CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
ABC SUPPLY 500
POCONO RACEWAY
LONG POND, PA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER
POST QUALIFYING RECAP
AUGUST 18, 2018
Power Wins Pole at Pocono; Newgarden Second Quick to Make All-Chevy Front Row for the Sixth Time in 2018 Season
LONG POND, Pa.: Will Power just likes to go fast…faster than anyone else. For the third time this season and the 53rd time in his career the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion and driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet will lead the field to the green flag.
Power’s blistering two-lap average of 219.511 mph/1 minute, 22.0006 seconds total time secured his first Verizon P1 Award at Pocono Raceway and his ninth front-row starting position of the 2018 season.
Defending series champion Josef Newgarden put his No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet second in the final order to give the Chevrolet 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged direct injected V6 engine a total of six all-Chevrolet front rows this season.
Other Chevrolet qualifiers are:
No. 22 Simon Pagenaud 5th
No. 14 Tony Kanaan 14th
No. 20 Ed Carpenter 15th
No. 21 Spencer Pigot 16th
No. 23 Charlie Kimball 19th
No. 4 Matheus Leist 20th
No. 59 Max Chilton 21st
No. 88 Conor Daly 22nd
NBCSN will telecast the 200-lap ABC Supply 500 race on the 2.5-mile tri-oval live at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, 8/19/2018. The race will also be broadcast on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, RaceControl.IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com, the INDYCAR Mobile app, Sirius 98, and XM209.
IndyCar Media Conference
Saturday August 18, 2018
Will Power
Josef Newgarden
Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: Joined now by our pole winner and reigning Indy 500 champion Will Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. His first pole here at Pocono, but he is a two-time winner here, in fact has won the last two races here in a row, and also the last three 500-mile races in the Verizon IndyCar Series, making his ninth front row start. With his 53rd career pole, ties A.J. Foyt for all time second on the poles list. How does that sound?
WILL POWER: Sounds very cool. I never thought I’d be up in that sort of company. To be next to A.J. Foyt’s name, I wouldn’t have expected that when I started my career. So amazing.
THE MODERATOR: Mario is at 67. How do you feel about that? Is that attainable?
WILL POWER: I thought about that. I thought about how many times I’ve lost pole by like a hundredth this year. But it is possible to reach that. That would be amazing. I don’t know, but just happy to be next to A.J. Foyt.
THE MODERATOR: Qualifying run today, quite a bit faster than your teammate Josef Newgarden. When did you find in those laps that gave you that speed?
WILL POWER: I trimmed out a bit more. Obviously the car was handling reasonably well. Very, very good, solid first lap, big first lap. Obviously dropoff in the second lap. Had to lift out of one, but still fast.
We just nailed the gear and everything for that run, so it was very nice.
THE MODERATOR: Like I mentioned, you come in here as the winner of the past two races here at Pocono Raceway. You are contending for a championship. You have a little bit more work to do than some of your other competitors. Do you feel an extra level of confidence when you come into a place like Pocono?
WILL POWER: I really enjoy the track. It’s such a competitive series. You never know how you’re going to stack up week in, week out. We’ve been quick everywhere. I expect to be running at the front tomorrow.
We just need to have a good day in relation to Scott, because that’s the points deficit that we need to close. Couple of guys in front of me that are easily able to be caught, but Dixon’s lead is pretty big for me. I need him to have a bad run, I need to have a good run, have a good shot at him at the last race.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Will.
Q. What have your thoughts been about this new aero kit, especially today?
WILL POWER: I think they nailed it in a lot of respects. It looks better. It definitely performs better as far as racing goes. Obviously they’re still tweaking on a few things for certain tracks, but all in all it’s a very nimble, fun car to drive.
I think Jay Frye, Bill Pappas, Tino Belli really have done a great job this year in every respect. Such a strong group on the competition side to have at IndyCar.
Q. From practice to qualifying, around five miles quicker. You mentioned gear and trim. Was this the main reason why you went quicker in qualifying?
WILL POWER: Yeah. I didn’t get a good run in practice because of the yellow at the end. I was just in traffic. I didn’t really have a feel for how much we should trim, how difficult it was going to be.
Yeah, it was just the fact I was in total clear air there. It was the potential of our car.
Q. Hows noticeable are the seams out there? How hazardous can they be in the race?
WILL POWER: I think there’s a seam going into three that rubbers up pretty well anyway. I mean, this track takes rubber well. The track starts out quite difficult, then by the end of the race, as you saw last year, it starts to become really hooked up. It’s good racing.
All the seams and bumps and that sort of thing is real character for tracks. When they’re dead smooth, yeah, it’s all right, but it’s just the way it is.
Q. Is this almost like driving a road course with all left hand turns because it does take some finesse?
WILL POWER: It does, yeah. It’s like Indianapolis in that respect, you’re taking a racing line. It’s not kind of like a mile-and-a-half oval, but it’s a very cool, unique track. I really enjoy it. It’s a great layout. We have really good racing here. It’s fun to drive.
Q. Obviously you had a very quick car today. How much does weather, cloud cover, play a role in what you were able to accomplish here today?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I think weather and rubber. Obviously the cooler the track, the better it is. The more rubber that goes down, the better it is. For sure, if you’re at the tail end of the run, the cars going out, you’re going to have a better track. Incrementally slowly gets better, yeah. That’s the way it is.
They don’t draw it out of a hat any more, which is great. You earn your position in the line.
Q. What kind of race do you expect tomorrow? I know at Indy there wasn’t as much passing this year as there was in the previous year. How do you think it’s going to be here with this new package?
WILL POWER: It’s difficult to say. I think this car drafts really well. Just didn’t get a feel for it in practice. I think it will be good racing, similar to Indy. I mean, Indy this year, with the worst-case scenario as far as grip goes, it was such a hot day. Doesn’t matter what body kit you have on a hot day like that, it’s difficult with a track temp that high.
Seems like a pretty nice day tomorrow as far as being cool. So, yeah, we’ll see. Time will tell.
Q. New front wing configuration, was the team able to do simulations before you came?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I’m sure they ran it in the wind tunnel, got as much information as they could. As you saw, a few different configurations of the bits you’re allowed to use. Every wind tunnel gets different reads. Yeah, just put the front wing in a better range basically.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Thank you very much.
WILL POWER: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We will get started with our post qualifying press conference. Joined by Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet for Team Penske, reigning series champion and also ties his best career start here at Pocono Raceway. Also his sixth front row start in the 2018 season.
Josef, it seemed like Team Penske in particular had a lot of speed coming out to qualifying this weekend. How did you feel about your qualifying effort?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, pretty happy with it. We had a good run. I was really happy with my two laps. Just wasn’t enough for pole, unfortunately. I felt good going into it. I thought we’d have a good run. With where it stands, it’s great. 1-2 for Team Penske, can’t be mad about that. We have a good start for tomorrow.
Now we just work on our racecar, try to get that dialed in as best as we can, see what we can do for 500 miles.
THE MODERATOR: Your mentality is to take one session at a time. What is your mindset coming into this weekend knowing the championship is going down to the final few races?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Same as always: maximize the result for the weekend. We have to focus on building a fantastic car in the race. If we have that, try to get the most out of that. If we have a first place car, try to finish first. If we have a fifth place car, try to finish fifth or better. We’ll try to maximize our performance capability for tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Coming into the weekend, weather was a bit of an uncertainty. Things appear to be clearing up for tomorrow. What are your expectations on what we might see in the race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I hope the weather holds up. It looks like it’s definitely gotten a lot better for tomorrow, which is great. It’s always a bummer when you come to this type of race and it rains. Especially if you have to come back the next day, no one wants to do that. None of the fans want to see it.
Excited to run. Racing-wise, I don’t know. I think we’ll have a similar race to Indianapolis. Will it be much different than that? I don’t know yet. We didn’t get much race running in in that first session. It was pretty jumbled up just trying to get our feet underneath is really fast, qualify the car.
If we run this afternoon, we’ll have a lot better idea. I think we’re all going into it a little bit blind on to how the race is going to unfold.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Josef.
Q. How did the new aero kit fare out there today?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Good, I think the speeds were still pretty solid, which is great. It feels similar to last year. A little tougher I would say. I think we were lifting a lot more this morning. T3 we were lifting more in race running than last year. T2 is a lot harder right now. Really the same with turn one. Old track has become a little bit more difficult from a grip standpoint.
But with this aero kit, we’ve seen it has great drivability. You can get it sideways, have more room to catch it. I think it’s performed similar to what we’ve seen all year.
Q. How similar are the Penske cars trimmed out or set up between you and your teammates? Identical?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Pretty close, yeah. Simon was probably the most different. Me and Will were very close, very similar.
Q. Your last lap was the same at Will’s last lap. First lap a mile-and-a-half slower. Any reason for that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, good question. I don’t know, man. That’s all I had. I was trying to hop in the seat to make it go quicker. That was the speed.
I don’t know. I wish I had that mile-and-a-half somewhere. I don’t know where it was.
Q. With the new bits that they’ve put on the front wing, how do you think that’s going to maybe enhance passing tomorrow? Indianapolis is a different track, but there are long sections here similar to Indy. Would you think they’re going to do the same thing for next year in May for Indy?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think we’re doing everything we can to make the kit as racy as possible at a place like Indy or here. With the extensions on the front wing, I don’t know how much it will change the racing. I don’t have a great feel off of that one session we’ve run.
I don’t think it will be too different, but I don’t want to speak too soon. It’s really just to allow us to get more balance. That’s what those parts are for. More front downforce in the car, that’s the idea of them. Is that going to change the racing product drastically? I don’t know yet.
We’ll find out in the race. If it’s not enough, we want to do more, we’ll work with IndyCar to find more solutions.
THE MODERATOR: Josef, thank you.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: THIS IS YOUR 53RD CAREER POLE AND IT TIES A.J. FOYT FOR ALL-TIME POLES. HOW COOL IS THAT? “Very cool to be up there with A.J. Foyt, a legend like that. I couldn’t have imagined that starting my career. So, it’s over the moon. It’s great to start at the front here. I think it will be a bit of a track position race and that’s what we need to get our championship back on track.”
YOU ARE A TWO-TIME WINNER HERE, TWO IN A ROW. YOU’VE GOT TO GO FOR THREE IN A ROW, BUT TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP ARE WE GOING TO SEE THE OLD WILL POWER ON MAXIMUM ATTACK ALL THE TIME? “Yeah, I will be. I’ll be doing everything I can. Obviously it’s a big points deficit. The last race is double points, so we’ll see if we can close within 30 of something we’ll have a good shot.”
THIS IS YOUR FIRST POLE AT POCONO. YOU GET TO START UP FRONT BUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP IT THERE? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO WORK ON IN PRACTICE? “It’s always hard to tell in the first practice session because the track has a low-grip level and this track really takes rubber well. I think we have a good car. It’s obviously very good in qualifying trim, but we’ll work on it and hopefully get another practice session and we can try some things on a full tank of fuel.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: ON HIS QUALIFYING “I think we did a good job with the set up, it’s just that’s about what we had, speed-wise. The guys did a good job. We get a one-two lock-out on the front row. That’s good. We can’t be disappointed. We’ll have the Verizon car and the Hitachi car up there. I think that’s what we had. I’m pretty happy with our run. That was our speed.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 SHELL/CHEVROLET MARKETPLACE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: “I think it was good. We had a decent performance. I was the first of our cars so it was good I was able to give a lot of information to my teammates. I think it helped secure the pole for Team Penske, and one-two for Will and Josef. So far, so good. We are working through our process. With only one hour of practice, it is a lot to gather in an hour. With the rain now (right as final practice was scheduled to start), going to go into the race like that. But the Shell Chevy Marketplace car was pretty good, and I can’t wait to go racing!”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: “Could have been a little bit better. I think I was expecting to be inside the top 10, especially with the speedway car that we had in Indy – this is a similar track – but all in all I think we’ll be very competitive and I’m looking for to it be a turnaround point of the season for us. This race and the next one are races that the team has a history of doing pretty good and that I have a history of doing pretty good, so hopefully this will be the weekend in front of the 1900 employees that are coming to cheer us, we’re probably gonna take care of half of the racetrack!”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 15TH: “We’ve made improvements throughout the day. We weren’t extremely happy when we got here. It’s quite a bit different this year, I think you’re seeing some of the guys that did tests have a little bit of an advantage. We’re working through it, we were definitely better there than we were at the end of practice 1 so hopefully it stays dry and we can keep working on it. We definitely have a little work to do to get to where the Andretti (Autosport) cars are.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH: “We had a little bit too much understeer in Turn 1 which really hurt our speed through the other two turns. Hopefully we can solve that for tomorrow and have a good race car. I know the Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet team will be working hard and we’ll keep pounding away at it!”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH: “We didn’t get the chance to test here until this morning’s practice session, so we were really just trying to get on the same level as everyone else in a short period of time. Overall the balance was great and the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet has been rock solid since we unloaded, so I feel good about the Carlin team heading into tomorrow. If we get the opportunity to practice this afternoon, we’ll be even better. We ran pretty well in Indy, as well as in Texas with a top-10 finish that we were pretty happy with, so I think we’ll be pretty quick tomorrow. The good thing about this race is that we’ll have 500 miles to figure it out.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH: “Qualifying is done here at Pocono – it’s a tricky place, but every time I go to the track I’m getting more used to the car – to everything – and I think I’m feeling more comfortable and looking forward to the race now. Just have to do a good job and finish in the top 10.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST: “You could definitely feel the wind out there, but that was part of the challenge. It’s not easy conditions right now and the wind just keeps building. We ran quite a few laps this morning just to get as much track time as we could, but at the end of the day it’s just difficult for a new team only running one hour of practice and then heading straight out into qualifying. Plenty of people have won here from one lap down, so we’ll just try to keep the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet in the race and hopefully be there at the finish.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 22ND: “We had an issue this morning that we ended up finding during Practice 1 that restricted our time on track, which is a shame because we really didn’t have a lot of practice time before qualifying. Luckily we fixed the issue before practice ended. So we used qualifying as a test session and I tried to get the best out of it that I could, we did pick up a lot of speed on ourselves from practice 1. It’s just another box ticked to trying to work on more grip and hopefully we can run this afternoon to find more speed.”