CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
ABC SUPPLY 500
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
AUGUST 20, 2017
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: “We had to add a lot of downforce because we went to the back and went a lap down, so you had to try to get good in traffic. Oh, man. What a day. I’ve got to thank Verizon and Chevrolet, obviously; the engine is very, very quick. It was a seriously dramatic day. It was a lot of fun.
“I was very cautious on those restarts. I just picked people off one by one. Just be smart. You can never give up in IndyCar because you don’t know what can happen. We got our lap back and made it to the front.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 FITZGERALD GLIDER KIT TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: “Everyone was hauling butt at the end there. On that final restart, everyone was just going. And when I mean by that is they were flat out. They were going as fast as they could. There was no fuel saving. It was hard to pass people. The speed had turned up quite a bit. So, it got difficult. And in that moment, I was with Will in the back there and I could see he was so fast. I was trying to keep with him and we kind of cycled back with him to the front. From there, I was like I don’t even know if we’re going to catch him. So, once we did catch him, I was like I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get by him. It was a crazy race. It was a great day for Chevrolet. We give us the performance. I think Will had the best Chevy today, but man, he was a rocket ship. We had everything we needed. I hope the fans enjoyed it.
“We’ve got to hang tough here, is the thing. I would have loved to have won that race. I hate finishing second; I think all of us do. But, it’s in the family still. It’s a Team Penske victory so we can’t be disappointed with that. I’m happy for Will. He worked hard for it. But, I want to win the championship. I think all of us do. So, we’ve got to be smart about it.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “All things considered. It was a great weekend. I can’t thank the Hitachi Chevrolet crew enough for all of the hard work after the crash in qualifying. They did an awesome job at getting the car together for the race. We started from the back, so our work was cut out for us. Our progress kind of stalled a little, but then the changes to the car all clicked and we were able to finish seventh. The championship didn’t get jumbled up too much, so we head to Gateway (Motorsports Park) next week for another round.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “All things considered. It was a great weekend. I can’t thank the Hitachi Chevrolet crew enough for all of the hard work after the crash in qualifying. They did an awesome job at getting the car together for the race. We started from the back, so our work was cut out for us. Our progress kind of stalled a little, but then the changes to the car all clicked and we were able to finish seventh. The championship didn’t get jumbled up too much, so we head to Gateway (Motorsports Park) next week for another round.”
CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FORY RACING, FINISHED 10TH: : “It was a fun race. It’s been a long time to have a fun race, I think the last one was at Texas. The car was really good. We’ve made a good program at the speedways so I’m really happy. I think we just missed a little bit of speed but I think setup wise, the car was great. The guys did a great job on the pit stops. The 12 and the 2 car did a different strategy and I think that cost us P-8 but on track the car was quite strong fighting with the Penskes and Andrettis [cars]. In the last stint we were missing just a little bit of speed but I’m happy to bring the car home 10th. We were fighting the whole race and it was fun to make some good passes. So we’ll continue to try to do that.” [Broken wing] “I got hit in the rear under the first yellow and it broke my rear bumper so it had to be replaced. So I went all the way to the back and had to come back through. Very few people passed me on track today so I was happy about that.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: “We just couldn’t get it figured out this weekend. I crashed yesterday in practice, but we thought we made some gains in practice last night. We’ve had some okay runs here previously, but Turn 3 is where we struggled all weekend. We were pretty good in Turn 1, but for as much better as we were in 1, we were equally bad in 3. We just never really could get it figured out. We tried a lot of things that had worked here before and even tried some new things, but it just turned into one of those races. We weren’t in the window today.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “That was the first 500 mile race I finished on the lead lap so that’s good. I think we had a really good shot at it when we got the track position [p9] but then we got the drive through which is a shame because I didn’t see the yellow light on my dash. But it’s one of those things. It’s pretty much the worst luck you could have in that position but we tried to deal with it. I thought our car was fairly competitive but I just really struggled in Turn 3–it was difficult for me all day long. Once we lost track position, it was difficult to stay up but I think we made a good step forward today.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH:
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “Heading down into Turn 1, it was two-wide for a couple of rows deep. I was on the outside and James (Hinchcliffe) was making a pass on the inside. When the guys in front of us spread out and went two-wide I started getting a big push on the outside and fed wheel-in, and it just hooked up. I went down and James was there. I’m annoyed for both of us. It was close racing there, we were getting towards the end of the race and it’s just a bummer for the Fuzzy’s Vodka team, but also for Hinchcliffe’s team.”