CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR GRAND PRIX AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

Josef Newgarden Leads Team Chevy Qualifying Effort at The Glen

WATKINS GLEN, NY – (September 2, 2017) – Verizon IndyCar Series points leader Josef Newgarden led the Team Chevy effort in qualifying for the INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen securing the third starting position in tomorrow’s race.

In a highly competitive Firestone Fast Six final round of knock-out qualifying, the driver of the No. 2 DeVillBiss Team Penske Chevrolet turned in a lap of one minute, 22.5169 seconds, just under the old track record, but had to settle for inside row two.

Teammate Helio Castroneves was sixth quickest and will start on the outside of the third row in Sunday’s 60-lap/202.20-mile race on the 3.37-mile/11-turn permanent road course.

Other Chevrolet qualifiers were:
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet — 8th
Carlos Munoz, No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet — 11th
Simon Pageanaud, No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet — 12th
Spencer Pigot, No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet — 13th
Conor Daly, No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet — 14th
JR Hildebrand, No., No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet — 21st

Alexander Rossi (Honda-Verizon P1 Pole Winner), Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato and Charlie Kimball completed Firestone Fast Six.

The 15th race of the season will start at 1:30 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBCSN. Additional coverage will be provided by INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com, the INDYCAR Mobile app, Sirius 212, and XM209.
DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 DEVILLBISS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “I’m not sure that any of us on the DeVilbiss Chevy team thought we’d be in that fight for the pole, but we certainly were. I think we had the pole car. Unfortunately, I messed it up in Turn 9. I feel awful about that and I’ll beat myself up over it for a bit. I think we’re in a good spot for the race tomorrow, though. If we get the weather everyone is calling for, then I’m not sure that anyone knows the best place to be. You would think it’s at the front, so I hope that’s right.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “Overall, we’re proud of qualifying in the top six in the Hitachi Chevy. We thought we were looking pretty good making our way through qualifying and once we got into the Firestone Fast 6 we just didn’t have it, especially on the black tires. We know we have a fast car and we are definitely still in the fight there with the other championship contenders. We just need to be smart in the race tomorrow and handle whatever comes our way so we can be there fighting for the win in the end.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: “I got a little loose out there in some spots and I think it affected my confidence in some others on if it would stick or not. The Verizon Chevrolet really wasn’t as comfortable for me today as yesterday. I don’t know if it’s the wind. I don’t feel like the track changed at all. I can’t really pinpoint it right now. I do know that we’ll all go to work and take a look at everything to get us in a good place for the race tomorrow. The weather looks to be in question and we won’t know the answers to that until we get there. We’ll plan for everything and go from there.”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH: “I pushed the car 100%, maybe lost one tenth because I got some bad shifting on my quickest lap and I think it cost me a position. When everything is so close, everything has to be perfect. I think it’s still a good day. We made some changes for qualifying and it helped a lot. I think tomorrow with all the rain, starting toward the front is better because of all the spray. We’ll see how it goes with the weather. When it’s raining, it’s a lottery race.”
”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: “It’s a little disappointing for sure not to advance to the Firestone Fast 6. We’ve been quick here in the Menards Chevrolet all weekend and I’m not sure exactly why but we just couldn’t find that same speed in second round qualifying. Starting 12th, I think we’ll have the opportunity to move up quickly tomorrow and with weather as a factor, you never know what can happen. We’ll be working hard to get the best result we can, for sure.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “We definitely made a lot of progress in qualifying. We’ve kind of been hovering around an eighth of a second or a second off the pace so we closed the gap a lot! That was nice, but once again, we came up just a bit shy from advancing. Usually, if you’re within a tenth of Will (Power), you’re right up there at the front! A big thanks to all the guys, Fuzzy’s Vodka, and Chevrolet for letting me do this. It is another midfield starting spot, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow!”

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: “It was very close with Carlos which is nice because we’re fighting to be in the top 12 which is good. We just missed it a little bit. I might have just not recognized that we needed the car we had this morning but we did three laps that were the same; it might have just been a tire pressure thing. Either way when you fight over a small gap like that, I probably could have done something different about it. It’s a shame but Carlos is very good at qualifying so it’s good to have him as part of our team because it really pushes me to improve my performance in qualifying. We’ve always been better in the race so we’ll see what happens.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST: “It’s been kind of a weird weekend. We’ve tried a lot of different things and just can’t get the speed out of the car we’re looking for. It’s frustrating because I really like Watkins Glen and the team finished on the podium here last year, so we were hoping for a bit more. We just can’t manage to get much better lap times out of it. It’s disappointing, but we’ll continue plugging away at it for the rest of the weekend. There should be some fuel saving going on tomorrow so hopefully that is something that works in our favor!”

Press Conference Transcript
Josef Newgarden

Helio Castroneves

THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and get started with our Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone Fast Six press conference.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with our post qualifying press conference. Joined now by Josef Newgarden, who will start third in tomorrow’s race. Josef’s best career start here at Watkins Glen International.

Looked like you were in line for another front row start, but Rossi set that time, bumped back a row. Seems like you’re in a great position for tomorrow’s race.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it’s a super position. I don’t think I’ve ever really had to say this much, but I think I messed up a pole run, to be honest with you. I lost 2 or 3/10ths in the final corner. I don’t remember ever having to say that. I feel pretty stupid in a way, but at the same time a little bit surprised.

I don’t think we expected to be in that pole fight whatsoever. I think we were fighting just to get into the Fast Six today. That was kind of our goal. Knew we had a Fast Six car, knew we could get there, but certainly fighting for the pole, we didn’t expect that.

Once I got going on my lap, I was shocked at how much time we were picking up. It was like projected at an 82.2 going into turn nine. If we want to beat Dixon, I’ve got to get everything out of nine as well. I just deuced it, totally messed it up, lost a couple 10s this. Great lap time, good starting position for us. I feel so silly for messing up what could have been a pole position.

Our car was amazing. I couldn’t believe how good it was in the Fast Six. It was just phenomenal. Great job from our Team Penske crew. Great to have a couple cars in the Fast Six. I think Helio and me are happy about that. Our other two teammates aren’t far behind. Certainly have great spots for the race. We got to focus on that.

THE MODERATOR: Helio Castroneves, starting sixth in tomorrow’s IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen. Three poles here, but still looking for his first win here at The Glen.

Helio, you are the chaser in this situation, but you were able to stick with your primary contenders, Josef and Scott. Are you happy with what you have right now?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, no, definitely Hitachi Chevy work really well together, everyone, as always. When we put the reds on the car, the car was accepting really well. Really, really push it. But suddenly put the black tires, my car did not accept well. It was like I was completely out of here. So that was very frustrating and disappointed not to even have a chance to keep pushing.

But in the end of the day, you know, it’s not about where you start, it’s where you finish. You’re right, the contenders are right there. We’re all together. If it rains tomorrow, a lot of things can happen. You set goals. As Josef alluded to, the top six, that was our goal. Hoping to achieve our goal. But we want to obviously keep improving tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions.

Q. For any driver, Firestone rain tires are new tires that have never been run in a race before. How important will tomorrow morning’s practice session be in the rain, assuming it’s going to rain, since you probably haven’t run those tires before?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: That’s a very good question. I think we going to find out tomorrow. But obviously Firestone does a great job all these years developing sometimes when things doesn’t go well. We going to find out for sure tomorrow. But I have no problem in trusting obviously the engineers.

It will be fun. It will be interesting. It’s been quite a long time we maybe just practice in rain, but not racing. And I think it’s going to be interesting tomorrow.

Q. How much of a guess is it for the drivers, it rains in the morning, you don’t know if it’s going to be raining for the race, so do you go with a full wet setup? How much do you have to guess? How close to the start of the race do you actually make changes to the car looking at the weather forecast?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it will come down to sort of a later decision on setup stuff just depending on how the weather’s progressing. Even from Thursday this week when you’re looking at the weather for the weekend, it’s changed quite a bit.

I’m sure we’ll be watching it closely tomorrow morning and deciding the setup. It’s really probably going to be a mixed bag. If it looks like it’s going to dry out during the race, some guys will run a dry setup, thinking for the long game. Once it dries up, you want to have a dry setup on the car. Other guys might gamble on a full wet. Depends on how everyone views the weather situation. Probably will be a mixed bag between a lot of people. Those decision can be made pretty late up to the race, probably within an hour, hour and a half, you can still tweak on the car a little bit.

Q. With this format, it seems like the challenges in order to be first, you got to go out last. How hard is it to really time your best lap to come so close to the end of the session?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m going to be very honest with you. Helio and me didn’t hear that question. I’m so sorry. We apologize.

Q. With this format, in order to be first, you have to go out last. How hard is it to time that fast lap for the very end?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t think that made a difference today. I think it’s about hitting it right on the lap that you need to. For me specifically, I won’t speak for everyone, but for me specifically I messed it up on the third lap, and that kind of messed up the fourth lap, too.

I don’t think there was a difference in being the last guy, not at this track. It was gripped up for everybody, very stable. Wherever you were in line didn’t really matter. You just want to maximize your run.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: If you’re talking about oval, then you’re right. I don’t think here on the road course or street course makes much of a difference.

Q. Even though he won the Indianapolis 500 last year, are we just now starting to see how good Alexander Rossi is really going to be?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yes, you are. You’re starting to see the real deal here.

No, there he is. I mean, you will for sure. I think this championship is very much rewarding for experience. I think that’s why you’ve seen guys in it for so many years, they don’t tend to drop off as much. It makes more of a difference I would find in the IndyCar Series than others. That’s speaking from only driving in the IndyCar Series. I don’t know how it is in other championships. It seems like that from the outside.

I think Alex is starting to figure things out more and more as we all have. I know for me it’s made a huge difference spending time in the championship. He’s obviously going to be a tremendous competitor many years to come, in my opinion.

Q. Helio and Josef, two races left to go, qualifying is fairly important. Your other two teammates locked in the championship with you as well. Thoughts about Will starting eighth, Simon back in 12th. A little bit of a strange day with half the Penske cars locked in the championship but starting well behind you. Relieve any pressure for you guys or you focus on your own programs?
HELIO CASTRONEVES: As I said before, we’re always working together well. Fortunately as we said, our goal was actually to be in the top six. Once you have that kind of competition, you know, two might be going to be out, one might be going to be in. In this situation, I don’t think it’s anything wrong. Just was unfortunate.

As a championship, qualifying, I don’t think it pays much, especially with what the situation might be tomorrow with rain. I don’t think it’s a problem. At least I’m not focused on, as I say, where you started, but obviously where you finish.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think it’s going to make too much of a difference. Obviously you want to be as far up as you can in the grid. Especially when it’s raining, you’d prefer to be as far up as possible.

I think IndyCar is so shaken up, every time we go racing on a road or street course, especially you throw in rain, what if it turns out tomorrow that it ends up being better to be in the back of the start. You just never know in these races.

I’d like to think we’re in a good position, but our guys are not too far behind us. We’re all kind of clustered in there. Have no idea how it’s going to shake out. People have been asking me about the points lead. I don’t think it’s that big of a lead. I think 31 points is very easy to push past. If I have a bad race tomorrow and Scott wins, he’d come out of here with the points lead.

Tomorrow everyone has to try to maximize what they got to do. We’re going to try to do that as a team. I still think it’s going to come down to Sonoma. That’s where it’s really going to matter. That’s where we’re going to have to have a very strong race.

Q. Josef, although you didn’t get the pole, are you relieved Dixon didn’t get it either?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, every point counts, so for sure I think it helps. It’s small. Small little detail. But it adds up.

But I’m happy we’re in striking distance, for sure. I hope that pans out well tomorrow. Like I was saying before, I think tomorrow could be a very mixed-up day. We have no idea where you actually want to start this race. You would think it would be on the pole and that would be the best thing. But this is IndyCar. We’ve seen a lot of strange things happen in these sort of races. See how it works out.

Q. You talk about how high commitment this place is. I’ve seeing a lot of offs at nine, which is not where I would expect that. Can you make up a lot of time there?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: For me, I thought I had to get everything out of nine, as well. We had done such a big lap up to that. I’m like, If we want to have a shot with these Hondas, we’ve got to get everything out of nine, too. I think it ends up being more of a mistake. Nine is turning into one of those corners where you just need to do it cleanly. I feel like more people are making mistakes there. There’s more to lose there than there is to gain. A lot of us try to gain. We end up dropping wheels. I think the corner sucks you in, the geometry of it. You have a little bit of road extra on the exit. You feel confident, go back to throttle. It ends up sucking you back into a false sense of getting back to throttle. You end up two-wide on the corner dropping wheels. I think that’s why you’ve seen a lot of guys do that.

Probably a bad approach for me. Probably a bad approach from a lot of people this weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. Thank you very much for joining us. Good luck tomorrow.