CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY TORONTO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
JULY 14, 2019
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET (pole sitter and race winner; third victory of season and 14th of career):
WHAT’S THE NERVES LIKE IN THE CLOSING LAPS?
“It’s never easy with the lap traffic really difficult. I was just trying to pass them and I saw (Ryan) Hunter-Reay made it difficult defending for the lap. I get it. Not the way I love to race but Chevy did a great job of giving us an update this week and it really paid off, and obviously on the fuel it was tremendous. The car was plenty fast all day. We never really got in trouble with anyone. It was a perfect execution for the Team Penske team.”
GOING INTO TODAY, WAS THERE PRESSURE TO DELIVER A WIN?
“I was confident all weekend; I never had a doubt. We were only focused on ourselves. I never really looked who was behind. We were just focused on getting the car where we wanted it to be. Those days are the best. There are a lot of bad days in racing, but those sweet days make up for it.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING IN THE FINAL LAPS?
“For the whole race I was waiting for that yellow. I was sure we were going to have a yellow with five laps to go and we were going to have a restart. But no matter what, we had the best car today. When I had to push, we could go faster than (Scott) Dixon, or match anyone and save fuel. It was an amazing day. Dixon made it interesting at the end, which is great for the fans. It’s time to go. We are going to be aggressive. We had to win at this place and we did it. We will keep pushing.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished 4th): “It has been a tough weekend; hasn’t been my strongest weekend for sure. I had a flat hit against the wall in Turn 11 there with a handful to go. I was smelling blood on (Alexander) Rossi a little bit and trying to get another position. But I think I sealed our fate on the No. 2 car in qualifying. Starting fifth was tough. When a race goes green like that, where you are is where you are going to finish. You can make some up in the pit stops, but we just didn’t have enough today to overhaul Rossi and (Scott) Dixon. That was my goal coming into today was trying to get up to second. We knew if Simon (Pagenaud) had a clean start that he was going to be tough to beat. Getting on the podium was our goal. But for having a tough weekend and to finish fourth isn’t a bad thing. The Hitachi car looked good and felt good. It just wasn’t enough. And thanks to Chevy. They gave us a good package this weekend and that’s how we fought so hard.”
ED JONES, NO. 20 ED CARPENTER RACING SCUDERIA CORSA CHEVROLET (finished 12th): “We had a great first stint. The Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa car was really fast. We were able to pass (Josef) Newgarden and (Felix) Rosenqvist in those first few laps and may have even had better pace than Rossi. It all started off really well, but as soon as we had to start saving fuel we didn’t have the balance to keep pace. It cost us a lot and unfortunately, we fell down the order. We definitely found a few things this weekend that are going to help us everywhere. If we can keep building on that, we should be in good shape when I am back in the car in Mid-Ohio.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CHEVROLET (finished 14th): “I’d say that was a good day for us. We’ve been in that P13 to P16 range all weekend, so with a 14th-place finish I feel like I got everything out of the No.59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet that I could. We had decent pace all weekend and the Gallagher crew had really solid stops during the race, it was just very difficult to overtake anyone. It was a fun, physical race today and I think we can leave Toronto proud of our progress.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 AUTOGEEK ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished 15th): “Obviously, this was a frustrating race. We had a really-well handling car this weekend. We may have had some issues with re-fueling and may not have been getting all of the fuel in. That put us on the back foot and caused us to have to make a third pit stop. We had to drive most of the race with the front wing damage as well. Overall, this was not a result that shows the potential of the Autogeek Chevy and our team this weekend. We had a good race in Iowa last year so we are hoping to turn it around next weekend.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABCC AUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished 17th): “There was an accident in front of us on the first lap in Turn 8 and I got hit trying to avoid it. From then on we had something that was a little bent on the car and on our (first) stop we had to stop and take a look at it – we lost a ton of time – obviously because we thought something was wrong and they wanted to check, so we pit earlier (than planned) then we had to save fuel for the entire rest of the race, and that didn’t help. But the (main) problem was getting hit on the first lap.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished 18th): “(On Lap 1 incident) I got a good run on Graham (Rahal) and when I realized he was turning into the corner aggressively, I tried to back out of it. I wish I didn’t go for it that early. I feel bad for him. It was just a mistake and I didn’t realize someone was on the outside of him. Then I just made a bad mistake there at the end. We just locked the rears up there. I have been having problems all weekend long with locking up the rears. I feel bad for the Verizon team. We had a reasonable comeback going, all the way up to eighth, I think. That wasn’t the way I should be driving. But I know how to come back from this. I just need to mentally keep in the right place and keep doing what I know.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished 19th): “Not the position we wanted to finish here in Toronto. We unfortunately got caught in the first-lap incident. I just had nowhere to go and ended up crashing there, then stalled the car and then we ended up going a lap down. We came in, changed the tires, the front wing and everything and we were waiting for a yellow so we could get our lap back, but it never happened, so that was a shame. The car was the best it’s been since Friday’s Practice 1 here. Car felt pretty good, pretty decent. I was comfortable driving it. I feel like I managed to improve and get used to it through the run because it was a totally different car from what we had been running through practice and qualifying. Overall, not the result we wanted but there is a good sign that I think we might have found something – a good way and a good direction for the next couple races. Just happy to be here, it’s a nice place, a nice racetrack and looking forward to the next one.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 31 SMARTSTOP STORAGE CHEVROLET (finished 21st): “That wasn’t the most ideal result for us, but I learned so much on my end throughout the race. I had a mistake on my end in Turn 11, which has been biting a lot of people all weekend, where I was running with some of the faster guys who were on new tires and I was on old. I was trying to keep up with them and got some dirty air making the front hook and just barely rubbed the outside wall enough to bend the toe link. The guys in pit lane did a great job getting me back out on track and from there we really just turned the race into a big practice session. The No. 31 SmartStop Self Storage Carlin Chevrolet was just so fast – we were one of the fastest cars on track all day. This Carlin team has done such a great job sticking with me all weekend long with my slow, but steady improvements. We came a long way from that first practice being three seconds off the pace to the end of the race today being within a second of the leaders. I’ve just had so much fun this weekend and I can’t thank Smart Stop Self Storage and Carlin for giving me the opportunity to get back in the car here in Toronto.”