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 Team Penske drivers:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
YOU’VE BEEN THE FASTEST PENSKE DRIVER ON RACEDAY THE LAST TWO YEARS. WITH THE AERO KITS FROZEN SINCE LAST YEAR, DOES THAT MEAN YOU’VE HAD LESS TO DO THIS YEAR? “I don’t know. The car is pretty much the same from the last two years. We didn’t feel like changing was going to make me feel better. We’ve actually tried a few things and every time it is worse. So we went back on track really quickly and worked mostly aerodynamics. We’re learning every year on the body kits. We are working on finding less drag and still keeping downforce on the car. The mechanical setup hasn’t changed at all so I’m quite comfortable that way. I know exactly how my race car stands, and that gives me confidence.”
SO DO ALL YOUR TEAMMATES COPY YOU? “No, no. We are not running exactly the same. It’s mostly comfort. Will (Power) might like a car that rides on the right-rear more. I like something that drives off the front more with a more powerful front than he does. It’s just feel and whatever you makes you comfortable.”
IS A MONTH LIKE THIS REALLY TESTING THE TEAM AS A WHOLE, PARTICULARLY LOOKING FOR SPEED AND SOMETHING CONSISTENT? “It’s testing patience! It’s interesting. Sometimes you have a more competitive package and sometimes you don’t. This month we’ve been on the slower side, I would say. We’ve worked really hard. It’s been fun. With all five drivers here, it’s been interesting to work all together to find more out of the car. I felt like Monday, especially with the new Chevy engine and a new update we had, I felt like the car was capable of winning the race. I feel better. We don’t have the outright pace still but we have everything else to win the race.”
IS PATIENCE PRIORITY NUMBER ONE? TO GET TO THAT LAST STOP AND BE IN IT? “We all know that you have to go to Lap 170 to even have a chance to think about winning. If you are winning before that, it doesn’t matter. If you are fifth, it doesn’t matter. As long as you position yourself and get ready for that last shootout, that’s the most important thing. It’s not the ideal start going off 23rd but we will try to get the best out of it.
“We have a really good race car. We don’t have the outright speed of the Hondas. But we do have everything else we need like our crew… pit stops are very important here, and they count. On strategy, for me Kyle Moyer has been excellent all year long. My engineer has been awesome with adjustments on the car, too. I think I have everything else to win the race. We may not have the outright speed, and that’s the nature of competition and the beauty of it. Some years it’s going to be your package that is best and some years it is not. Now we have to fight that way and try to win the race. I think we can come back to the top-10 very quickly. We saw that Monday and felt like I had a good car going through the pack, which was a very good sign. It felt comfortable, I could be aggressive and go forward. We will at least be fighting for the top-five.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
IT’S YOUR FIRST RUN HERE WITH TEAM PENSKE. HOW DO YOU FEEL? “I feel pretty good leading into the weekend. I’m excited for tomorrow. We need Carb Day. That should help us find a final solution for us to gear us up nicely for the 500 miles that we have to put down on Sunday. It’s all about being there at the end. We’re close to finishing this things off and it will be fun to get going.”
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO GET OUT OF YOUR TEAMMATES? “It’s great having a lot of good teammates. I’ve been able to ask them a lot of questions. And vice versa. When I’m good, I help them. And when they’re good, they help me. That’s what you get here at Team Penske. There’s been no shortage of information to share. That’s been nice. Picking the brains of Helio, Juan, Will and Simon is always a good thing.”
HOW DIFFERENT IS LIFE ON THE ROAD NOW THAT YOU ARE WITH PENSKE? “It’s not too different. I live in Charlotte now, but it’s always nice to come back to Indianapolis having moved away from here.”
HAVE YOU FELT THAT THERE IS A PARTICULAR ADVANTAGE THAT CHEVY HAS OVER HONDA IN ANY CERTAIN AREA? “I think Chevy has a lot of good qualities. We’ve had good reliability and good consistency. You want to know what you have. We’re very confident in what they bring us. We have a great working environment with them; that hasn’t changed. That relationship has always been very stout. That’s not changed from Day One. We have a lot of positives to think about. That’s not to say that Honda won’t be tough. Their performance level is tough. But I’m confident in what Chevy has given us. It’s a long race and you have to be there in the end. We should have good fuel economy. We should be able to execute well on a couple of different levels that will help us.”
DO WHAT APPEARED TO BE STRUGGLES IN QUALIFYING KIND OF IRRELEVANT FOR RACEDAY? “I think so. They are two separate things. Where it looked like we were in qualifying doesn’t necessarily how we will be in the race. I expect us to be better in race conditions. I think we can outlast everyone in the strategy game. Penske has been for many years, and I feel strong about our chances when you look at it that way.”
ARE THERE STILL MANY THINGS YOU NEED TO WORK THROUGH ON CARB DAY? “Hopefully not too many but there are definitely things on my list. There are things I want to work on personally that I want to be better at. We got through a lot of that Monday, but we’ll definitely utilize Carb Day as much as we can to get that final read and maybe make some more adjustments after that.”
HOW MANY TEAMS AND DRIVERS REALISTICALLY HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN? “It the Indy 500, so any car can win. I’d put it up around 28-30 cars. You can’t predict this place. Sometimes the prediction wins but many other times that isn’t the case. We feel confident it’s a race you can win from many different angles. That’s a good thing for us.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 SHELL FUEL REWADS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
YOU HAD THE AERO PACKAGE NAILED IN PHOENIX WITH THE POLE, AND THE PENSKE CARS WERE SOLID. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE HERE NOT HAVING THE NORMAL AERO PACKAGE? “The good news is we ran these last year; it’s a package where we have a lot of information. Plus we have five cars. Whoever wants to do something and however the race develops, you can get information for the following stint. The whole thing, we know what to do and we just have to execute.”
IT’S A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THAT DOMINANCE… “When you have the road course wings versus the speedway wings, it completely changes the balance. The speeds as well… we were 180 mph there and here we are 230 mph. The dynamic in the cars changed a lot.”
IS THAT SOMETHING WE WILL SEE THROUGH THE SEASON WHERE THE DYNAMICS WILL SWING BACK AND FORTH? “It’s natural when you change that configuration. At Phoenix, for example, we dialed in the track and were pretty darn good. Here, we feel like we have one of the best balanced cars but you have a little bit more power to be up front.”
ARE YOU CONCERNED STARTING MIDPACK WITH THE TRAFFIC? “I’m anxious, I would say, and not concerned. Things can happen outside my control. I hope everyone understands that to finish first, first you must finish. Hopefully everyone has the same mindset, pay extra attention and don’t rely on just the spotter, then we can get through without a problem.”
WHEN YOU’RE HERE DO YOU THINK ABOUT GOING FOR THAT FOURTH WIN, OR DO YOU FOCUS ON THE TASK AT HAND? “I dream every day. Every time I look, I think it would be great to be part of that elite group with Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr.”
DO THE PENSKE CARS HAVE THE RACE PACE TO CONTEND? “I know we have. You don’t win the race on just the fastest car. You win a race by being consistent and having good strategy and a good team. We have all that.”
HAVING WON THE RACE THREE TIMES BEFORE, WHAT’S THE MOST CRUCIAL PART? “Things have to line up together for the possibility to win. You have to put yourself in that position as well. Even when I’ve done that before, I haven’t won. Everything has to run smooth. Sometimes the track picks the winner and it’s outside your control sometimes.”
TALKING TO YOUR SPOTTER, RICK MEARS, HE NOTED THAT THE TWO OF YOU HAVE A SIMILAR STYLE. HE GREW UP WITHOUT A SPOTTER AND YOU’RE KIND OF THE SAME WAY. “Both of us understand that to survive, you can rely on only one person. You’re the one driving the car. Rick is one of the best. This year we have a gold helmet so he can’t miss me! The point is that I can’t only rely on his ability to tell me who is there or not, I need to understand what is going on to prevent any bad circumstances.”
WHAT WOULD BE UNIQUE ABOUT WINNING THE 101ST INDY 500? “Being a fighter. We are going to fight as hard as we can. We have a lot of challenges in front of us, but we have a lot of heart too. This team is the best when they are in a pressure situation, and I feel we are going to succeed.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
YOU’RE USED TO STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW BUT FURTHER BACK THIS YEAR. DOES PACING CHANGE? “It is different from having started on the front row. It’s always good to start at the front to keep out of the mess. But you get some good experience in traffic provided you move forward. If you have a good start, you can move forward. It is what it is, and I’ll do what I can.”
DOES IT GET TO A PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE SO MANY PIT STOPS AT ABOUT THE TIME YOU SETTLE IN ON A FUEL RUN, HOW DOES THAT CHANGE STRATEGY? “You can adjust the car if you need. Over the whole of a stint the entire car changes, the tire change, the track changes… you’ll get your mix of balances through there anyway.”
HOW DOES THE PROSPECT OF A CLOUDY START CHANGE YOUR MINDSET? “It means that the car will feel really good at first. When the sun comes out, we’ll find who has a good or bad car. We really want the sun to come out. I really hope it does…we need it. We’ve had the full mix this month so you have a full understanding that the cloud cover helps the car a lot.”
WHAT ARE YOU HAVING TO DO DIFFERENTLY ON THE CAR THIS YEAR TO MAKE IT WORK FOR THE RACE? “We definitely have a different car. There’s always a combination of mechanical balance and aero balance. I think we’ve skewed that in a different direction to make the car more comfortable. It’s an ever-changing goalpost. Wind changes, track temperature changes and all that make a difference. You have to make it a very adjustable car in the race. You have to put yourself in a box where you can go either way with it.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE WITH THE CHEVROLET THAT YOU HAVE A BETTER RACE MOTOR? “I think so. We have very good reliability. That’s what Chevy has been the last few years. Right now I think we can push our engine harder for longer than Honda.”
WHERE DO YOU THINK THINGS STAND NOW HEADING INTO THE RACE? “I think we have good race cars at Team Penske. We can push ahead harder for longer than Honda. At Indy, you never know what it is going to throw at you.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 22 FITZGERALD GLIDER KITS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
HAVE YOU BEEN ENJOYING FAMILY LIFE NOW THAT YOU HAVE MORE TIME AT HOME? “I still do the same thing as before. I still train and spend time on the bike. I still swim from time to time. But there’s time now for us to spend on the boat, surf, we do wake boarding together. It’s good family time. I have more time for my radio-controlled planes. They’re fun but I really spend time on it. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. I’m really intense at it, and I think that’s why I’m good at this.”
YOU QUALIFIED PRETTY HIGH UP IN THE PENSKE TEAM. “For our speed normally against our teammates, it was nice. We had good speed and it felt pretty good. I felt my car had as good speed as Will but I got a bad draw. The grip level from my first lap to the fourth lap was getting better instead of worse because the track was cleaning up. I was handing that to everyone else. There wasn’t a big chance at pole.”
BUT THAT SHOULD BODE WELL FOR RACEDAY? “I think so. We have a good opportunity. You still have to execute and see what happens. But I think we are in good shape.”
YOU’VE RUN THIS RACE FOUR TIMES BEFORE. WHAT’S THE SECRET TO BEING UP FRONT? “There is no secret. That’s the secret. You have to execute well on raceday. Everyone needs to do their part. As long as everyone does their part and give yourself a chance, that’s all you can ask for. I try not to overthink it. We do what we need to do and hope that’s enough to get the trophy. You have to deal with whatever hand is dealt to you.”
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