CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO
STREETS OF TORONTO, EXHIBITION PLACE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
JULY 16, 2017

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 DEVILBISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: YOU HAD A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK THERE WITH STRATEGY BUT AFTER THAT YOU JUST RULED THE RACE
“Yeah, I mean you can’t discount it. I think that is twice I have had good calls and got into the pits at the right time. Thank you to the guys and thank you to Tim (Cindric) for making that call. We got it right, but it was all about managing the race after that. I thought we had a very fast car, we got a pretty good start, and stayed out of the mayhem. Very, very happy for all of Team Penske and this DeVilbiss Chevy was pretty bright but it was pretty fast too. I am pumped for all the No. 2 car guys today, they did an amazing job for Team Penske today.”

YOU CAME INTO THE WEEKEND 56 POINTS BACK OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND NOW YOU ARE JUST 23 POINTS BACK. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GO FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP NOW?
“Yeah, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be difficult beating all of those guys, but I will tell you what, when you have got Chevy power, you have Chevy reliability and Chevy fuel mileage – you feel pretty good about things. So I feel good about it, but it’s going to be a dogfight to the end. I think you are just going to have to be conservative, but aggressive at the same time. You can’t sit back too much but you have to make sure you stay out of incidences. Hopefully I get a couple more podiums before the end of the year, and we can get it done.”

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO SEE AT MID-OHIO FROM JOSEF NEWGARDEN?
“I would like to win somewhere that I haven’t won. I won at Barber, and then we won again there. I have already won here and we won again here with Team Penske. I would like to get these guys another win where I haven’t won before, because that would be really great for me and for the entire group. So hopefully we can get that at Mid-Ohio.

“I think that is twice I have had good calls and got into the pits at the right time. Thank you to the guys and thank you to Tim (Cindric) for making that call. We got it right, but it was all about managing the race after that. I thought we had a very fast car, we got a pretty good start, and stayed out of the mayhem. Very, very happy for all of Team Penske and this DeVilbiss Chevy was pretty bright but it was pretty fast too. I am pumped for all the No. 2 car guys today, they did an amazing job for Team Penske today.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: I HEARD YOU ON THE RADIO GIVING SOME PROPS TO HELIO FOR THAT MOVE INTO TURN ONE. DID THAT KIND OF SURPRISE YOU?
“I was determined to get in really deep and get into first position but the old man, he made a hell of a move. There is nothing to say about that sometimes and you just get beat. Wow, that was a heck of a move. We managed to fight back on the black tires because the car was phenomenal. Just a real shame that we got caught up there because I believe we had the strongest car today. But congrats to Josef (Newgarden) and it is good that we kept it in the family.”

YOU HAD SOME REAL SPIRITED RACING WITH RYAN HUNTER-REAY, WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON SOME OF THOSE BATTLES?
“I thought he was very clean and I got the inside right before that on the straightaway. He left enough room so I could go through, which I thought was really clean. At the braking we touched and then there (in the corner) the engine just bogged down and then we touched on exit, but that was nothing. That’s just racing.

“The DXC Technology Chevrolet was tremendous all weekend. We just didn’t get that first stop in before the yellow like Josef (Newgarden) did. Overall, it was a good weekend for us. We made up some ground in points and it’s always great to visit Toronto. Congratulations to the No. 2 team and all of Team Penske.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH:
I HAVE TO ASK YOU ABOUT STRATEGY, BUT THAT FIRST CORNER, DID YOU PRE-PLAN THAT?
“Ok, this comes all the way from 1997 and I did a similar move to that when I was in Indy Lights and driving here. So the situation occurred again and I said, ‘man, I am going to go for it’. As soon as we got to the braking zone, and I was on the reds, and the car was really good. I didn’t lock up the brakes or anything and it was a clean pass. I told the guys I was going to be fair, but if there was an opportunity, I was going to take it. Good job to everyone at Team Penske and congrats to Josef on the win. Obviously the yellow was a little bit tough there but I will tell you what, the cars were good and this place sometimes is like that. Whoever is the leader sometimes gets caught in the yellow like that, and gets the bad side of it.”

ONCE YOU GOT IN THE FRONT YOU OBVIOUSLY HAD A CAR THAT WAS TUNED TO RUN AT THE FRONT. THEN THE PIT STRATEGY DOESN’T FALL LIKE YOU WANT, YOU ARE RUNNING BACK IN A PACK OF CARS, IS THAT WHAT KEPT YOU BACK?
“My car, as compared to Simon (Pagenaud) was a little bit harder to run behind people. But you know, in the beginning we were just saving fuel and I saw something that looked like a little spot of water and I thought ‘oh boy, it might be a red flag’, but at the end of the day it never rained out and I was just taking it easy. But when Roger (Penske) called me to pit I was already off turn 10 and I couldn’t come in. It’s a shame that it came out that way but at least one of our guys ended up winning the race. Our Hitachi Chevy was really strong and we keep collecting points and getting closer in the championship.

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “I thought we were looking good to save fuel and go long on that first stint if we didn’t get hit with that first yellow. At that point, we were just stuck in the back, saving fuel for the rest of the race. A bummer because we definitely made some progress this weekend, had a much better start and we were looking on the racy side. We’ll have to wait for the next one.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “The race started off really well. It was tough initially to keep everyone behind me when we were on black and everyone else was on reds at the start. It kind of came to us and we were able to pass a lot of guys and work our way up to fourth or fifth by the end of the first stint. The yellow was going to be bad timing for us anyway, but after that restart I had some contact with Sato. His wing cut my left rear tire. We had to make a stop for that and that put us in the back for the rest of the race. We never caught another yellow to make up for it. Another promising race that went the wrong way for us. Overall, I’m really happy with everything the Fuzzy’s Vodka guys did, a big thanks to them!”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: “Not the race we wanted really. We were lucky on the first yellow but after that, nothing came our way with the other yellows. There’s nothing to do but just keep working hard.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “The car was pretty good but we have to look at everything because I have no idea why the car was so slow down the straight. It might not be a power thing, might just be we had too much downforce because the car was good by myself but we were just a sitting duck down the straights. It was difficult to defend and attack. I was on the limiter halfway down the straight. I think the car was better than where we finished.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERION TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “It was a really disappointing day for the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team. We had a strong car all weekend and I know it could have been really fast during the race. We had bad luck on the first lap and it ruined the rest of the race since we could not get it repaired to go back out. We’ve performed really well at Toronto in the past so we’re just disappointed we couldn’t give the fans at Toronto the show we knew we could put on.”