CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500
GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK
MADISON, ILLINOIS
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER
POST QUALIFYING RECAP, DRIVER QUOTES AND PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 24, 2018
Josef Newgarden and Will Power Complete Second Row of Starting Grid as Torrential Rain Forces Cancellation of Qualifying at Gateway
MADISON, Il – Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Verizon Chevrolet, and Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, will occupy the second row in Saturday night’s Verizon IndyCar Series race at Gateway Motorsports Park.
The pair of Series’ champions will start third and fourth in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 as a result of weather forcing the starting line-up to be set by entrant points.
Simon Pagenaud will start the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet in the sixth position.
NBC Sports Network will broadcast the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 live on Saturday, August 25 at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET). 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 VERIZONTEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, STARTS 3rd: TRANSCRIPT FROM PRESS CONF: THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with our press conferences this afternoon. Joined now by Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet for Team Penske, who will be starting third in tomorrow night’s race, also the defending race winner here at Gateway Motorsports Park, and the defending series champion for the Verizon IndyCar Series.
First of all, an interesting day for everybody, but hopefully you get some extended track time tonight. What are your thoughts on the performance of your car so far, what you’ve been able to feel out in this limited time on track so far?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s not been a lot, that’s for sure. I mean, it’s a similar boat for everybody. I wish we were going to qualify, to be honest. That’s the big thing for me. It sounds like we’re going to get more practice time, which is good, but not qualifying is a little bit tough, just because that will obviously benefit the top two guys and you lose that opportunity to get a point. That’s a little bit tough, but we will get more practice time, so we get to work on our cars. I think we need a little bit more time. We didn’t seem to have a full handle on it immediately, but at the same point, we only ran a handful of laps. I think we only had 20 minutes of green flag time, so not a lot of running certainly. Compared to the guys that tested here, I don’t think we have a full handle on it yet. But I’m optimistic, as always. I think we’ve got a great team working on it.
We got a little bit of insight into the race cars with that 20 minutes of track time. I think it’s trying to figure out the conditions. It’s very cool right now. The track temp is low, which is a good thing. It will simulate night running, and I think the practice later will do that even further.
But yeah, it’s tough to get a handle on it right away. You always hope the car is perfect right off the truck, and a lot of time it is at Team Penske, but I think here we needed a little bit of tuning. Yeah, just another hour and a half hopefully to figure out our Verizon car, and then hopefully we’ll be in it with a shot.
THE MODERATOR: Clearly last year’s race worked out well for you in the end, but with the new 2018 aero kit coming into this year’s race, how much of that information can you translate over?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, we try to use as much as we can. Obviously last year was our first year back. It was a new track surface. It hasn’t changed much, which is good. The track is not that different from a ride characteristic or really a grip standpoint. It seems similar to last year. It’s just the aero kit change that’s vastly different. So we’re trying to figure that out. I think we’ve drawn the most parallels from Phoenix. Phoenix is probably the most similar place that we can look to to try to make our race setup, but even from there it seems like we need something totally different. So yeah, we’re trying to — we sort of had an okay base to start, but we definitely need some more tuning work to get it just perfect. So we’ve got some good ideas. The guys have been working really hard, and I think we’ll have a good game plan for this night session coming up.
Q. You’ll know more after tonight, but will this race be closer to a Phoenix race or to an Iowa race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, like you said, we’ll know more tonight. I have no idea at the moment to be honest. I didn’t run with anybody. I was just trying to get some laps underneath myself. I have no idea at the moment. I’ll know better tonight.
Q. You just said you did a handful of laps. Nevertheless, with the new aero kit, is the car easier to drive compared to last year or more difficult?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It seems the same case like we’ve sort of seen everywhere, where it’s — the car — it’s harder to be flat, it’s moving a lot more than last year, but it’s also more predictable, more — gives you more ability to catch the car when it does slide. To me, it’s the same traits that we’ve seen everywhere, which is kind of funny. It’s harder to drive the car, but at the same time it’s also easier. It’s just kind of funny. The car moves a lot more, has a lot less downforce, but it gives you a lot more warning when it is going to move.
Q. It seems that the three Penske drivers are just right in the middle in terms of your speed from that first short practice. Have you actually tried to get all the speed out of the car? Were you working on your qualifying setup? What did you get accomplished?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it was hard to accomplish anything. We were sitting in the pits more than we were running on track. Every time we tried to make a change or get in a rhythm, we’d pretty much go yellow or red flag. We didn’t really get to do much, but yeah, we’re just trying to figure out what we need for the race car for race running now. I think we were trying to figure out both in that session and probably didn’t get a ton accomplished for either qualifying or the race, but now we’ll just focus on the race knowing that qualifying is canceled.
Q. Do you ever miss going home? Do you get to go back to Tennessee any, or are you on the road constantly? Do you get back to see friends and family?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, not often. I was actually just there a couple weeks ago. I finally got to see some family for three or four days in Nashville, which was great. Yeah, whenever I get to go to Nashville, it’s a great time. It’s obviously where I grew up and still a place that I love to go to. A lot of people love going there now. It’s become a very popular city. But yeah, not super often, probably three, four times a year. But I always enjoy it when I get to go to Nashville.
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, STARTS 4th: “It was pretty good. We still need to find a bit to be better in traffic. We’re going to have a good think about it overnight to figure out what we might be able to change on the No. 12 Verizon Chevy. We need to be a little better with following. I think a lot of guys were struggling with following so we’re going to work on that. It’s definitely a one groove race track. The heat is going to make it harder tomorrow but hopefully it goes our way a bit. We’re definitely going to factor the temperature difference in.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, STARTS 6th: “It was great today that we got two practices. We didn’t test here, so it is important for tomorrow’s race. With qualifying and starting by entrants points, so not too bad for us (starts sixth) It is has been quite difficult to find speed around this track. We have struggled with it. The balance isn’t bad, but we will see how it is in the race tomorrow. Right now it is a bit of an unknown. We worked hard on the Menards car and we will work hard to try for maximum points tomorrow. I don’t think it will be a problem if it rains again. I am moree worried about finding speed.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, STARTS 11th: : “We just haven’t quite got it figured out here, to be honest. I’m disappointed that we didn’t make more progress in the second session. We had an okay car during first practice and it felt like we were gaining on it midway through that last session, but we just can’t seem to get the right balance. We’re kind of chasing our tail back and forth; hopefully, we can put it together for tomorrow.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, STARTS 14th: “The two sessions were pretty different for us. We seemed to be a bit more competitive early in the day. We have a few things to work on after tonight’s session going into the race. I feel comfortable with the car in traffic, we just seem to struggle to get the pace out of it. We’ll look it over, make a few good changes and et the Fuzzy’s Vodka car a bit stronger for tomorrow.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, STARTS 15th: “It’s a shame because I was looking forward to qualifying for sure. We always talked about this race, we had high hopes, the team did well here last year and we have a strong car. I think we had a really good shot for the first three rows but qualifying by points, we’ll be 15th and we’ll have to do some catch up. I’m pretty pleased with the turnaround, the car’s fast, we’ve been in the top six all day so we’ll see. Do some TK miracles on the restarts and get back to the front.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, STARTS 17th: “It was a shame that we weren’t able to qualify with the weather today. I think we could’ve qualified better than where we’re starting with entrant points, especially after testing here a few weeks ago. We learned a lot this afternoon and tonight. We’ll just have to figure out what we can do better for tomorrow’s race, because at the end of practice the pace of the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet wasn’t where we thought it could be or what we were really expecting. We’ll learn from what Max and the 59 car did as well as the data we were able to come away with in both practice sessions and make sure we’re ready for tomorrow night.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, STARTS 18th: “We actually had a tough first day, I’m still not feeling very comfortable in the car so we have to figure out some stuff for the race. Tony said that his car is good to drive and he was feeling okay even though he said it was going to be a long race because it’s very tough to pass here. So we’ll debrief with the engineers and see what we can figure out for tomorrow and try to do a good race and finish in the top 10.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, STARTS 19th: “I had a great time out there today. It was really fun. I’d say after my first day at Gateway, it’s now my favorite short oval now. We started the day with a good car and we just kept on making it better throughout the day. It’s unfortunate that we don’t get to qualify and show our speed, but I’m confident with the car we’ve had today and I’m ready to go racing tomorrow. ”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, STARTS 20th: “It was another condensed schedule for us on an oval that was affected by weather for the second weekend in a row. Luckily, we tested here as a team a few weeks ago and we felt pretty confident with our test day. The unfortunate thing though is that it depends on the track conditions the day you test and what the weather actually does on a race weekend, because we’ve been struggling a bit today with the different track conditions. I feel like both Charlie and I extracted the most out of the cars that we possibly could and I think we have the best car that we can have for the start of the race tomorrow with what we’ve got. We’ll just try to keep our nose clean and get a decent result for the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet and the team.”