CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
103RD RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DAY 3 PRACTICE RECAP
MAY 13, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS (May 16, 2019) – Mother Nature threw the checkered flag early on Day Three of practice and preparation for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. Se
Severe thunderstorms brought on-track activities to a halt approximately an hour and half early.
· Ed Jones from the Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet stable was fastest driver of the day – 227.843 mph
o Jones was also the driver with fastest no-tow lap
· Third consecutive day a Chevrolet powered driver sat atop the scoring pylon
· Patricio O’Ward was involved in a single-car incident that sent the rookie driver airborne but the car landed on all four wheels
o Team forced to backup car
· Fernando Alonso didn’t return to the track as the team continues to rebuild primary car
Fast Friday is next on the agenda. Teams will receive additional boost in preparation of qualifying on Saturday.
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Team Penske Chevrolet: “It was a pretty decent day. A pretty short day because we didn’t run very much but I think we accomplished a few things we needed to and have an initial qualifying feel. We got some race running stuff done. I think we have a good head about us about what we want to achieve and what we want to do on Fast Friday. I feel encouraged. I feel like the Shell V-Power Chevy was strong enough. I still feel pretty comfy so we’re going to just keep rolling into the weekend for qualifying.”
Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet: “We had a great day for the Pennzoil Chevy “yellow submarine” machine. We basically planned for everyone running more of a race setup but a lot of people were working on their qualifying setup. We decided to keep to the plan and stick with the race trim but not much was done because of traffic. However, we learned some good things in the clean air so now we need to switch the mode. We’re going to go for qualifying mode tomorrow looking for a lot of speed. It should be a great day tomorrow.”
Matheus Leist, No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet: “Short day at the track here today. Unfortunately it was a little bit windy and as we think we have a good race car and qualifying car we just decided to call it a day a little bit earlier than most of the teams. So we’re just playing it safely here and hopefully we’ll have a better day tomorrow when we have full boost and try to prep things as best we can for qualifying starting Saturday.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet: “It was a good day for the Verizon 5G Chevy. We tried some qualifying stuff so we’re definitely narrowing in on what we need for setup. We still need to make the racecar a bit better. We’re going to go completely for qualifying stuff tomorrow and see how we run.”
Tony Kanaan, No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet: : “Today we worked on race setups and practiced pit stops. I’m happy with the car so we stopped early to prepare the car for Fast Friday.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 20 Preferred Freezer Services Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet: “It was a pretty good day, but it wasn’t the day I expected. I expected there to be more race running groups. I was a little surprised by how many qualifying sims there were today, given that today was the last full day of practice. At the end of the day, the car feels like it has pretty good speed in it and I’m fairly happy in traffic. We will be looking to make it a little bit better for Sunday evening and Monday. All things considered, I think all three drivers on the team feel pretty encouraged and we are looking forward to the power turning up tomorrow in the Chevy engine and seeing what we can get out of the cars.”
Spencer Pigot, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet: “It was a good day. We did some qualifying sims and group running. In both situations, I thought that we made good improvements to the car. I’m overall happy with the progress we have made so far! I’m looking forward to a little more boost tomorrow to get ready for qualifying.”
Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet: “We had another good day for the Menards Chevy. It feels really good. We did some qualifying trim and it seems like we have some speed in the car. Obviously tomorrow is a big day to prepare for qualifying so we will keep working on that. We’re also going to work on race running and being very consistent. We’re looking for a little more but I’m very happy so far with the program.
Charlie Kimball, No. 23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet: “Another really good day in the books at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We moved the race setup a little bit further forward this morning, but I still have some questions to answer once we qualify for the race. We spent a little bit of time doing some single-car qualifying work this afternoon and honestly the foundation is there for the No. 23Fiasp® Carlin Chevrolet. It’s just going to be a question of how it reacts when they turn that Chevy engine power up for Fast Friday and qualifying weekend.”
Sage Karam, No. 24 DRR WIX Filters Chevrolet: “Overall, it was a real big improvement for us today. Basically, this is the first day that we really got a lot of running in on the track. We got in 86 laps and I got comfortable with the setup. We ran mostly race setup again. We got a good balance with the car. I’m really happy with the way the car is running right now. We are close to the balance that we will race with next Sunday. Tomorrow (Friday) we’ll work on qualifying setup and trim out the car. Then we’ll what she can do on your own.
Patricio O’Ward, No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet: “It’s just been a little bit harder to run behind cars than what I expected it to be. I was running right behind Helio and I thought the grip was there, but everything just happened in the blink of an eye and the next thing I know I’m sideways slamming the wall. Thankfully I’m okay. I have a very good, strong team behind me, and I’m sure we’re going to be back on track in no time. There are two kinds of people at IMS: the ones who are going to hit the wall and the guys who have already hit the wall. Now I’ve officially joined the club.”
Kyle Kaiser, No. 32 Juncos Racing Chevrolet: “Another great day here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team did a great job again. We made some minor adjustments and we got to do some qualifying simulations in the #32 Juncos Racing car. Overall I am really happy with our pace. We continue to have a really great no tow speed and continue to move up the speed charts each day, so that has been exciting. We know we have a really good car so we just got to keep working hard and putting in the time and I think we will be right there come time for qualifying.”
Pippa Mann, No. 39 Driven2SaveLives Clauson-Marshall Racing Chevrolet:
JR Hildebrand, No. 48 DRR Salesforce Chevrolet: “We didn’t do a lot of running today for the No. 48 Salesforce crew. We had run over 100 laps on Tuesday and almost 100 laps on Wednesday. We want to smart about when we run the car as we prepare for qualifying. We ran a little bit of race running this morning and then did some additional pit stop practice. We have a few things to work on for Sunday afternoon and Monday. But overall I’m pleased with how our team worked together this week. Sage and I are closer on our setups now. We have been talking about our qualifying plan for Friday and the weekend. Obviously, we get a little more horsepower starting Friday. So we’ll trim out things on Friday with the qualifying program. We did do a little bit of qual work in the afternoon and the heat of the day. That could give us idea of conditions for Saturday and Sunday.”
Max Chilton, No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet: “We didn’t get quite as many laps in today as we did yesterday, but we got some really solid data for both qualifying and our race car so I’m very happy with how the day played out. We were able to do quite a few qualifying runs early in the session before coming back to the garages to get the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet into race trim. We were just getting into our race running when the rain hit, so we didn’t get to do as much of that as we would’ve liked but we’re feeling good about the direction we’re heading.”
Ed Jones, No. 63 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet: “It was a great day! To be quickest in overall and no-tow is a goal. More importantly, I think we made more gains with the handling of the car. As the condition have changed we’ve been able to keep up. We just have to keep adapting to the track changes for tomorrow and for qualifying. With the rain, the grip level may come down a bit so it’s all about optimizing the car for the track conditions.”
Fernando Alonso, No. 66 McLaren Racing Chevrolet:
Ben Hanley, No. 81 10 Star DragonSpeed Chevrolet:
END OF DAY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
ED JONES
THE MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined by Ed Jones, driver of the No. 63 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet, fastest driver of today’s practice session.
Ed, it seems like things are going, as per usual, very well at Ed Carpenter Racing here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What have you noticed from the way the team has had success in the past that’s obviously translated to you today?
ED JONES: Yeah, absolutely. Since joining the team, the first thing you think about is, as a driver anyway, you want to be quicker in the Indianapolis 500, and I knew as soon as the deal was done, that was going to be a reality. So far, it’s been so good.
It’s great to be part of Scuderia Corsa and Ed Carpenter Racing, and a lot of credit to Ed Carpenter, you know, running a third car. There’s been a lot of — with other teams maybe, a lot of times where the third cars aren’t quite the same as the two main ones, and as we’ve seen so far this week and also last year with Danica, they’ve done a great job with that third car and giving us an opportunity to be fighting at the front. I’m grateful for that and looking forward to how the rest of the week progresses.
THE MODERATOR: And with that third car, obviously, Ed’s feedback from an ownership standpoint always comes from the mind of a driver, but with his actual driver input here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, how much has that added to the overall data collection?
ED JONES: For sure. As I said previously, it’s the first time I’ve been on a team where the team owner is also a driver on the team. It’s quite a different concept. And for sure it’s beneficial because, as a driver, you see things differently to how a team owner would see them sometimes, and vice versa.
So Ed sees it, and he knows what it takes to have a good team around here, what it takes to produce those results. I’ve been learning from him. Again, I’ve been fortunate with the teammates I’ve had the past three years, with Sebastien, who was just up here, Scott last year, and now Ed as well. I think, if you’re going to pick three guys to learn from as teammates around the speedway, I think those are probably near the top of the list.
No, I’ve been happy with that, and again just trying to learn as much as I can.
THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. Questions for Ed?
Q. Ed, you just mentioned Scuderia Corsa. What’s the involvement of Scuderia Corsa in the team? Is there an engineering cooperation or staff working at your IndyCar?
ED JONES: Not at the moment. Scuderia Corsa has just partnered with Ed Carpenter for this year. So it’s more Ed Carpenter engineers the car, and all the mechanics are from that side, yeah.
Q. Ed, I know you’ve been working with Peter all year, and now you’ve got Justin as your engineer. Does that take — how hard is that to adjust to, or how hard is that to get used to having a different engineer?
ED JONES: Yeah, sometimes it can take quite a bit of time, but from the test we had about two weeks ago now, from the get-go, everything worked so well. It’s been really easy working with Justin. I think we’ve already got a really good relationship although it’s only been three days this week. I think we have a very good understanding of what we mean and how to communicate to make the car go better.
No, I’m just looking forward to seeing how things go later on, but it’s been a pleasure working with him, and hopefully, we can get some good results.
Q. Are you seeing any similarities to two years ago when you came here, had a pretty good success right off the bat, whether it’s a certain feeling, whether it’s kind of the underdog chip on the shoulder or even just the way that the team is making progress during practice? Do you feel some similarities between now and two years ago?
ED JONES: Yeah, for sure. The first year I came to Dale Coyne, I think I didn’t realize quite how good I had it. The car, as soon as we rolled out, was great. It was super fast. Being a rookie, I thought this is just the same for everyone, but clearly, the car was really strong, and I was fortunate with that.
Last year it was a different case. It was a new car for everyone, and I think with Ganassi last year, pretty much the whole season we were developing. I think, if you see, even for them, they’ve improved a lot.
Going with Carpenter this year, we’ve been strong again from the time we rolled out. That makes just the whole process a lot easier because, from the get-go, you’re looking for small changes. The increments and things you’re doing, it’s just smaller. You’re not looking for something huge, and therefore you can really see what works and what doesn’t and just go at it in a more calculated way.
Q. Just with you being with a couple of teams prior to this year coming in, what have you seen different with Ed Carpenter Racing and Scuderia Corsa as far as preparation goes coming into the month of May?
ED JONES: Yeah, I think as a team Ed Carpenter Racing is probably the most focused on the ovals, and that’s quite clear. As Ed Carpenter being a driver as well, this being the biggest race, it makes a lot of sense to have a lot of effort and time going into producing the cars for this track. It’s paid dividends the last few years as well.
I think the work ethic is quite similar. It’s a smaller team, quite similar to how Dale Coyne was, quite different from how Ganassi worked. I’m enjoying it. So far, it’s working out well. We have some really good engineers, and the team atmosphere is good. I think all three drivers are quick at the moment, and that makes it a lot better to see what changes work on each car and try to implement them on each other.
THE MODERATOR: Ed, we’ve been focusing and talking a lot about the on track performance of the team, but off the track, the Indy 500 is kind of a different monster in terms of things that you’re doing with the team and with fans. Talk about what that means to you and that experience.
ED JONES: Yeah, it’s very different to all the other races. It would be nice if we had a few others that came close to this, but just the whole month, it’s a completely different experience. You really enjoy it. Sometimes at pit road, when you’re trying to get stuff done, it can get a bit over the top, but you can’t complain when you have too many fans or things like that coming up to you at times.
Again, it’s just how special this race is. 2017, going back to that, again, I just didn’t realize to what extent the race was and how good my car was and how good the result was at the time. I think it’s very easy to take that for granted, especially coming up, but after last year and now coming into this year, I’ve learned a lot more about it, and it means a lot more to me.
Q. Ed, with the involvement of Scuderia Corsa, is there a possibility we’ll see you one day in a GT or sports car race with a Scuderia Corsa car?
ED JONES: Yeah, that’s definitely a possibility. At the moment, this year has been full on with IndyCar season, so there hasn’t really been much time, but I’m sure at some point I’ll jump in one of the GT cars and see how it goes then and potentially do some races.
THE MODERATOR: We look forward to cheering you on if that happens. Ed, thanks so much for joining us here, and good luck with the rest of practice.
ED JONES: Thank you.