in the back and we had to make up positions right away, so we did. I think with IndyCar not changing the rules, having a day race, we had a ton of downforce in the car, all of us, and then doing the race, too, at night, it made the field a lot closer, as you could see. I had to dig into my hard drive and remember how to do pack racing again, and it worked out pretty well.
Big props to the guys in front, Simon, Hinch, Graham. We gave each other room, and that’s why we all finished the way we did, so it’s always a pleasure to race like that.
I feel bad for the people that didn’t come back to watch because it was a hell of a show. A great day, right? We had some of the cops here. We know what happened here in Texas, and I felt very touched by the two gentlemen that actually showed up at the drivers’ meeting, the two cops that actually got shot from that day, and I know that they got in for free, some of the people, so I think it was a pretty good show for them, and I’m happy for that. It was a good day.
THE MODERATOR: Take us through those last 10, 15, 20 laps, a lot of side-by-side racing, a lot of action. What were you trying to do?
TONY KANAAN: I was trying to win the race. But when we came in and took tires with seven to go, nine to go or something like that, I knew it was going to be tight. With three to go, I was — it’s exactly where I wanted it to be on the inside, Hinch in the middle and Graham on the outside. If that was the case until the last lap, I think I had a shot, but I think Graham figured out that if he put himself behind Hinch he was going to push Hinch forward a little bit because that’s what happened, and with that, it would be a two-man show between themselves, and I’m sad that Graham figured that out and we ended up finishing third, but he did a good job.
Q. Tony, after the practice session you only had seven to ten minutes. How did you guys feel during the daytime in the heat and then having to race at night under the lights?
TONY KANAAN: Those ten minutes became seven because what happened in the first session, when Sato had his accident. The first group only got seven minutes so it was even less than that. I didn’t try to read too much into it. It was 94 degrees at that time, and we knew it was going to be 84 degrees ambient when we started our race, and the asphalt, which is the biggest factor for us, would be a lot cooler. I tried not to overreact, and I knew I had a decent car. I knew I was going to have to kind of work towards — with my tools, the bar, the weight jacker and the front wing, so I really tried not to judge anything by that session.
With the rules that you couldn’t change the downforce, I knew I was going to have plenty for tonight because being a day race, race one being a day race, we added a lot of downforce, and by the rules we couldn’t take it off.
Q. I saw you guys bumping into each other and hitting tires, rubbing against one another. I’m not used to seeing that in IndyCar.
TONY KANAAN: Me neither.
Q. How intense was that out there?
TONY KANAAN: It was really intense. Somebody hit Graham, Graham hit me, and thank God we managed to stay on the track. But yeah, I’m not used to that. I think it was just the nature of the product that we created for this race. We kind of went away from a pack race a long time ago, and we kind of migrated back just because it was a very different circumstances today, right; we couldn’t race here 72 days ago, and we came back and we decided it to be a night race, and with not changing the rules because it was a continuation of a race, it created that pack, otherwise probably you wouldn’t have seen some stock car action, in a good way.
Q. When you’re in corners 3 and 4 and there’s a spark shower in front of you, are you zipping through that spark shower so fast that it’s not even an effect?
TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, everybody was sparking because of the skid, and yeah, it happened so fast. You kind of get used to the first time it happens on the first lap. You kind of get it a little bit, but after that it does it every lap.