CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY 200
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
LEXINGTON, OHIO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER
POST FRIDAY PRACTICE QUOTES
JULY 27, 2018
LEXINGTON, OHIO – Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and Spencer Pigot, No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, led the Team Chevy contingent through two rounds of practice for Sunday’s Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. The paid were second and fourth in the running order at the conclusion of practice.
The final Verizon IndyCar Series practice is set for 10 a.m., Saturday, July 28 followed by Firestone Fast Six Qualifications at 1:35 p.m. NBCSN will telecast qualifications live at 1:30 p.m. as well as broadcast on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, RaceControl.IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com, the INDYCAR Mobile app, Sirius 214, and XM209.
The race will start at 3:30 p.m., Sunday, July 29. CNBC will telecast the 90-lap (203.22-mile) race on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course live at 3 p.m. July 29, with a taped telecast at 6:30 p.m. on NBCSN. The race will also be broadcast on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, RaceControl.IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com, the INDYCAR Mobile app, Sirius 214, and XM209.
DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – “It was an alright day. We need to be a little better. We seem to struggle to find exactly what we want. But I think we got the best in the business to figure it out. So I feel optimistic in the No. 1 Hitachi Chevy. I think we’ll get there. We just got a little bit of work to do tonight. We’ll focus on that and try and come back better tomorrow.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET — “Practice was difficult, we were struggling a little bit with the car setup. I think we might have a good direction for tomorrow. We just have to keep working hard and improving the car and hopefully we’ll have a good qualifying session which is very important because it’s very difficult to pass here.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – “I think we’re kind of in the window. Still searching a bit to be honest. The No. 12 Verizon Chevy was good on alternate tires and not bad on primary tires. There’s a big difference between the tires. The primaries have just been difficult to get the right balance on. I think we’ll have a good look tonight and see what direction we go in.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET — “We tested here and thought we made some improvements but it didn’t work today. We need to regroup tonight.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET — “The car seemed to have a pretty good balance in the high speed sections and in the longer corners like the Carousel and the Keyhole. That’s where we have struggled before, we we’re working on keeping the car rotating for a long duration of time. The car feels really good in the corners. We’re still going to be looking for a little more front grip but so far for me, it’s been okay. It’s easy to lose grip around here, if you overdo it. If you overdrive the car, the grip goes away quickly, so you have to stay right around the limit. We’ll have a good weekend if everything continues to go smooth and according to plan!”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET — “It’s difficult. We’re trying to find the best way around the track and we just have to find the right compromise for all of these different corners. There’s high speed corners and low speed corners and a lot of elevation changes so we are to trying to find the best compromise to link the whole track together. There are sections where we are really good so we need to understand how we can make it better everywhere. There’s certainly fierce competition again this weekend but I’m sure we’ll get the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet there tomorrow.
“I think the new car is a great package. I think it’s a bit more complicated to find the right setup and balance so that requires a bit more head-scratching but I think it’s going to be good racing. I think it’s going to be similar to the last few years. It’s just going to be a little faster down the straightaway and a little slower in the corners.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET — “It was a decent start to the weekend. It was a little tough during that second session with all of the red flags. We just didn’t get the lap time we thought the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet was capable of, but we’ll learn overnight and see what can be improved before qualifying tomorrow afternoon. We’ll look at what the No. 59 car did today, figure out how to be better, and make a plan for tomorrow.”
RENE BINDER, NO. 32 HD BELLETS JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET — “Today it was a little tricky during both sessions. There were a lot of red flags so it made it hard to have enough time to lay down a good lap. We are going to go back through the data we gained today and put it towards our strategy tomorrow for qualifying.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET — “It was a challenging couple of sessions for us today. Obviously this morning we showed good pace, but didn’t end up where we wanted to on the timing sheet. We struggled with a bit of balance issues in both sessions today that we didn’t see when we tested here last week. We’re going to work on getting to the bottom of that overnight and try to correct it before we head out tomorrow morning. There were a lot of reds and yellows in both sessions which didn’t help us, but we did a long run and our tires seemed to last a little bit better than some of the other cars. Fingers crossed we can qualify as well as we did when we tested here last week. Mid-Ohio is a track that I enjoy driving, so I’m hoping for a top-10 finish on Sunday.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET — Today we tried something vastly different from the test and I don’t think it was the right direction, but at least we eliminated a direction that we were wanting to try. Hopefully we can now go back to what we were running at the test and get another good feel for the car tomorrow. Realistically we had a better session than a lot of other drivers, there were a lot of cars struggling out there, so it’s good to be able to continue to do laps and hopefully we keep improving.”