CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
ABC SUPPLY 500
POCONO RACEWAY
LONG POND, PA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER
POST RACE QUOTES
AUGUST 19, 2018
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND:
YOU CAME AS CLOSE AS YOU COULD TO WINNING THREE IN A ROW. BUT THE PIVOTAL POINT IN THE RACE WAS YOUR LAST PIT STOP
“Yeah, that’s when I actually thought we’d be able to jump him again, but I got caught up with a lapped car coming out of the out lap and almost went to the wall, and came back; and then had a mis-shift on the out lap. It was just a terrible exchange altogether. I wasn’t quite good enough in traffic. (Alexander) Rossi was very good running in traffic. We just had way too much push. So yeah, that’s all we could do. The guys did a great strategy. We went long. That’s how we jumped in but weren’t quite good enough in traffic, but it was a great day for the Verizon guys.
ROSSI GOT A BIG RUN AND IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD TROUBLE GOING INTO TURN 2
“Yeah, out of (Turn) 1 was my biggest problem. The push off of (Turn) 1 is where I had just bad exits for a couple of laps and he just got a good run. You both go into (Turn) 2 and it’s just a bad corner so it’s just a hard situation. I kind of didn’t make a big deal of it.”
YOU ARE 81 POINTS BEHIND WITH THREE RACES TO GO
“Isn’t it unbelievable? Like I’ve had two really good results and Scott Dixon just never has a bad day. In those last three races I needed to have a bad day to even have a shot. But we’ve been running strong.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH:
THE DAY STARTED WITH A LOT OF PROMISE WITH YOU ON THE FRONT ROW BUT THROUGHOUT THE DAY YOU WERE SAYING ‘UNDER STEER’ AND OVER STEER’ ON THE RADIO. IT SOUNDED LIKE A HANDFUL
“Yeah, it was just a tough day. We didn’t have anything for anybody. We were scrapping to keep that top 5. That was the big thing for us. I was driving my butt off and I think the team was trying everything they could to help me and this was all we had. Will looked like he gave (Alexander) Rossi a good run for his money, which was great. It was just not enough. So we’ll look at everything. It’s always kind of tough right after this type of race. You don’t have all the facts and you want to go back through the data and try to figure out what you can do better next time. So, that’s what we’ll do. But, I’m thankful that all the fans stuck around to watch this race. We’ll work hard for these last three now.”
IT WAS ALMOST 190 LAPS AFTER THE LONG DELAY, OF GREEN FLAG RACING. HOW DIFFICULT IS THAT AND IS IT EVEN HARDER WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR CAR BETTER THAT THERE ARE NO CAUTIONS TO RE-GATHER?
“It is harder. You get shuffled back and then you can’t recover. So, we lost a lot of ground that we could have recovered. The big thing was that I couldn’t get by anybody. I just could not make any moves on anybody. That really set me back. I might have been able to keep up if I could have cleared some traffic, but I couldn’t do that. So, that was the tough part today. It wears on you. My right side it pretty worn out for 190 laps, but that’s all right. That’s just how it goes.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 SHELL/CHEVROLET MARKETPLACE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: “We got damaged in that first crash and we had to change the tow link which the guys did an amazing job – we didn’t lose a lap. We restarted in the back, and it was very, very difficult to move forward. I don’t know if there was more damage under the car. We will check at the shop. I think that was the best we could do today with what we had. It was unfortunate without yellows. Just not much we could do. I was so proud to drive the Shell Chevrolet Marketplace car. It is what it is, we will go to Gateway to bounceback!”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “First off, my thoughts and prayers are with Robert. I really hope he’s okay and recovers quickly, because he’s been a huge addition to the series this year. Overall, the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet just fought all day. The guys did a great job on pitlane and they got me two stops on that last stop. I’m really proud of the effort the whole team has put in this weekend, especially with only running one hour worth of practice and going straight into qualifying and 500 miles with tough weather conditions. They gave me a car that was really solid to start with and we were able to bring home another top-10 for the team. We had a really good test at Gateway a few weeks ago, so I’m excited to get back out there next weekend and hopefully bring home another good result.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “It was a very long day! Early in the race, I thought we were going to be okay. We had the speed to run with the cars in front of us and were even close to leader pace. We lost some track position in the pits which didn’t put us in a great spot. We tried to go off-strategy and pit outside of a fuel window, but with it staying green, we ended up having to run slow to save fuel the rest of the day. I don’t think we had a winning car but I feel we had a borderline Top 5 car instead of just a Top 10 car. Unfortunately, it was just a long second half of the race with riding around to save fuel and try and stay out of the leaders’ way.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “Great to be racing here at Pocono; we had great support from the fans mainly from the ABC Supply family. We didn’t have the fastest car – maybe top 10 but 11thplace is okay. Looking forward to Gateway now. We’ll try to maximize everything and get our first top 10 under our belts.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “That definitely felt like a 500 mile race, especially with that time delay. Obviously my thoughts are with Robert after the earlier accident, which shook everyone up a bit. I think it was a good thing that we were able to put on a bit of a show for the fans though, although it probably wasn’t the most exciting race. Good job by the safety crews to get the fence repaired in time to allow us to race today. I felt like at times we were quick and during some stints we struggled a bit when I had to let the leaders by, but I tried to make the most of what we had. It’s another 500 mile race under the team’s belt and essential experience at a track the team has never been to before. We’ve tested at Gateway before so we’re aiming to get the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet nearer the front next weekend.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: “It was obviously a tough day for us. We had to go into the race with almost no track time, so it was a big guess. At every stop we put in a lot of front wing. We just kept trying to adjust, but still just struggled with the front of the car. I think by ourselves our pace was good, and we were maintaining a decent spot for where we were on track. I had one chance to pass someone for position and went for it with Ed, but I had no front grip at all and then clipped it. It’s a shame. You hate to end your day like that, thankfully the car wasn’t badly damaged, just small stuff. I would love another shot at it because I think there are some positives to our car and some positives to what we have, I just don’t think we had enough time to evaluate everything.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “The guys did a great job getting the Fuzzy’s Vodka car fixed. At the end of the day, there was really nothing else we could do in terms of improving our position and there was no need to risk anything else. That was always the plan, to go out and do a few laps and gain the positions we could. Unfortunately, our race was over before it began. The car had a lot of damage to the right rear and never felt quite right when we went back out. It’s extremely disappointing, you come here wanting to continue some good momentum we’ve had the last handful of races, but we never got that shot. We’ll have to look forward to Gateway next weekend and try to rebound there.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “We had a throttle sensor failure so I lost all power and unfortunately it was going to take 15-20 minutes to change it that we were going to be so many laps down that we decided to park it. It’s a shame. We were really looking forward to this race. We have a lot of ABC (Supply Co.) employees here supporting us. It’s racing, sometimes you have one of those things. We haven’t had a mechanical issue all year. That’s unfortunate that it happened here.”