CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
102ND RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DAY 1 PRACTICE TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MAY 15, 2018
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It is fun to be back out here. It was a busy day. Had a couple of weather issues, but we got a lot of laps. I think it was a good start for us in the Verizon Chevrolet. All of us did our own thing today which is a good thing. It means we can all come together tonight and pick apart everybody’s problems and hear everyone’s proposed solutions. The more we can put our minds together, the more we can fine-tune it, but the better we will be at the end of the week. Good start to build on.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “We started right away with a good pace. Good job everyone. Running issue free. We still have a long way to go, but it was a very base test with the new car actually with traffic and everything. Looking forward to another day tomorrow.so we continue to work and pursue that right result.”
MATHUES LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: No on-track time today
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: T: “We went through a lot of big stuff, zeroing in on what we need. We’ll make some changes overnight and continue down the path to try to make it good in traffic.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 13 GODADDY ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “I’m glad the test ended up getting moved to two weeks ago instead of six weeks ago just to be a little bit more fresh from that. I felt pretty good. I’m still not completely confident in traffic. They’re trying to encourage me to use my tools and the bars, you know, the weight jacker and things. I need to feel the traffic first; before we create another variable as to what’s going on, I need to familiarize myself and get sharp again with the traffic and just the tendencies of the car. I felt like it was a really solid day. We tried a handful of things and found some stuff that worked. I feel like the car has a lot of good natural speed in it. It was very smooth.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FFOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “”Today was a slow day for us. We have a brand new car that we’ve been ‘massaging’ this entire season just to bring it out here. First days are always slow like this. We did a couple runs then you go back to the paddock and examine the car. Then, the rain came and we decided to end our day. The boys [on the #14 car] have been working very hard so we decided to give them a few hours off so that they can rest and we can begin fresh tomorrow. All in all, it was a good day for us. I’m happy with the car. The balance of the car is pretty good. We will see what happens tomorrow.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “It was kind of a weird day – I almost feel like this is Day Two for some reason! I was pretty happy starting off. As we always do around here, we made changes to try and get better. We probably got a little worse, then we finally got onto some things at the end of the day. That’s why we have to keep working out here and try to get the feel for what we want. All in all, it was a good first day. I need to go talk to my teammates and compare what we all got in to over the course of the day. For Day One, it’s a good start, but I feel like there’s a lot more in the car, too!”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: ““It was a pretty good day. We made a lot of changes and got a lot of reads on different things we wanted to test. We got a fair amount of running in traffic, behind a couple cars, then behind a dozen cars so lots of information for me to think about as well as the team. Overall, it’s a pretty solid start and hopefully we can get a lot more done tomorrow.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “The 22 Menards car is looking really, really fast. It was a very productive day. So, yeah, felt pretty happy. We obviously still learning a lot about the aerodynamics of the car. It’s quite different to what we had the past few years. There’s still a lot to learn for everybody, I believe. But we’re on the right track.
“I tell you what, feel pretty confident already, which is a big step forward. It’s definitely important to be already ahead of the game if we have some weather this week. I think that could be very important.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 FIASP CARLIN CHEVROLET: ““It was a solid first day, despite dodging some weather and a couple of things here and there. We made some really good with the No. 23 Fiasp Chevrolet and I have a lot of confidence going into the rest of the week. We still have a long laundry list of test items to work through, but we seem to be addressing the big concerns. Now we’ll start focusing on the smaller things and start trying to find some lap time.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 WIX FILTERS DRR CHEVROLET: “Car wasn’t too bad. It has a really good balance when I ran by myself. So we started with that and then tried to trim out and gain more speed by myself. Once I felt comfortable there, I ran with traffic. This was the first time I ran in traffic with the new car and it’s interesting. It looks like everyone is dealing with the same issue, which is the lack of front grip. These new cars, when you don’t have clean air, you lose a lot of front grip. That’s the battle for everyone right now is to find front grip. Overall, first day back and P6. We’re in the ballpark. Speeds or times don’t mean anything yet, but it’s good to see us high on the pylon is a good feeling. But, it’s early so hopefully we keep it up and we’ll see what happens.”
KYLE KAISER, NO. 32 NFP/JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET: “g: “So it wasn’t the perfect first day, but I am glad we got to go out and run some laps and get a feel for the car. The car felt fairly different from what we ran a couple of weeks ago because the conditions have changed, so it’s going to take a little bit of work to get the car back to where we like it. Overall we got to log some laps and collect some data. I know this is going to be important in qualifying for the race and then running the race. Overall I am happy, but there’s some work to be done. I am very happy the team got the NFP car together and there were no issues on track. I am looking forward to getting back out on track the rest of the week and getting ready for qualifying.”
JAMES DAVISON, NO. 33 JONATHAN BYRD’S 502 EAST FOYT WITH BYRD/HOLLINGER/BELARDI CHEVROLET: ““I think the 33 AJ Foyt/Byrd/Hollinger/Belardi team has a lot to be pleased with. For the majority or all of the one-off Indy entries, it’s been a mad scramble to get everyone’s cars together. Then of course you have a whole new crew that have got to gel together and build chemistry. These first days provide opportunities for gremlins to pop up, with the build of your car and so on and we had none of that. I’m very pleased with that, and any performance that we were able to show was just going to be a bonus. We ended up getting a good speed there, improved the car constantly through the day. I was holding on to do a 217 if I was lucky to begin with, when I first got in the car. Then I was much more comfortable with it and went a few miles per hour quicker straight away. Very proud of the team and looking forward to building on it again tomorrow, leading up to qualifying.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET: ““I’d say it was a productive first day of Indy 500 testing for the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet and really the whole Carlin team. We worked through a lot of things today that we wanted to check off our list and we ended the day in a good spot heading into tomorrow. Charlie had some quick times throughout the day, so we’ll sit down now and work through what worked and what didn’t and get ready to get back on track tomorrow morning.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 66 SALESFORCE DRR CHEVROLET: ““I felt good today with the car. We got up to speed quickly. Lot of familiar faces for me here at Dreyer & Reinbold. I made my IndyCar debut with DRR back in 2010. We have a lot of the same guys I have worked with the last few years too at ECR. I felt good with how rolled out of the gates and it went from there.”