CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
IOWA CORN 300
IOWA SPEEDWAY
NEWTON, IOWA
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP AND TRANSCRIPT
JULY 8, 2018
Spencer Pigot Puts Chevy on Podium at Iowa
· Pigot Scores Break-Out Runner-Up Finish in Iowa Corn 300
o First top-three finish in Verizon IndyCar Series for Ed Carpenter Racing full-time driver
· Defending Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Newgarden leads race-high 229 laps on way to fourth place finish
o Jumps to second in the standings after 12th race of season
NEWTON, IOWA – July 8, 2018: Spencer Pigot will not forget his first Verizon IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway. After qualifying a disappointing 18th, Pigot, in his first full-time season with Ed Carpenter Racing, and the crew of the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet knew they had a formidable task in front of them when the green flag flew for the Iowa Corn 300.
After 300 grueling laps (268.2-mile) around the tough .894-mile tri-oval, Pigot emerged with his career-first IndyCar podium in his first IndyCar race on the Iowa short-track. His only previous start at Iowa was in 2015 in the Indy Lights Series.
Defending Series’ champion Josef Newgarden qualified his No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet in second, took the lead on lap 24 and looked to be on his way to his fourth win of the season. After leading a race-high 229 laps, tire degradation and changing track conditions opened the door for the top-five in the running order to make a challenge for the win. Newgarden had to settle for a fourth place finish, but the strong run catapulted him to second in the point standings after 12 races.
Pole sitter Will Power brought the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to the finish in sixth place – battling the same changing conditions as the race played-out. The winner of the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and 2014 Series’ champion is fifth in the standings.
Simon Pagenaud finished eighth behind the wheel of the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, and Ed Carpenter brought the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet to the finish in 10th place to give the Chevrolet 2.2 liter twin turbocharged direct injected V6 engines two of the top-four and five of the top-10 finishing positions.
Other Team Chevy drivers finished as follows:
14. No. 23 Charlie Kimball
15. No. 59 Max Chilton
17. No. 14 Tony Kanaan
21. No. 88 Gabby Chaves
22. No. 4 Matheus Leist
James Hinchcliffe was the race winner, and Takuma Sato completed the podium finishers (both Honda).
Next up is the Honda Toronto Indy on the Streets of Toronto, July 15, 2018.
IndyCar Media Conference
Sunday July 8, 2018
Spencer Pigot
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Joined by second- and third-place finishers in today’s Iowa Corn 300, Spencer Pigot, his best career finish in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Let’s start with Spencer, a terrific run. Yes, the car had finished second last year, but you drove a terrific race today.
SPENCER PIGOT: Thank you. Yeah, it was a tough race out there. Right from the get-go, I knew that we had a fast car the way we were able to pass some people through the beginning of the race, and then as the stint went on, I just thought we got kind of stronger and stronger and was really able to close down and pass people. Yeah, I mean, I can’t thank the guys enough. We made a few changes from qualifying yesterday. Obviously that was a little disappointing, but we kept our heads down, and the guys in pit lane did a great job and executed really well. Can’t thank them enough, Fuzzy’s Vodka, Chevrolet, all of our partners, Ed Carpenter Racing. It’s great to be up here on the podium.
We’ve had a season that I think we could have executed a little bit better at times, but today everything went right, and we found ourselves on the podium, so it’s definitely a great feeling.
THE MODERATOR: Did you consider pitting?
SPENCER PIGOT: No, I mean, I didn’t even know what was going on to be honest. I saw people diving off in front of me, and I thought there were guys that were laps down, and I thought I kind of saw Josef’s car and was a little confused there for a second, and when I crossed the line, I didn’t really know where I was, and I was talking with the guys seeing if they wanted me to pit or not, and they said stay out, and obviously it was the right decision. Yeah, I mean, if it had gone green again, it would have been really tricky to hang on at that point because I think we probably pitted on the early end on the last stop to try and jump Takuma and James, but yeah, it would have been tough. I’m glad it didn’t go green again.
Q. Spencer, you said the car became stronger and stronger at the end of the race; was there any significant changes during your stops, engineering-wise?
SPENCER PIGOT: Honestly the only changes we made were new tires. Never touched the wings. I think we might have done a little tire pressure. But they were asking me what I wanted, and I just said, leave it alone. It felt good. I think we’re probably one of the few people out there that didn’t touch the front wing throughout the whole race, and maybe that was a good thing, maybe it was a bad thing. Definitely at the end there it seemed like James and Josef had a little bit more pace than us, but I was comfortable with the car and didn’t really want it to do anything different.
Q. Some important or big changes from qualifying to race to make the car better?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, we definitely made a few changes, nothing crazy, nothing massive, just tried to kind of fine-tune it a little bit. I think last night in the second practice we were a little bit more competitive than the time sheets suggested, so I think we felt cautiously optimistic. Definitely wasn’t sure we were going to have as good of a car as we did, but the changes we made obviously worked out well, and with the heat of the day, we didn’t seem to degrade quite as much as a lot of other guys.
Q. Were you doing some quick math in your head there at the end to try to figure out how many laps were left, how long will the pits be open, how much time will we get to go green, or do you leave that up to the guys on the stand?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, I mean, I have a little counter on my dash that says how many laps we’ve done, so I knew we were getting close to the end. Like I said, I didn’t really think anyone was going to pit. I thought we were pretty close to the end, and I figured we’d all just kind of stay out, and when I saw them pit, I was a little surprised, and the guys just told me to stay out, so at that point you just do what you’re told and see how it unfolds.
Q. That yellow comes out and you’re trying to do the math; how much of a whirlwind of a race was it as it was, and now you’ve got to do math at the end of that? Was that mentally like, okay, let’s get this thing over with, it’s been a long enough day?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, it was a long race, honestly. I was kind of counting down the laps and looking forward to the finish. It was definitely difficult out there. But the when the yellow came out, it was just a small piece of debris, so there was every possibility that the race was going to get restarted, and I was asking the guys how many people behind me pitted and what the situation is with lapped cars because I knew I was running second at that point, and if guys are on new tires, it’s going to be really, really hard to hold them off, especially with how many laps we had on them. Yeah, you just kind of count, see what you have on your dash and listen to what they’re saying and just kind of hope that it works out for you.
Q. Spencer, going back to last season when you got the nod for the full-time entry this year, getting the off-season testing, do you find that this run is more gratifying or more relief given everything that you’ve gone through?
SPENCER PIGOT: Probably a little bit of both, honestly. It’s definitely a great feeling to be on the podium. I think that at certain times the past couple seasons we’ve had the pace to challenge for the podium, and one thing or another happened and it didn’t quite work out, so it’s nice to have it all go smoothly and we were able to really capitalize on everything that was going on. The pit stops were great throughout the race. We had a few close calls, but just close enough to keep going and not have any real issues.
So it’s very satisfying, and yeah, a nice weight off the shoulders to be up here on the podium and have a really good result.
Q. You’ve been pretty level through this since I saw you on pit road after the race. Not a lot of excitement from you, but you’re pretty calm and cool and collected most of the time. Is there some more inside of you?
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, for sure I’m excited. In the car I was pretty pumped up and on the radio to the guys. I was really happy to see everyone when I came back into pit lane, everyone that’s worked so hard for me and for this team to see all the smiles on their faces and they deserve this podium just as much as anyone else. Just really happy for the team at Ed Carpenter Racing, and yeah, I mean, I’m excited, trust me. I’m happy. But hopefully one of these days we’ll be one step higher up.
Q. Spencer, I’m sure Ed is very happy with where you finished, but in terms of your progress as a rookie and coming through with Ed Carpenter Racing, was your car just a lot better than what you’ve had before for this particular race, or have you just become more confident as a driver on these types of tracks?
SPENCER PIGOT: Well, for this particular race, it was improving throughout the weekend, I thought, but this is my first race here since Indy Lights in 2015, so it was nice to come back and have this kind of car and this kind of performance. Definitely it’s been a little bit of a struggle at certain times. Phoenix, another short oval, wasn’t great for us, but this weekend obviously we turned it around, and it’s full credit to the guys, to Ed. He’s really taught me a lot, and he really brings a lot to the table in terms of development and setting up the car. Very happy to be a part of this group, and yeah, like I said, it’s kind of a work in progress every weekend, and this one just kind of happened to work out a little bit better than some others.
Q. Talk about emotion; when you got out of the car, it wasn’t too soon after that your mom found you and she was full of emotion. Talk a little bit about that moment.
SPENCER PIGOT: Yeah, the first time I saw my mom after I got out of the car, she was screaming and running around, and she didn’t even know I was there. I was like, Mom, I’m right here. She’s in the back. I think she’s a little embarrassed. But you know, it’s a huge family effort. They’ve been supporting me, my parents, since I started racing when I was nine years old, and it’s always been a family dream and a family goal to be racing IndyCars. This is the first IndyCar race my dad hasn’t been here for, so he’s missing out, but he’ll be there in Toronto and looking forward to seeing him, and yeah, it’s just — it means a lot to everyone in the family.