CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
DESERT DIAMOND WEST VALLEY CASINO PHOENIX GRAND PRIX
ISM RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
APRIL 7, 2018
POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER
HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU WITH SEVEN LAPS TO GO THAT THOSE NEW TIRES WOULD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?
“Well, I was confident in the team. I don’t think I did anything tonight. This was a team victory. They gave me the pit stops, they had the strategy, I was working with rocket scientist on the pit stand – those guys are awesome, but it was a team effort. I wasn’t sure, you know you never know if you make the right call, but they did, they made the right call. It was good we were on the offense. That Firestone rubber is really good when it’s new. It’s good when it’s old too, but I like it better when it’s new. It’s really cool to have Verizon on the car for Victory Lane here. Just everyone, all of our supporters, Tim (Cindric) he was making calls it’s a good night for all of us at Team Penske.”
HOW ABOUT THAT MOVE ON THE OUTSIDE?
“I was patient all night. I wasn’t forcing it. I struggled with the balance in certain parts of the stint. We were just working on the car. The engineers were doing a really good job getting it back and I knew when it was time to be aggressive was at the end there. I just kept trying to understand what (Robert) Wickens was doing. I was a little bit nervous about going high there in (Turn) 1 because the marbles were building. You don’t want to make a mistake going to the outside, but I had to do that. He was defending the inside and it worked out perfect. I’m telling you it is all down to Team Penske tonight. I didn’t do anything.”
TO DEFEND THE CHAMPIONSHIP HOW KEY TO WIN THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON?
“I mean we got one today. We had a great car. I don’t know that I was able to drive it to a victory tonight. I didn’t feel like… I felt like a podium contender. It was probably more on me, I just couldn’t get the balance into the car, but when you can win on a night like that, that shows the strength of the team and if we can keep doing that, capitalizing on nights like this, we are going to be just fine for 2018.”
WALK US THROUGH THAT FINAL PIT STOP:
“I trust him (Tim Cindric) for sure, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know how many people were going to not pit. With 50 laps it’s good to have new Firestone rubber. It works well when it’s old, but it’s so much better when it’s new. That helped me out a lot tonight. We had everything, we had the whole package, the Team Chevy power. We had the fuel mileage from Team Chevy that we needed, just being able to have Verizon on the car finally and getting victories for them feels so good. They have done so much for this sport and so much for Team Penske, it’s a Team Penske win tonight. I’m telling you that, it wasn’t me, this was a team effort tonight that got it done.”
ON THE RACE:
“Yeah, I think the thing is Tim (Cindric) really knew what was going on. We got kind of undercut on I think it was the second pit stop sequence. A lot of guys got in front of us because we went long and then I think our team, they knew what happened there, so we just flipped the script and it basically jumped everyone on the last stop. That got us ahead and we had the fuel mileage from Chevy, which was awesome. Able to finish it off and just good strategy calls tonight. Great in the pits. I mean the pit stops, I think, are what won this race as well it was just the execution there.”
AND AS YOU SAID THE FIRESTONES WERE FANTASTIC:
“Oh man, always. Like I said, they work well when they are old, but man they work so nice when they are new. It was good to have that when other guys had 50 lap tires. It was certainly the ingredient I needed.”
ON THE AUTOGRAPH WAR WITH SIMON PAGENAUD:
“Well, I joked with him, I signed his car two weeks ago without his knowledge and then I told him about it yesterday and I think it was a mistake because I made it quicker. And then he signed my suit tonight and he might have made me faster for the race. I guess it worked out in the end.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH:
“This was really a race where you had to race your own car. We were able to get a Top 10 out of it and stayed on the lead lap, which is really hard to do when you start at the back on a short oval. We were just trying to have a clean race, I felt like that would give us a chance to work forward and it mostly did. We just ran out of steam at the end. I screwed up a little bit on my in-lap on the second-to-last pit stop and that maybe cost us a position. Then, I just couldn’t get Hinch after that last restart. I really don’t like the blocking rules on ovals, I don’t think there’s a place for it in oval racing. We can’t seem to get away from it, but it is what it is. There’s a lot of positives to take away from this. The Fuzzy’s Vodka guys had great pit stops all night. We ended last season on some bad luck so it’s nice to be able to roll the car on the truck. We have a little more work to do on our short oval package, but I’ll take tonight’s finish.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH:
“It was a big improvement for the team, we’ve been aiming to finish in the top 10 and we did that tonight. We have our struggles and there are things we need to fix and we’re doing it one piece at a time. I think we had a great weekend, we were in the top six all weekend long. I’m happy with the progress but there’s a lot more work to do.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARD’S TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST PIT STOP?
“Yeah, I mean we practiced all weekend and then I don’t know it was super slippery out of nowhere. I took it easy because I knew I was in good position. There was no intention to going hard and trying to gain a position on (Sebastien) Bourdais at the time, but it slid. Nothing I could have done different if given the opportunity. I think, I’m trying to replay it in my head and think how I could have done better, but it was just super slippery, unexpected, but it is what it is. Opportunity from that moment on being shuffled back there we had too much understeer in the car and I couldn’t get rid of it during the race. We got better at the end, but it was just too late. It was a shame. Congrats to Josef (Newgarden) and Team Penske it is great that we got a win already in the season, but yeah, a little frustrated and disappointed frankly with such a good car this weekend.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED THE CAR TOOK SUCH A BIG SWING?
“A lot of it was track position today. It was one lane racing it was really hard. You couldn’t run high, so you couldn’t really get clean air on your wings to make grip on the car. Then sometimes I had six cars in front of me and I just couldn’t get the balance right on the car, which I think was the case for everybody we passed a few cars, but it just wasn’t enough. I think (Alexander) Rossi was strong for sure, he could pass, but we were probably the second most passed, but track position is everything, we didn’t have that.”
ON THE AUTOGRAPH WAR WITH JOSEF NEWGARDEN:
“I am going to sign my own suits then (laughs). Maybe that will pay off for the next race at Long Beach.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH:
“That was definitely a difficult race. At the beginning, it was so tricky and I was really on edge. We made the car a bit better throughout the race. We just struggled with having the grip and balance to get close to guys and run in the pack after the peak grip of the tires wore off. The good things is we finished the race and brought the car home. Now we have to look forward to Long Beach and get back to running up at the front.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH:
“It was a long and trying night for us. In spite of not having the race we wanted to have, we were able to learn a lot of things that will help us develop the car and move forward faster. We hung in there, learned and gained a lot. Now we’ll keep our heads up and look forward to the next one, turn the page and keep moving forward to Long Beach.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH:
“Tonight’s race was definitely a step in the right direction for us. We made some progress with the set-up and by the end of the race the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet felt the best it had all weekend. We learned a lot and we got a huge amount of information that will help us moving forward.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH:
“It was a tough weekend for the team, but every time we’re on track we’re learning and making progress. That race was just tough. We didn’t qualify well and starting so far back on the grid on a track that’s already difficult to pass on made it even harder to gain any positions. By the end of the race we had quite good pace, we just couldn’t move forward at all. I’m ready to move on from tonight’s race and get to Long Beach to see what we can do there.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH:
“My first oval done, my first complete race in IndyCar done, so lots of new stuff learned. We made a lot of passes which was good, not too many guys were passing. I was feeling good physically in the car, I’m not tired at all. Today wasn’t our day, wasn’t my day, but I want to say thanks to the team. I think we had a car to finish in the top seven. Onto Long Beach now.”
KYLE KAISER, NO. 32 JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST:
“Obviously, I’m a little disappointed with the way things ended, but I am extremely happy with how the car was and effort from the team. I think we had a really nice race car. We had strong pace and were running times with the guys who were running up front. The Chevy engine was great the whole time. We had some good runs and got some good passes in and I learned a ton. I’m a rookie with a rookie team so we are out here on a super steep learning curve. Being able to go out there and run that many laps and learn as much as I did was very valuable. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car at Long Beach and building on what we learned from this weekend.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU GOT INTO THE WALL?
“Yeah, actually (Alexander) Rossi was a lap down trying to get his lap back and he went very late there and actually I was on the brakes when he was beside me into the corner and like seriously I can’t believe that was like ice. Like I really didn’t think I would make the wall, but if you get up in the marbles there is like no chance. I was going very slow. Unfortunately, it damaged the car. I mean we had a good car. I think we definitely would have had a top five. I feel bad for the guys to have that happen this early in the season. We have kind of had a bad start, but move on to Long Beach and Barber, we’ve got some good ones coming up so we can get back in the game.”
THIS YEAR THIS TRACK AND THIS SERIES TRIED A TIRE DRAGON TO CREATE A SECOND GROOVE. WHAT OTHER IDEAS DO YOU HAVE TO PROMOTE PASSING HERE?
“Yeah, I think they need to run a session where they say you get a free set of tires, a 15 or 20-minute session before final practice and say you can only run the second lane. I think that is the only way you can bring that in. It’s a one groove track. I think IndyCar has done a fantastic job with the car, like the turbulence is way less and there probably was a bit more passing now, but it’s tough. Without a second lane and if you get a little bit up there you end up in the wall it’s just no one wants to take the risk, but I have to say the car has been really good. I think IndyCar did a great job.”