CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
101ST RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY MEDIA DAY QUOTES
MAY 25, 2017
Selected quotes from Juncos Racing drivers:
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 11 JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET:
YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR STARTING POSITION: “Obviously the starting position isn’t fantastic. We’re toward the back but it’s a long race and anything can happen. We have one more practice session tomorrow to try and figure some stuff out. The car felt really good last week but we struggled a little bit on Monday. Hopefully we found a few things that weren’t really working in our favor, so hopefully with those things fixed we should be back to where we were.”
DOES ANY PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE HERE HELP? “It’s nice to come back this year and not have as many questions about the race and how it feels running in traffic with all the cars out there. I have a lot of experience to choose from in my mind. It’s definitely been beneficial so far this month getting up to speed with a group running faster and all that that I didn’t have last year. So it’s nice to have a year’s experience but there is still a lot of hard work to do.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PROGRAM RICARDO JUNCO HAS PUT TOGETHER? “It’s great that Ricardo has been able to put an IndyCar team together. That’s what he has been working toward for many years. To finally have it come together and be a part of it is something very special for us and something we would have thought was absolutely crazy 10-12 years ago when we were racing go-karts together. It’s been really neat so far, and I think we’ve and I think we’ve all enjoyed the experience. We’re all excited and getting ready for the big race.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVDERA, NO. 17 AFS/JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET:
HOW HAS THIS ENGINEERING GROUP, BEING A BRAMD NEW TEAM, FARED WITH SOME OF THE OTHERS YOU’RE MORE FAMILIAR WITH? “It’s a small team that didn’t have a lot of preparation. Being with Andretti, Ganassi and KV, they basically had everything set up to approach the month. Right now, we’re looking at smaller things, such as trying to get drag out of the car, drag out of the gearbox, drag out of the paint – things that in the past I never had to worry about because it already was done for us. So when you start getting to that extent, you realize how sensitive this place is an d how multiple years of expertise these big teams have really comes into play.”
GARY PETERSON IS A LONG-TIME SUPPORTER OF YOURS. YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT HE’S BEEN ABLE TO DO TO HELP YOU RETURN TO THE INDY 500 WITH THIS NEW TEAM? “It’s huge. To come back here again with Gary Peterson and the whole AFS organization, and already having more of an active role as vice president of sports development, is big. Last year was a wise decision not to do the 500, even though it was the 100th running and it hurt, it didn’t make sense. We’re not here just to race. We want to develop something for many years to come, and I think that’s where Gary feels it’s going this year.”
WHAT’S THE PLAN AFTER THIS? WHAT THINGS ARE IN THE WORKS? “ I’m doing some commentating with ESPN Desportes in Latin America, but on my sports side I want to do more. Right now, it doesn’t make sense to invest in one of the road course aero kits because they’ll be obsolete next year. We do have a state-of-the-art oval aero kit, so it would not be surprising that we did more oval racing this year.”
IF JUNCOS RACING GOES FULL TIME WITH TWO CARS NEXT YEAR, ARE YOU PUTTING IN A BID FOR THAT WITH HOW YOU DO ON SUNDAY? “ It’s too early to tell; we’ll see how things continue to evolve. I’m very happy with the amazing job Juncos has done in such a short amount of time. I just want to keep growing on this side. I love the development side. I come from both sides now – having everything and developing now. It will be a challenge and I’m welcoming it.”