CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
GOPRO GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 16, 2017
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HUM BY VERIZON CHEVROLET – Pole Winner
WHEN YOU LEARNED YOU WON THE POLE, WHAT DID YOU SAY?
“I don’t know what I said.”
YOU SAID, ‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME?’
I don’t even remember what I said, to be honest with you. I was just hoping we could get one of these this year. We’ve been close a couple of times. At a couple of places I felt we had the speed to do it and we didn’t get it done. And, today we had our backs against the wall. You know, we were making the best decisions we could. We were first out. I think it would have been risky for us to save a set of reds like the second group. And we knew we knew we’d be on our back foot there in the Fast Six. But, this car was phenomenal. It’s cool because this is the Verizon P-1 award. I’ve been driving a Hum car many races this year by Verizon and I haven’t been able to get it in this place, so I’m happy to have those guys on board. They do so much for this sport. And it’s a good start for our weekend.”
YOUR TEAMMATES ALL HAD STICKER REDS IN THE FIRESTONE FAST SIX. DID YOU THINK AT ALL ABOUT TRYING TO GET THROUGH ROUND 2 ON THAT SET OF SCUF REDS; AND THEN HOW DID YOU BEAT THEM ON SCUFS IN THE FAST SIX?
“Well, I asked the question. I think we were all thinking maybe we can do something to get those new reds for the Fast Six. I think for us, it was too risky of a play. And we didn’t want to put ourselves further back than the top 6. We knew if we could secure that, we’d be good. So, we didn’t want to do it. But then we were like, we’re going to have to take our medicine. We made our bed already from the first round. Like I said, the car was so good we did two attempts on both red tires and that second set of reds was just money. It was too good.”
DOES THIS EASE ANYTHING GOING INTO TOMORROW? DOES THIS CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK OR YOUR APPROACH OR YOUR EMOTIONAL PERSPECTIVE?
“No, this is IndyCar racing. Anything can happen. So, we’ve checked one thing off the box this weekend. We’ve got one big one to check off tomorrow. And then, if everything goes according to plan, we’ll see where we end up at the end.”
HAVE YOU ALLOWED YOURSELF TO THINK ABOUT A CHAMPIONSHIP YET?
“You always think about it. If you tell me not to think about it, I’m going to think about it. So, it’s difficult to not envision it, but I think for us, we’ve got to get through the race. We’ve got to have a good race car. Qualifying is one thing. Having speed is one thing. Winning the race is a whole other deal. So, we’re going to work hard with this Team Penske group. We’ve got four guys very capable of getting it done. For the Captain and for everyone at the factory, we want to make sure one of these Team Penske cars wins the championship. So, that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”