Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Indy 500–Post Qualifying Quotes

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
101ST RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
MAY 21, 2017

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (No. 2 qualifying position, four-lap average speed of 231.664 mph): “It actually was better than I thought it was going to be from watching some of the earlier runs. That’s all she had. Would it have been fun to win a third pole? Yes, but at the same time to be in the middle of the front row with two former ‘500’ champions, hopefully I can convert from the front row this time and earn a victory.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PERFERRED FREEZER SERVICES ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (No. 6, 230.889): “Our run was good. I feel like we got almost as much out of it as we could. I had a little on the last lap there. Really happy for the ECR guys and opportunity to run the Preferred Freezer Car again this year. It is our best starting position with what has been a very challenging couple of days. Really happy for the team to get a couple of Bowties up there. I’m really looking forward to the race. As we’ve seen it doesn’t really matter necessarily if you look at the statistics where you start, but you do always prefer to be in the top couple of rows. Excited to be here.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (No. 9, 230.200): “The Verizon Chevy felt really good again today. We don’t have quite enough speed, but that’s not the whole equation here. It’s a finicky place that always has a surprise or two. I feel good about our reliability and durability for a long race. Those things are part of it, too. To win the race; you have to finish the race. We’ll work on some race trim tomorrow and Friday and we’ll all find out what’s going to happen in a week.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 22 FITZGERALD GLIDER KITS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (No. 18, 229.565): “The Fitzgerald Glider Kits Chevy has had good speed all week. We haven’t changed a lot. We didn’t change anything from yesterday. It was good. The difference for us was we weren’t first out. The jet dryers put that little film down but it goes away pretty quick. That was the big difference for us. You can win this race from all kinds of places. We’ll work on race trim tomorrow and Friday but I think we have a good race car.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 SHELL FUEL REWADS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (No. 19, 229.515): “That was disappointing for sure. We just didn’t have the speed in our Shell Fuel Rewards Chevrolet that we would have liked and that we thought we would have had. But we knew it going into today that this would be an uphill battle for sure. Our car is really good in race trim however and 500 miles and 200 laps is a lot different from four laps. Of course you always want to start more near the front and you want to say you are on the pole or on the front row, but it means a lot more to say that you are an Indianapolis 500 winner. That is our focus and that is what all of Team Penske is here to do.”

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DRR MECUM AUCTIONS CHEVROLET (No. 21, 229.380): “That was an awesome run for me. The Mecum Auctions car was magnificent to drive. Best four laps of qualifying I’ve ever enjoyed out there. I’ve never done a 230 mph lap by myself. I’m so stoked. The Dreyer & Reinbold guys gave me such a great car. I don’t care where I start. I’m coming to the front.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (No. 22, 228.501): “The hum by Verizon Chevy crew has done a great job all week. We had some adversity but have been able to overcome everything. I really feel we’ll have a great car in the race. We’ll get everything dialed in during the couple of practices left and see what happens. Getting the car to drive in traffic is crucial here. I feel good about what we’ve done here and we’ll leave it all out there next week.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (No. 23, 228.093): “The Menards Chevrolet had great balance again but speed is still a little lacking. I’m not really sure what we are missing, if anything. It’s a mystery of Indianapolis, I guess. Not every day can be your day. We’ll keep our heads down and get it ready to go for the race. It’s a long race and if we get a couple of breaks, there’s no telling what can happen. This team always answers the bell when it needs to. Despite struggling a little this weekend, I have complete confidence in our ability next Sunday.”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (No. 24, 227.921): “It was a little bit tough qualifying. The balance wasn’t 100 percent. We’ll have to see what we’ve got. We’re going to start at the back of the field, but hopefully we’ll have a good car for the race and we’ll concentrate tomorrow on that.”

GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING RACING CHEVROLET (No. 25, 226.921): “We made it through qualifying. I definitely felt like the Harding Racing No. 88 car was a 229 car for qualifying but I don’t think we were expecting the change in track conditions and it just caught us out on the wrong turn. I just couldn’t stay in it or put down some good laps. At least, not as good as I would’ve liked to. We’ve worked with our car, we’ve worked through our program and we’re looking forward to our first Indy 500 as a team.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (No. 26, 226.439): “I think the positive side of today is the fact that we did our best laps by ourselves. It was definitely a challenging run for me. We had a couple moments out there and it’s a shame that we fell off so much but in the end just happy to have a better run and just picking up speed in general.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 11 JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET (No. 29, 224.052): “Especially after Friday (made contact with the wall) it was good to get back out and put together a couple of good days of running. The qualifying run went okay. It was fairly uneventful until the last lap when we were in a bit of a slide, but not too bad. The whole point was to get it in the show and we did that, so I’m just looking forward to the race.”

BUDDY LAZIER, NO. 44 LAZIER RACING CHEVROLET (No. 30, 223.417): “We feel really good about what we’ve been able to do in a short amount of time; obviously, we would like to go quicker. Since we started on Friday, we’ve just been moving forward every session, gaining and gaining. We ran quicker this morning so I had high hopes but that’s all she had, she was wide open. Every session we are gaining more and more comfort in my Chevrolet. We haven’t strayed from having a race day car, we are here to race, so we just put a little bit of qualifying on it. We should be much better on race day and I expect Monday to be very busy and productive for us.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AFS JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET (No. 31, 221.142): “We made some changes from yesterday to get a little more speed from the car. This morning in practice the car balance was sketchy, but we were doing high 227s, so I was expecting 228 in qualifying. When I saw the first lap, I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty from there on. We just lost the balance. I think the temperature was a bit higher and that effected the car. At that point, we were trying to battle the Foyt guys and since that was not going to be the case, we decided to just bring it home.”

ZACH VEACH, NO. 40 INDY WOMEN IN TECH CHAMPIONSHIP AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (No. 32, 221.081): “Extremely happy to say that we will be competing in our first Indianapolis 500. It’s official now after successfully qualifying. Still fighting little gremlins from our incident on Friday, just car balance doesn’t seem right for how the car was. My crew is working really hard to see what issues still lie there. But they’ve been doing a great job all week working really hard. I have full confidence in them that they will get the Indy Women in Tech Championship car out there good as new on Monday for race practice. I know our race car is a lot more competitive than our qualifying car. I’m really excited to see what we can do and I’ll be charging to the front come next Sunday.”