CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
CHEVROLET DETROIT BELLE ISLE GRAND PRIX
STREETS OF BELLE ISLE
TEAM CHEVY DUAL NO. 2 RACE REPORT WITH DRIVER QUOTES
JUNE 4, 2017

Newgarden, Power Put Team Chevy on Detroit GP Podium
Top Team Penske Chevy-powered Indy Cars second and third on Belle Isle

DETROIT (June 4, 2017) – Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Will Power put their Chevrolet-powered Indy Cars on the podium for the second Dual in Detroit race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix for the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Newgarden in the No. 2 hum by Verizon Chevrolet Indy finished second after starting the 70-lap race in 13th place. Going for a three-stop strategy, Newgarden led the race twice for seven laps and set the race’s fastest lap. He finished 1.1772 seconds behind race-winner Graham Rahal.

Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon IndyCar, moved into contention early after starting seventh. He moved up to third after 10 laps and second after 23 laps running a two-stop strategy.

Defending Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Simon Pagenaud placed fifth in the No. 1 DXC Technology Chevrolet. His other Team Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Hitachi Chevy, placed ninth after an early flat tire. He remains second in IndyCar points.

The Verizon IndyCar Series next heads to Texas Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Rainguard Water Sealers 600. The race is set for 8:30 p.m. ET with NBC Sports airing the race starting at 8 p.m. ET.

DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2nd: “I’ll be honest, I think we were all just trying to get to the end. There were just two laps to go and we had marbles all over the tires. In that type situation, there’s not much you can do. You want to say you’d be able to go race this guy and try to beat him. And I would have done that if he messed up; if he made a mistake, I would try to capitalize. But if everyone stays steady, we are just trying to hold on to the race car. It’s very difficult to do that at the end. When it’s your weekend, it’s your weekend. (Race-winner Graham) Rahal did a great job. It’s a good bounce back for us at Team Penske in the hum by Verizon Chevrolet. It’s good to be in Detroit. Thanks to all the fans that came out and Chevrolet for all they do. It’s fun to be in this city. I was trying to get Chevrolet that win but just didn’t have enough today.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 3RD: “Yesterday was just unlucky when the yellow came. We kind of went halfway between a two-stop and a three-stop. We went longer than the three-stop guys. I was saving so much fuel yesterday that I was too slow. The guys did a great job with the strategy today. I’m very happy with third. Today was much more representative of the car we had this weekend. Thanks to all of the guys, Verizon and Chevrolet.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH:

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “The Hitachi Chevy was great again today. We had a little bit of bad luck there with Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and getting a tire cut down. It was early enough that I thought we might be able to overcome it but we didn’t get a caution until the very end. I wish we could have done better with our finish but our car was strong. We’ll head to Texas which is always a lot of fun.”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “First off I want to say thank you to my ABC Supply 14 crew. I think they did a really good job to fix the car from qualifying to the race. They had to change the engine and rebuild almost half the car so a big thanks to them. It would have been nice to be in the top 10 but I think from where we started 22 to finish 11th wasn’t bad. To get a good strategy today was really tough because there were no yellows at all so we couldn’t do any strategy. But I think we were more competitive this weekend so that’s positive. We’ll keep working and hopefully we’ll have a good car at Texas.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: “It was a good race for us the whole way through. Felt like we had decent pace enough to stay in the top 10 with the ABC Supply car. Just our luck the yellow comes at the end. We didn’t need that. It was a shame because as soon as we went green I had no front grip. I just couldn’t hold my position. It was a shame for it to end like it did—this team deserved to be in the top 10.”

LARRY FOYT, PRESIDENT, AJ FOYT ENTERPRISES, INC: “Well the crew did a great job to get the car repaired and race ready. It was a full team effort. Both ABC Supply crews were helping to get that car done in time. It’s not where we wanted to finish but from where we started, it was a good day to improve a bunch of positions. Carlos did a good job to bounce back and Conor was in the top 10 for most of the day. It was a shame what happened right at the end that he couldn’t get the top 10. Both drivers raced hard and brought their cars home today. We’ll try for better at the next one.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “It was unfortunate that we started where we did because I think we would have been up the field if we had had a fair shot at qualifying. Given where we were, we went off strategy early and were putting in good laps. We caught all the way back up to the cars that had not yet made a pit stop, so we closed the whole 25 or 30 second gap back up. At that point, I got a call to pit but stayed out thinking that we would be able to benefit from the cars around me pulling off and pitting. I ignored the fact that we were tight on fuel and that mistake, which was 100% mine, put us in a place where we had a super slow lap and ended up in a gaggle of cars we shouldn’t have been around. We came into contact with another car, had a flat tire, came in, had to make an extra pit stop, went a lap down. There are some positives to take away from this weekend, we had some pace in both of the races because we figured some things out both with my driving and with the car. In the end, I’m disappointed with myself for having a small screw up each day that cost us a bunch of positions in the race. As we look to Road America and Toronto as the next couple of street circuits, we’ll be looking to put it together in those events. I feel we did well here this weekend, but it doesn’t show up that way on the stat sheets.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “The car just lost power coming across the start/finish line. I don’t know exactly what happened and it didn’t cost us a great finish, but it is a shame. Our races this year have been really good, this is the first weekend where we have struggled. It’s something we’ll try to learn from and make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Fuzzy’s Vodka guys have already had a long few weeks, now they have another problem to fix. Hopefully the 20 car can rebound next weekend at Texas and myself at Road America.”

IndyCar Media Conference
Sunday June 4, 2017
Josef Newgarden
Will Power
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We will go ahead and get started with our Verizon IndyCar Series post race press conference. Joined now by Will Power, who finished third in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear.

Will, first of all, congratulations on your podium finish. It’s your third podium this season. It has to feel good to get a podium finish for Roger in his backyard here in Detroit.

WILL POWER: Yeah, it was definitely a tough day yesterday, finishing 18th. Just kind of took a risk on strategy. But, yeah, really happy to finish third. Helps me in the points.

Obviously Roger’s home race and Chevrolet’s home race. To get a P3, didn’t get the win, but obviously a strong showing. Yeah, very good day. It’s the most I felt we could get out of the day starting where we started.

THE MODERATOR: A little bit of drama towards the end of the race with the red flag that produced that late restart. What were your thoughts and strategy going into that, the beginning of the last few laps?

WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about how — hoping the two guys in front would race pretty hard, giving me an opportunity. Also, you know, I wanted to keep my third. I needed good points. I didn’t want to get in an incident. Keeping that in mind. Really didn’t get a good enough exit out of two on the restart to have a go at Josef.

You know, not much you could do. It was actually higher grip than what I thought. Normally when it goes yellow, you know, the tires pick up a lot of marbles off the track. It’s slippery. But it wasn’t bad, so… That’s all we could do.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Will.

Q. How much of this is just the horsepower at this point with Chevy and Honda, or am I way off base on that?
WILL POWER: Yeah, there is definitely, you know — Honda does have good power right now. Obviously not good reliability. You know, the Chevys have very good reliability. Chevy and Ilmor are very good at reacting. It’s tough to react straightaway because they’re already building engines. You have to do 2500 miles or the next iteration is already done. It’s more of an off-season project.

But, yeah, Honda has definitely found something, but it’s not reliable. They’ve had so many (indiscernible). It’s more than 15 engines, I think.

Q. Will, you look at the late caution. Coming from third back, did you think you had a shot at the win? Did you think you could get Graham?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I did, if Graham and Josef fought a little bit. But they didn’t. Graham got a good start. I was kind of close to Josef, but he’s a teammate so you don’t want to take a risk.

Yeah, I also wanted to finish. I needed to finish to get some good points, in a good finish, so that’s all I could do.

Q. Will, you had the last pit spot to get Sato. How close was that? What was the process in making sure you got Sato on that one?
WILL POWER: It was definitely important to get him, because we were quicker than he was. He seemed to be struggling a little bit. And, yeah, it was an interesting — I don’t know how close I was, but I kind of went out and did everything I could to stay ahead of him. Obviously gave me that position.

But, yeah, that first pit stall is great under yellow, not so good for out-laps because the other guy is already at 50 when they let off that button, so they get a good exit. That’s the difference.

But, yeah, it was good enough to get Sato.

Q. Were you betting your money on your teammate on that restart or did you think that Graham’s restart —
WILL POWER: I thought Graham was really dominant. I didn’t think Josef was going to get him because Graham was so dominant (laughter).

But, yeah, I was hoping that Josef and Graham would fight, have a bit of a battle, not out of the car but in the car. As you’ve seen, if you’ve seen on my Instagram, Josef probably can’t fight very well (laughter). Sorry, mate, I’m just joking.

I Instagram’d something a couple months ago. It was a really bad video of Josef. He got a bit of grief for it. He can fight. He beat me up good the other day.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Hello. Good to be here.

THE MODERATOR: Do you want to introduce yourself?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: This is pretty much our hauler talk. This is what happens inside the Team Penske trailers. It’s just this all day.

WILL POWER: Josef brought that to the team.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it was worse when Montoya was here.

WILL POWER: Juan, he was never there.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That’s true.

THE MODERATOR: I’m inclined to let Will Power introduce you. But I’ll read a few notes.

This is Josef Newgarden’s best finish here on the streets of Detroit. His 13th podium in his IndyCar career. Now moves him to fifth in the championship points lead.

So, Josef, take us through especially that last restart and your strategy and your thoughts on if you were going to be able to catch Graham leading into the end of the race.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, unfortunately I don’t think we were going to really do anything, to be honest. I didn’t feel optimistic that I would have been able to get Graham. I didn’t feel too concerned about Power behind me.

It was just kind of the reality of the situation that we had so much pickup on the tires, everybody did, I think it was a matter of surviving. I was hoping Graham was going to make a big mistake because then I would try and capitalize.

I couldn’t pull anything too risky because I didn’t have any grip in the tires. That’s what happens when you run a full stint on them. Then you cool them down with a caution, you pick up some marbles. When you stop, they cool down even further, you solidify the marbles into the tires. It’s pretty difficult getting them clean on the restart.

We would have needed three, four laps before they were up and running again. I think it was a matter of surviving, trying to capitalize if he did something silly, made a mistake. Other than that it was trying to hold on to P2, the podium we had for today.

THE MODERATOR: You worked yourself up to a second-place finish. Take us through the day, the strategy your team chose.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was a good day. Similar to yesterday, I think we had a winning car. We started too far back. It really comes down to qualifying on the No. 2 car, which I attribute a lot to my own fault. I had a better lap this morning. I messed up on the final lap. We had some trouble getting up to speed before that with some other things going on.

If we could have qualified in the top five, I think we would have had a better opportunity to maybe race Graham better. Just started too far back.

But we had a great car all weekend. The team did a great job. We really weren’t missing anything at all from a strategy or pit stop standpoint at all or racecar. It was all there. We just started too far back. That’s all we really needed to work on. I’m going to work on that personally next time.

It was tough missing out on the victory. It’s great being here in Detroit. Got such great support. It’s our hometown here with Team Penske and also with Chevrolet. I was really working hard for that Chevy victory on race two. It was just a little too far away. So unfortunate.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Josef and Will.

Q. Josef, there was a little bit of banter it seemed like yesterday between Graham, you and Will at the autograph session. He said something yesterday, he was going to dominate, then he did, got in your head a little bit.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He said that?

Q. Yes.
WILL POWER: Clearly he did get in his head.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: In mine?

You know, no, I mean, look. Here is what I’ll say. Graham did a great job this weekend, right? Obviously his team also, they did a great job. No hiccups. Kudos to those guys. They deserved the two victories.

The only way we would have been close to those guys I think is qualifying better. That’s all I would say. Those guys did a great job. Congrats to them and their entire group.

Q. When you do have a dominant week like you did at Iowa last year, how satisfying is that feeling?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it’s the best thing you can do in racing. You feel great about it. When you feel like you’re just better than everybody and no one had anything for you.

We definitely had a weekend like that in Iowa, but they don’t come around very often. So when you see them in front of you, you try to capitalize on them as best you can.

It’s a fun feeling when you get one of those to come your way.

Q. During those 18 minutes you were sitting in the car during the red flag, did you think to yourself, I’ve got him right where I want him?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Honestly, no. If he would have done something stupid, I would have been like, I had you. He didn’t do anything bad. Like I said, it was going to be difficult to do anything on that restart. Power had twice as much ‘push to pass’ than I did. He couldn’t do much with me because with two laps to go, there’s so much pickup on the tires, you’re trying to hold on to the thing at that point.

We stayed single file. Wasn’t much to do. I was looking for a mistake. That’s the one thing I was looking for, for him to mess up, I would capitalize. It just didn’t present itself.

Q. Josef, how was that battle out there with Graham? I can remember going back to our conversation on Thursday with Marco about the sunglasses.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I represent Oakley. You guys want some great, sporty glasses, check out Oakley.com.

WILL POWER: No, Scott glasses are better.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I made up a fake brand for Marco.

WILL POWER: What were they called?

Q. Josef called them Tutani’s.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t even remember that. I’m so glad you remember. Marco and me forgot. We wanted to know what it was.

But, yeah, good weekend. Good weekend overall, so…

Q. Did you think you were going to get Graham at the end of the turn one thing?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: The last couple laps?

Q. Yes.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No. I mean, like I said, unless he made a mistake, I think it was going to be very difficult to do anything with him.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, congrats. We’ll see you in Texas.