CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
POST QUALIFYING RECAP
APRIL 22, 2017
Will Power Puts Chevy on Pole at Barber Motorsports Park; Team Penske Sweeps Top-Three Starting Positions
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Will Power scored his second Verizon P1 award of the 2017 season with a lap around the 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park of one minute, 06.9614 seconds at 123.653 mph. Today’s pole for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama marks the 46th of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion’s career and his fourth at Barber. He opened the season with the number one starting spot on the Streets of St. Petersburg in his familiar silver No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Helio Castroneves qualified the No. 3 Auto Club of Southern California Team Penske Chevrolet in the second starting position. Teammate Power was a scant 0.1815 seconds quicker than Castroneves, and 0.42 seconds ahead of reigning champion teammate Simon Pagenaud who will roll off third in his brightly colored No 1 Menards Chevrolet.
The fourth Team Penske driver, Josef Newgarden, will start the No. 2 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Chevrolet from the seventh position on the grid. The newest member of Team Penske missed transferring to the Firestone Fast Six by just 0.0482 seconds.
The remaining Chevrolet IndyCar drivers will start as follows:
Carlos Munoz – 16th
Spencer Pigot – 17th
Zach Veach – 19th
Conor Daly – 20th
NBCSN will telecast the race live, starting at 2 p.m. CT. The race also will be broadcast on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com, the INDYCAR Mobile app, Sirius 212, and XM209. Practice 1, 3 and the warm-up will be streamed in conjunction with the INDYCAR Radio Network broadcast at IndyCar.com, youtube.com/indycar, Facebook, and Twitter. NBCSN also will telecast qualifications live at 3:30 p.m. CT Saturday. Qualifying also is broadcast on Sirius 212, XM 209, indycarradio.com, IndyCar.com, and the INDYCAR mobile app.
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: “First, it’s having a very good team and car. Definitely working well this weekend. Kind of focusing very well and making sure I’m looking at the right things. Felt like I had a much better car on used tires. I think that’s kind of where we’ve been going wrong. Yeah, just very good result.
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “It’s a great team effort, especially AAA Chevy. Guys did a phenomenal job during qualifying, because we keep like chasing the car, which was phenomenal, and towards the end.
“But my teammate, Will Power, he definitely has something about this place, about many places, but this is one of them, too. But he did a great job putting a lap towards to the end. In Long Beach, it was like a precision lap, and this lap was like going out-and-out crazy; I was like one eye closed and hopefully stick, and it did.
“But now we’re looking for tomorrow. Hopefully the weather, it’s going to be a little bit cooler, and I think everybody’s car is going to be fast. But, well, we are starting the front row, as you said, so it’s a good place to be and now we’ve just got to look forward and hopefully beat my teammate.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “It’s phenomenal for the team. They did a fantastic job preparing these cars. This is a really good track for us in general. We have a really good grip and an understanding of the aero package, as well.
“Personally, it was a good session. A little hectic the beginning of pit lane because I couldn’t really go on my out lap to get the tires up to speed, had a lot of people backing up, so it was very difficult to transfer with only one lap on the tires. So unfortunately, we wore out the tires Q1, Q2, and then I pushed a little too hard in the Fast Six. But I guess that’s what it’s all about. It’s racing. We were very aggressive. We were very aggressive with the setup and I think we went a tick too far.
“Overall, congratulation to Will. That was great qualifying and phenomenal for the race team, one, two, three.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 FITZGERALD GLIDER KITS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “We took a gamble on trying to save a set of sticker reds for the Fast Six and we just missed. We wanted to put the Fitzgerald Glider Kits Chevrolet on the pole and thought it was worth it. We’re a little disappointed, but we’re in good shape for the race. It was a good session for Team Penske. Our cars have been good all weekend and definitely looking forward to tomorrow.”
CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH: “We made some changes at the end and it didn’t worked as we expected. But we learned from it and we’ll go back over the changes we did. IndyCar is like that–if you don’t put everything together you won’t be in the top six. Our group was pretty tough but I think we have a better race car than qualifying car. So we have to keep working, it’s a long race tomorrow and anything can happen.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 17TH: “It’s definitely not how we wanted qualifying to go. It’s frustrating to be starting in the back. We could have potentially gone a little quicker, I made a mistake and went off in Turn 1 on the set of reds at the end. We’ll be working hard to get the Fuzzy’s Vodka car to the front tomorrow.”
ZACH VEACH, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH: “Literally every session we’ve picked up a half a second, we just keep closing that gap. I’ve wanted to come in to this weekend very methodically for Ed Carpenter Racing, I didn’t want to jump in too deep, too fast. We are working our way up to speed. This is my first time in a racecar since last October. It’s been a lot to get in and process in just a day and a half. The Fuzzy’s Vodka guys have been doing a great job, just helping me get up to speed. JR Hildebrand has been coaching me this weekend as well, which has been so helpful. if we can find another half a second in warm up tomorrow, we will only be a half a second after the leaders and we can go for it from there.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH: “I think we would have had a pretty good lap had we not caught Helio [Castroneves] on our best lap there. It is what it is; we caught a little traffic which is a shame because I think we could have shown a little better than we did.”
IndyCar Post Qualifying Media Conference
Saturday April 22, 2017
Helio Castroneves
Will Power
Simon Pagenaud
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Helio Castroneves who will start second in tomorrow’s Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Driving the No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet, won the inaugural race in 2010 and also has two poles.
I know it’s probably not the spot you wanted but a front row start for you here at Alabama. Take us through your qualifying run.
HELIO CASTRONEVES: You came first, you’re last, is that what they say? (Laughter) is that what they say? Somebody says that. I tell you what, no, it’s a great team effort, especially AAA Chevy. Guys did a phenomenal job during qualifying, because we keep like chasing the car, which was phenomenal, and towards the end.
But my teammate, Will Power, he definitely has something about this place, about many places, but this is one of them, too. But he did a great job putting a lap towards to the end. In Long Beach, it was like a precision lap, and this lap was like going out-and-out crazy; I was like one eye closed and hopefully stick, and it did.
But now we’re looking for tomorrow. Hopefully the weather, it’s going to be a little bit cooler, and I think everybody’s car is going to be fast. But, well, we are starting the front row, as you said, so it’s a good place to be and now we’ve just got to look forward and hopefully beat my teammate.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open up for questions.
Q. Helio, I didn’t know you were a fan of Talladega Nights.
HELIO CASTRONEVES: Just watching a lot of movies.
Q. How much, you know, adapting to changing weather conditions, how do you do that?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: Oh, man, this morning, my car was awesome this morning. I guess everybody was pretty good, too. But then, first thing when the sunshine came out, the track temperature rise, it becoming very slippery. So you’ve just got to adapt. Look a little bit of what you know in the past, and go with your gut feeling. At least that’s what I did, since in the end there, we couldn’t share much information with our teammates and we just throw a little bit of the dice and it paid off.
Q. Still talking about the possibility of rain tonight. Are you hoping for rain? Are you looking forward to a green track tomorrow?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: For me, it’s just one thing. Obviously, it’s the same for everybody. The engineers in the series, the technology today is so incredible; that they are able to calculate those difference. And that’s why this series is so competitive. I mean, every time it change, the track change, so there is nothing predictable.
In terms of tomorrow what will happen, pretty much the same. I think a dry track would not only be great for racing but for the fans, as well.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with our Firestone Fast Six press conference joined by our third-place starter for tomorrow’s Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Simon Pagenaud driving the No. 1 Menard’s Team Penske Chevrolet. Simon is the defending race winner here at Barber Motorsports Park and also has one pole to his name.
Simon, it seems like your team really has this event on lock and a great start for you tomorrow. Take us through your qualifying run and your thoughts on tomorrow’s race.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s phenomenal for the team. They did a fantastic job preparing these cars. This is a really good track for us in general. We have a really good grip and an understanding of the aero package, as well.
Personally, it was a good session. A little hectic the beginning of pit lane because I couldn’t really go on my out lap to get the tires up to speed, had a lot of people backing up, so it was very difficult to transfer with only one lap on the tires. So unfortunately, we wore out the tires Q1, Q2, and then I pushed a little too hard in the Fast Six. But I guess that’s what it’s all about. It’s racing. We were very aggressive. We were very aggressive with the setup and I think we went a tick too far.
Overall, congratulation to Will. That was great qualifying and phenomenal for the race team, one, two, three. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We welcome in our pole sitter, Will Power driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, a two-time winner here at Barber Motorsports Park and also his fourth pole at the track.
Will, it seems like you just qualify extremely well here at this track. What is it about your driving style and your experience here that allows to you do that?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, first, it’s having a very good team and car. Definitely working well this weekend. Kind of focusing very well and making sure I’m looking at the right things. Felt like I had a much better car on used tires. I think that’s kind of where we’ve been going wrong. Yeah, just very good result.
Q. In the Indy Lights race, we didn’t see a whole lot of passing and it was hard to pass for the drivers. Is it going to be the same for IndyCar? Is it going to be a strategy with when you pit and how fast you get out of the pits in term of making passes, or can you pass, do you feel?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it’s interesting here. I mean, it’s actually been some good passing here because the tires degrade, especially the Reds. So maybe being cool tomorrow will make had a harder, and you know, yeah, it’s going to be strategy, as well, when to pit, try not to get caught out by yellows, that type of thing. I just wish IndyCar would open up the pits on yellow. It seems ridiculous that we don’t. It is ridiculous.
THE MODERATOR: Anyone else on passing?
SIMON PAGENAUD: I think we’ll see what the tire degradation is tomorrow. The weather, if it’s colder, won’t have opportunity. But if it’s hot enough, we’ll have tire degradation and then we’ll have passing. We’ve seen some passes in the past. So you know, there is some restarts. Should be exciting, two in turn five. It usually is, so we’ll see.
Q. Talking about passing, with the push-to-pass, why does it allow that you can use it as a defense? Why is it that the driver in front can use it as a defense mechanism? Why isn’t it like an F1 where the guy who has DRS following can use it but the guy in front can’t.
SIMON PAGENAUD: I’ll give you a real driver’s discussion here: I disagree. No, I don’t like it. I think it’s artificial racing if you were to disallow the guy in front of you to defend. He’s just as much allow to defend his position as the guy behind is allowed to attack him, in my opinion. So I’m totally against it.
Also, I would like to see the push-to-pass come back on restarts, because I think it makes the restarts very lame and boring. But again, you’re never going to have 50 percent — 50/50. Everybody is going to have different opinions.
Q. Will, you mentioned opening pits on yellow. Is that something the drivers and owners have approached IndyCar about?
WILL POWER: Yeah, actually they did open the pits a few years ago. I think it was like 2012, 2013, or whenever bow bar field was there, used to open the pits. I understand that it’s dangerous opening the pits because everyone races back to the pits, but nowadays, you could easily put a speed limit on the car. So if it goes yellow, everyone goes down to a speed and once all the pit stop sequence happens, everyone just packs up and it’s a normal restart. That would be quite simple.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Appreciate your time.