CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR GRAND PRIX OF INDIANAPOLIS
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
POST RACE RECAP
MAY 13, 2017
Will Power takes Chevy to Victory Lane in IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis
· 30th career win for Power to move him to 11th on all-time win list
o His first win of 2017, and second victory in IndyCar Grand Prix
· Today’s victory is third consecutive win for Chevrolet in Verizon IndyCar Series 2017 season, and the 60th win for the 2.2 liter V6 twin turbocharged engine since it’s 2012 introduction
· It is the 190th Indy car victory for Team Penske, the most for any team in INDYCAR history
INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power finished where he started – number one. The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion earned the pole with a record-setting performance on Friday, and then earned the win by leading three times for 61 of 85 laps in the IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
“Will had speed all weekend long,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “The No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet had the right balance, and the crew executed fast pit stops. It was a flawless race by Will and his team to bring home the win today.”
Today’s victory was the second for Power on 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course and the 30thvictory of his career putting him 11th on the all-time win list. Power’s first Indianapolis IndyCar GP win was from the pole in 2015.
“It feels really good to finally have a good day,” said Power. “Everyone on this team has been working really hard. We should have had a couple of wins by now. It helps with the points; feels good to win again. I think that is number 30. That is a good number. I want to make it 31 by the end of this month.”
Power’s Penske teammates Simon Pagenaud, No. 1 Menards Chevrolet and Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Verizon Chevrolet, finished fourth and fifth respectively to give Chevrolet three of the top-five finishers.
Spencer Pigot, who shares the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet with Ed Carpenter, had a strong run from his 16th starting position to finish ninth. In his first race since the 2016 season finale, Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Team Penske Chevrolet finished 10th to give Chevrolet five of the top-10.
Other Chevrolet drivers qualified as follows:
Josef Newgarden, No. 3 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet – 11th
JR Hildebrand, No. 21 Preferred Freezer Service Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet – 14th
Carlos Munoz, No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet – 15th
Conor Daly, No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet – 17th
Pagenaud holds the lead in the Series’ point standings. Newgarden sits in third in points with Castroneves holding fourth place and Power now fifth.
Next up for Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series is qualifying for the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 20 – 21, and then the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on Sunday, May 28, 2017.
“Now we look forward to getting on track Monday to begin practice for the 101st running of the Indy 500,” Campbell concluded.
DRIVER QUOTES:
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Race Winner: “It was a perfect strategy. That was hard work – full green! I want to thank Verizon. All the guys; all the crew. Hi to my friend Will Snider. He lost his leg in an accident this year-I know he is watching and I know he will be back changing tires in no time.
“I knew (Scott) Dixon was closing there for a while so I was really trying to manage the gap and manage the tires. They were degraded a lot. You have to hit all of your marks, and if it is your day-it is your day. I have to say the Chevy engine was mega today. Chevy has done a great job. Honda got a little bit of a gain on us, but we are already back.
“I have been around motorsports long enough to know that you have you have your good and bad runs and the bad doesn’t last forever, and the good doesn’t last forever. You just have to take it as it comes and not have too many ups and downs emotionally. Having a baby teaches you that.
“It feels really good to finally have a good day. Everyone on this team has been working really hard. We should have had a couple of wins by now. It helps with the points; feels good to win again. I think that is number 30. That is a good number. I want to make it 31 by the end of this month.
“Helio (Castroneves) was very strong the whole race. It surprised me that he went to blacks (tires) there at the end. But they did a pretty good play there to go red when we were all blacks, he was just fast.
“I’m good. That was a tough race. I slept well last night. A win makes you feel better.”
Simon Pagenaud, No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 4th: “We had a good day. I mean it was a difficult weekend for us on the No. 1 Menards Chevrolet car. I didn’t have the speed this weekend. I couldn’t find how to feel more comfortable with the tires; the new Firestone tires they brought this weekend. I didn’t have the speed Will [Power] had. Overall, bringing home a fourth place finish is good. We’re still in the lead for the championship which is what I want. I’m just super excited next is the Indy 500. It’s my number one goal this year and I know Roger [Penske] is really excited about it. My team is really excited and I want to bring the Menards car to the top step.”
Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 5th: “I thought we had figured something out with some strategy there at the end, but the car was a handful. The Verizon car was great all day long. We decided to take a gamble and get off on tire strategy and it just didn’t work like we had hoped. We have five good cars that can all win the race, so someone had to take a chance. We probably shouldn’t have done it that way knowing we finished fifth, but if we would have won everyone would be looking at us saying wow. I also ended up wasting a lot of push to trying to get through traffic. Look, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it goes. Now, we got to focus on the 500 and getting our fourth.”
Spencer Pigot, No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Finished 9th: “It seemed yesterday we struggled when the track got hotter, but today we didn’t. We made some good changes overnight, after the warmup, and the car was really good. Our tires were one of the best out there and later on during the stints we could definitely catch a bunch of guys. It’s encouraging, but finishing 9th when we know we could have been better, we will try and show that the next time out.”
Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 10th: “We just didn’t have the pace that we were hoping to have in the No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits car today. We struggled on the red tires and on the first run, I felt like we blistered the rear and we lost some time there. Once we got back to about ninth or 10th, we just stayed right about there the rest of the race. It was a fun weekend, but we now turn out focus to the Indianapolis 500. That is the race we want to win and that is what we will think about starting now.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 hum by Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 11th: “I don’t know what happened. I think we ran into some sort of glitch and they dinged us two times for speeding on pit road. It was a tough day for us. We had a really fast Hum by Verizon car. We really didn’t struggle with much today. We started a little slower than we had hoped, but at the end the car was a rocket. I’m disappointed for our guys because we did everything right and we had great stops, we just had a little glitch there. We had a great racecar and just couldn’t capitalize. I think we had a car that could have been a podium car, maybe even a second-place car. We just didn’t capitalize today. Congrats to Will though. He was strong all weekend long.”
JR Hildebrand, No. 21 Preferred Freezer Service Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Finished 14th: “Tough to have an actual race when you start at the back and don’t have cautions to help you out, but we made what we could of it. We started on blacks, which in the end was the right call. However, we lost quite a bit of track position to the cars on reds at the start, as there was a dramatic delta between the two types of Firestones. We fought back to the front from then on out. The Preferred Freezer Services guys made some good changes to the car – the last few stints the car was pretty good.”
Carlos Munoz, No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Finished 15th: “Another really hard race, really. Our weekend started okay and then got worse. I’m not really happy. Grip-wise, we just really lacked grip. It’s a shame. Hopefully, we turn it around. Now focusing on the Indy 500, we’ll see how our package is, but we are suffering. There’s work that lies ahead so we just need to continue working hard.”
Conor Daly, No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Finished 17th: “I was really happy with our start and first stint, the car felt okay. I was able to fight with Hinch and Spencer and some guys up there, but I think we ran into a problem with the brakes a little bit after the first stint. Seemed to start glazing them a little bit so it was difficult to stop. And then for some reason we stalled in the pits. We’ve struggled getting out of the pits all weekend so, in the end I should be able to recognize that, but I have no idea why we were having that issue so that was a shame. That really set us back and then from then on it was just damage control. We just kept losing the brakes a little bit. On reds the car was good but on blacks we didn’t have enough, on blacks we were too far off.”
INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE
FRIDAY MAY 13, 2017
WILL POWER
POST RACE WINNERS PRESS CONFERENCE:
THE MODERATOR: We welcome INDYCAR Grand Prix winner, Will Power. We shared some statistics, you may have heard them: Your 30th career victory and I think the most interesting thing is you broke a tie with guys you know, Helio Castroneves and Rick Mears. So congratulations on that milestone.
WILL POWER: I’m tied with them?
THE MODERATOR: You broke it.
WILL POWER: Because Helio and I were on 29 for awhile and we’ve been fighting on pole numbers and wins, and he was going for it today.
THE MODERATOR: You got it.
WILL POWER: I did. I was thinking it’s going to be tough to beat him, but we got him.
THE MODERATOR: One question came up right away, or comment, it’s a common thing for a broadcaster to say when a driver is out front and seemingly cruising that they are thinking what can go wrong, and in your case, given the year you’ve had, did you think to yourself at some point, oh, my gosh, what can go wrong here?
WILL POWER: I was just focusing on the job, you know, because it wasn’t that easy. Weren’t cruising out front. Like the tires would degrade, so you had to push. You had to push without leaning on it too much. Like in the first stint, I pushed way too hard early and Helio was just all on me, I pulled a gap and struggled the end of the stint and he end up jumping me.
So you know, it was good. The Firestone brought a really good tire for racing. Had a lot of grip in qualifying, and the grip slowly went away over the race, which created some good strategies and racing.
So yeah, they are very good — so good to have tires like Firestone tires, because you never worried about failures or any of that type of thing. They are very, very good.
Q. Your first win with Myron. How important was that for you and the team and mostly for him?
WILL POWER: Yeah, he did a really good job all weekend. He had a straight strategy in qualifying to not sit around and wait till the last minute. He said: Why don’t we just — as soon as we’re done on Black, just go straight out and we have a clear track for qualifying every time. He called a really good race. Yeah, getting real used to having him on the radio.
Q. Based on the way things have gone this year for you, especially with that last race at Barber, were you hearing things in your head in those last ten laps? What was going on there from an anxious standpoint?
WILL POWER: No, just very conscious of the gap that Dixon was closing. I was thinking, like he’s going to burn his tires off. Like the way he’s closing, I reckon his tires should go off, but he kept going, and then suddenly, boom, started to go the other way. I was like, all right, we’re in good shape here. That was the case.
Q. (How much momentum does this give you)?
WILL POWER: It’s funny, momentum, once your whole team and crew believes that you have a shot at winning races, which we have had all year, but when you execute it, it definitely gives them confidence. It’s just good, get a win, and very, very good for everyone.
Q. When you do have a weekend like this where you lead every session and get the pole, lead the majority of the laps, how special is that because of how rare it is in modern day Indy car where it’s so competitive and you have so many potential different winners?
WILL POWER: Yeah, you don’t even think it’s funny how that happens. You don’t even think about. It you don’t even remember that you were quickest in every session. Just happens to be.
I think I remember thinking after warm up, I was thinking, wow, I’ve actually been quickest in every session. Yeah, it would be amazing to win the race.
But then to go on and be quickest in every session during the month; now that would be something. That’s impossible. You’d have to have something special there. But to be quickest in qualifying and win the 500 would be something. That would be great. We’re definitely focusing on that.
Q. They were saying on TV, the broadcasters were, that in the past if you had experienced some of the issues that you had the last few weeks, that there would be a lot of anxiety and anger, and they felt like things have changed a little bit with you since the birth of your son. Do you think that that’s true?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I think that, and experience. Just experience. Not just on the track but off the track, as well.
You know, last year definitely had a few health issues to deal with, and you know, you just — you know, I think that’s just how life is. You have good and bad times. You know, the bad doesn’t last forever and neither does the good. So you’ve got to kind of weather it and not get too down in the bad times and too up in the good times.
It’s the same in racing. You’re going to have your bad runs. You can’t just continually have good runs and everything fall your way. But on those bad days, it’s how you win a championship is, you know, hanging on to a reasonable result.
Q. But I watched the celebration, and this is — you couldn’t seem to get the sunglasses on the boy there. What’s the deal there?
WILL POWER: It’s like when you’ve got a baby, if the baby doesn’t want something on him, you ain’t going to get it on. You don’t argue. Don’t do that (chuckles).
Q. Helio was saying that this is like a perfect track for you, and I wonder if you think that is also true?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it’s a good track for me. I mean, I think every track is now. I mean, I don’t feel like I can win on every track, every track. I can’t say that I go to a race ever thinking that I can’t win, ever. Doesn’t matter, oval, road course. My oval results over the last year and into this year have been better than my road course almost. I mean, just been top twos and threes and wins.
So I mean, I feel like everywhere I go, I have a shot.
Q. Does that surprise you, when you look at those results and say, how about that? Are you surprised that that’s equalized in that way?
WILL POWER: No, just, you know, have a lot of experience now. I just know the game so well in so many ways. Even if I feel bad, I know I can do a very good job, like just through experience. I just know the car, know the tires, know the series. Just you know it so well.
You can just see why it takes a young guy so long to get it all together, because you know, all these guys have — it’s not like there’s new people in every year. It’s the same people every year. It’s tough if you want to come into this series and win.
THE MODERATOR: 175th start, by the way, for Will.
Q. When you came here 12 years ago, did you think that this quickly you would be in the ranks where you have more wins than Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves, who at that time didn’t have that many wins.
WILL POWER: Yeah, I have to say, in 2008, I remember looking at — when I first started there, at a bit of envy at the guys who drove a Penske. Ryan Briscoe, who is an Australian, as well: I was like, man, how nice would it be to be able to wear that suit, be in that situation; not this desperate situation that I was in with basically a one-year deal and kind of shaky all the time, not knowing. That’s tough, tough for a driver to get through that period of every Christmas, I’m not sure if I’ve got a ride the next year.
If you can get past that and gain the experience you need, then you know, like I would never have dreamed that I would have got that ride in 2009 as a part-time with Penske, never. Never would have — actually I had an argument with my wife. Because I signed a deal with A1 GP and she said, “You’re crazy. What if Ganassi or Penske call?”
I said, “That’s never going to happen.” Sure enough, Helio has an issue and there’s a chance there. Just shows you, women are always right. You’ve got to listen (Laughter). I made a mistake (laughs).
Q. Do you have to kind of flip a switch between now and Monday when you go from road course, this stuff, what y’all have been doing to the grind, I guess, whatever you call it, of getting ready for qualifying?
WILL POWER: Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely a different deal, different animal to drive. But you get in the groove — you’ve got plenty of time to get in the groove and you get into it pretty quick. You’ve done so many miles around this place; you know it so well, but you should never feel too comfortable.
Q. Auto racing is different from all other sports where when you go on to the field, you become enemies in a way, the drivers. What is it like when you’re out there battling with a teammate, and how do you react when you pass him or he passes you and taking the lead or the win away from him? What’s it like after that?
WILL POWER: You know, the end of the day, on our team, you actually — the teammates you’re fighting are probably the guys you’re fighting for the championship and race against often. It’s just part of the deal.
I don’t think — you know, it’s not — if you ever have a shot at a win, it doesn’t matter if it’s your mate or someone else and you don’t get it, it’s always disappointing if you thought that you made a mistake. But I find it a pretty good environment amongst the teammates at Penske. We’ve all been around a long time, and have a lot of experience.
Yeah, you know, I think everyone’s generally happy when the team wins, and that’s how it should be.
THE MODERATOR: Will, thank you very much and congratulations.