CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO
STREETS OF TORONTO, EXHIBITION PLACE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING QUOTES
JULY 15, 2017
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: “Yeah, it was a really good lap, one of the best I’ve ever put together. Certainly, there is not much more in it, but the whole qualifying I worked on details and driving. My teammates, they are tremendous it’s such a good atmosphere when we work together. Each practice we talked about we manage the corners and we keep improving each other. I feel like I really extracted the best out of my car, the best out of my set-up today. It’s obviously the most satisfying thing and that is what I’m always seeking for.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “It was pretty good. The Hitachi Chevy was running really, really good, and obviously my teammates, we’re all working together, pushing each other, and in my group the car was running really smooth, picking up a little bit of understeer with the blacks, so I was trying to make some adjustments.”
“
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERION TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 4TH: “My qualifying on the blacks was really fast, definitely car felt good, a bit on the reds. Didn’t get a good read on that — when it went red there. I only had one lap and it had a lot of push, and I thought, well, maybe the fronts weren’t in and then didn’t have time to make a change for the Fast Six.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 DEVILBISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “We just missed the Fast Six by like a tenth of a second or something. I didn’t get it done. The margins in this series are razor thin and sometimes you come up on the short end. The Devilbiss Chevrolet guys have worked hard and the car is really solid. It’s not like all is lost or anything. We’ll start seventh and go to work from there.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: : “I’m happy to have advanced on to the second round of qualifying, that’s definitely on the list for us to be improving through the second half of the year is to be able todo that on a more consistent basis. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken us this long to do it, but it’s a step in the right direction for us I think. The car was quite good. I made a mistake in the second round there and got the car caught into the wall so I owe the boys a few beers. Hopefully we can kind of maintain the trajectory of our weekend here and get ready for a good race tomorrow.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “It’s a little frustrating to miss transferring again by such a small margin – a hundredth of a second! – but that’s the nature of Indy car racing. It’s always extremely close. We’ve made good progress with the car over the weekend, especially on black tires. Hopefully that will be the tire of choice for the race tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with the Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevy!”
CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 18TH: “I think we gained a good amount from the first set of reds to the next. We’ve improved with every set of tires we put on which is good but we’re just not there yet. We understand that it is still taking some time for us. I think we can be happy with the gains we made and I think we’ll have a good car for the race. The key is consistency and being able to take advantage of other people’s mistakes. There’s a lot going on around here. The walls are very close. So taking advantage of other people’s mistakes and maybe some strategic play could work for us, there’s a lot about this race that’s interesting.”
CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH: “Really disappointing qualifying session. In practice 3 we were looking good [10th]. Yesterday we couldn’t try the red tires [electrical issues] and there was some balance change in the car when we ran them in qualifying today. Starting from the back tomorrow, hopefully we have crazy weather tomorrow to help us to go to the front but I’m really disappointed for the team because in practice 3 we were not looking bad.”