CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
INDYCAR GRAND PRIX
ROAD COURSE – INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
MAY 12, 2018
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: BEFORE THIS RACE STARTED, YOU SAID YOU REALLY NEEDED TO HAVE A GREAT RACE. YOU HAD TO MANAGE FUEL AND TIRES AND PATIENCE. HOW GRATIFYING IS IT FOR YOU TO PULL OFF THIS WIN?
“Yeah, it was an amazing race actually. Obvioulsy, Wickens (Robert) came out on reds and I was on blacks and man, I’ve never driven so hard to watch a gap grow. But, obviously when I went to the reds, then I had to try to pass him back. And then, he had to save a lot of fuel at the end and go fast; because I knew how good (Scott) Dixon is at saving fuel and going fast. But the Chevy had great fuel mileage, and I’ve never driven so hard for an entire race. Like I was 100 percent the whole time. I’m exhausted.”
NOT ONLY IS THIS GRATIFYING FOR YOU, BUT ALSO FOR THE TEAM. THIS IS THE 200TH INDYCAR WIN FOR PENSKE. FROM A TEAM PERSPECTIVE, THIRTY OF THOSE ARE YOURS.
“It’s amazing. It just shows what sort of a team Penske is and it’s a real honor to drive for Roger and to be given the equipment week in and week out to win. And so, I can’t thank him enough for the opportunity he has given me, and Verizon as well, it’s been a fantastic ten years.”
WITH THE INDY 500 COMING UP, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THIS GIVE YOU?
“It’s great. It’s great for the whole team; for all the guys on my car and myself to get some momentum. It’s been a bit of a slow start. I remember last time I won this race I finished 2nd in the 500 in 2015 and I felt good all month. So, let’s see if I can go one better.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: “It’s just like I never left, you know? It was great strategy from the team. We started with the blacks and took a gamble. It wasn’t worth it to try to fight because I kind of knew it would have come back. And it did. The team did a phenomenal job staying cool. All my guys did phenomenal pit stops. This is a group that we’re going to have for the 500. So, imagine when you have the guys just showing up and doing the job is incredible. I feel sorry about Simon (Pagenaud). Sato hit me on the back. I lost control on that part of hitting the No. 22 of Simon, but he made a phenomenal comeback. Again, it’s great to be back in Indianapolis and I’m ready to get going.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: “What a day. I can’t believe my luck so far this season. Maybe that is good for Indy 500. I keep saying it. It’s coming up now. Hopefully I get all the luck in the world for the 500. It was an awesome car today, fantastic. I think we could have challenged for the win. It is what it is. We recovered from the first lap incident. They opened the pit andf we pitted, then they threw the green flag that next lap so we couldn’t get back to the pack. The car was very good and the Chevy power was awesome. We managed to finished the race with good fuel consumption and was able to pass Graham Rahal just before start finish because of fuel consumption. Awesome heading to 500.
“Congratulations to Will – he made it three here now! So I have to catch him next year. Also it is the 200th win for Team Penske in IndyCar. It is phenomenal. What a team. It is an honor to be part of it!
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “We had a podium car for sure. It’s tough to throw it away. I think I got too greedy. I had two or three runs on Bourdais. I just got frustrated and too greedy. I thought he was going to give me a little more room. He gave me some, but it wasn’t enough. It is my fault, I think I ruined a podium finish for the No. 1 Verizon Chevy team. But, we recovered what we could. The Chevy power helped.
“The 200th win for Roger and Team Penske is a very big deal. I am happy for Will and his team. Now we go on to preparation for the 500.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15th: “It was a tough start to the race, I arrived at the chicane pretty much side to side with Takuma (Sato) and at that point, there wasn’t much space. I tried to miss the curbing but obviously didn’t and got airborne then spun. It didn’t help our race right there, it kind of ruined it with that incident. After that, we went a lap down and just tried to stay close to the leader so that if there was a yellow, we could take advantage of it and get a lap back. That happened towards the end, and we were able to pass a few guys in the last restart to move up a little bit. Overall, frustrating day, it felt like we had a pretty good pace. The guys did a great job in pit lane and the engineers gave me a good car. Hopefully, we can get the Preferred Freezer car up front for the 500 and move on after this.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “We actually had a good race going but out pit stops were just not up to par. All we gained on track we lost in the pits. We need to address that before the next race.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “Up until the final stages I was really enjoying our race – it was probably the most competitive I’ve ever been in an INDYCAR race racing-wise. I was making some quality moves and I think we got some quality time on-air for the the No.59 Gallagher Chevrolet. Unfortunately today we just lost some time in the pits I think; in particular we had an issue when everyone was pitting under yellow which cost us quite a few spots. It’s a real shame as we had great pace and I think if we’d started further up the field we would have been there the whole day because our pace was definitely top five.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “That was a long race with a lot of green time. I was pretty happy with the changes we made, especially on the red tires. We really struggled for pace on the black tires, so that’s something we’ll have to look at the data and figure out how we improve that aspect of our race. I thought that if it wasn’t for a few mishaps in the pits we’d probably be inside the top-ten. Now we make a few improvements and and I’m really looking forward to the best part of this month.”
KYLE KAISER, NO. 32 NFP JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “So awesome job by the team. We finished our second race now after Long Beach so I am really happy. Overall it was a really physical and really tough race. It felt like it lasted forever. At the end there we had to save fuel, and that was my first time actually saving fuel in the car, so it was a really good learning process. We made a lot of progress and the car felt great. I feel like we have a lot of positive momentum heading into second half of May. I am looking forward to getting on the big oval. Now that we have this behind us, we finished the race, and got the car back in one piece, I am ready to go for the big one.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: “That’s a real shame. We must’ve hit a piece of debris and we ended up cutting the left rear tire on that last stint, so we didn’t get the opportunity to race for the top 10. We worked our way and the guys were awesome in pit lane. We had really good stops all three stops and we had the strategy right. We really improved the car from yesterday to today. It’s disappointing not to get the result, but the performance doesn’t show how good the team and the No. 23 Fiasp Chevrolet was today. I’m ready to move and we’ll take any extra we can get for the next few weekends.”
MATTEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “Today was a tough race. I had a difficult car, dealt with a few issues. Unfortunately, it was not our day again. On to the next one.”
JORDAN KING, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24th: “Unfortunately, we got caught up in someone else’s accident. There really was not anywhere for me to go. Wrong place, wrong time which put an end to our race, really. The pace was good as it has been for the last four races. It all comes together eventually, this is just one of those days that is a bit annoying at the moment.”